30w fiber laser exhaust

[chad shoemaker]

Hey guys, what exhaust are you using for your lasers? I am working in my house and as you know there is a tone of smoke and dust.... any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

We have a tee into our blower because we could. You don't need much, if anything at all IMO.

[John Lifer]

If I'm doing plastics, or stinky smelly stuff, I have a line I connect into my CO2's duct. Most of the time, I don't run it. We SHOULD. Aluminum for sure, as it isn't really good to breath....

[Kev Williams]

My GCC, Triumph and 2 fibers live in my garage shop, my LS900, LS100 and 3rd fiber are in the basement.
I have 2 HF green blowers outside under the garage window, both enclosed in a patio storage box
Downstairs I have an HF blower outside the door in the basement stairwell.
Outside in an 8x8 Rubbermaid shed is my 80 gallon compressor, and one of the larger HF blowers-
The large blower's piping runs the length of the house along the basement ceiling, and for 12 years it's been my chip vacuum for my standard engraving machines, I have the most ridiculous 'central vac' system you ever seen, but it works! - the rest of my ductwork for the lasers is equally ridiculous, to LOOK at anyway, but it too, works :D (it would be nice to have the time & resources to fab up something pretty, but- I don't)

on the left is my LS100, the LS900 on the right- I cut a hole in the door for the duct, and the duct T's off to the left for the 100, up and over the door and down to the 900. Noticed that I used a 3" black plastic sewer Y pipe. The ends of these perfectly fit 4" dryer duct and is much easier to work and clamp to than aluminum T's. The 3rd duct dangling overhead goes to the LARGE blower outside...
406921

This is my cluster of ducts in the garage...the top left-ish 6" funnels down to 4" and connects a plastic Y, one duct goes to the Triumph, the other to a blast gate, after which funnels down to 3" duct, which goes to the Triumph fiber. The lower left-ish 4" connects to a Y, the lower duct goes to the GCC, the other to a blast gate, 3" reducer and then to my ebay2 fiber...
406923

--the ductwork on the way to the fiber's...
406924

At the Triumph fiber-- A bought all the grandkids a cellphone holder, they clamp to a table or shelf, you bend the shaft any way you like to hold your phone using the nifty spring clamp. Got myself a half dozen (they're like $5) since they'll hold lots more stuff than phones! Works great to put my exhaust hose anywhere I need it--
406925

Over on ebay 2, I made this box a long time ago, the slot thing in the middle, the box used to be taped to the front of the Triumph fiber, the slot was to let the focus LED thru ;)
Anyway, cheap and easy plenum to help with the smoke...
406926

My ebay1 machine sits on an old office desk- that's what I like about this machine over the cabinet model, you can fit a half dozen of them on a kitchen table, very small footprint :)
I haven't exhausted this machine yet, but that's hopefully going to happen today, going to T off of the large blowers's ductwork and some 3" duct to it. Notice there's a yellow phone holder waiting behind the machine... ;)
406922

I've found the 3" duct works fine, don't need the bulky-er 4" duct...

[Trevor HinzeNE]

Timely topic as I was just wondering today what I am going to do to vent my new fiber when it arrives in a week or so. I already have a dedicated 4" exhaust out thru the wall for my CO2 laser and I want to figure out a way to t into it....without just blowing the exhaust back into the co2 cabinet. I think I will get a couple of those slide gates like Kev has and make a manifold of sorts, I will just have to remember to switch it around. I want to find some little inline blower If I can since of course the Galvo laser does not come with a blower of any sort.

[Gary Hair]

For just two machines you can get away with just having a gate on the fiber. Use 2-1/2" hose for it, that's plenty, and put a gate at the fiber so you'll remember to open it. The fiber needs about 10% of the airflow the co2 does so leaving the co2 open won't diminish the exhaust abilities for the fiber. That's how I ran mine since I first hooked up the fiber.


Timely topic as I was just wondering today what I am going to do to vent my new fiber when it arrives in a week or so. I already have a dedicated 4" exhaust out thru the wall for my CO2 laser and I want to figure out a way to t into it....without just blowing the exhaust back into the co2 cabinet. I think I will get a couple of those slide gates like Kev has and make a manifold of sorts, I will just have to remember to switch it around. I want to find some little inline blower If I can since of course the Galvo laser does not come with a blower of any sort.

[Trevor HinzeNE]

Since my Co2 has a fan on the back of it, and I dont have a central vent trunk I will need a seperate blower. I just ordered a 3" inline Dc blower (smallest I could find) along with a pwm variable speed drive and power supply for it. Since I ordered the cabinet laser there will be plenty of time room to mount the on off switch and rotary knob. I plan to use some LocLine 2.5" adjustable dust collector hose. It is not the cheapest solution but I have some of it laying around so it should make for an easy way to adjust the nozzle to where I want it and be able to adjust the airflow to suit. I am quite aware of not sucking too much air out of the shop since here in Nebraska about 3/4 of the year I am either heating or air conditioning my workspace and that "bought air" is not cheap, no sense in throwing too much of it out the window!

[Nick Keith]

I have a 30W Fiber laser inbound. If I get one of the Hepa/Carbon filtration units, can i vent it back into work area? Its going in a basement with no good route to exhaust outside, as I would have to punch through 2 concrete walls.

[Trevor HinzeNE]

I have a 30W Fiber laser inbound. If I get one of the Hepa/Carbon filtration units, can i vent it back into work area? Its going in a basement with no good route to exhaust outside, as I would have to punch through 2 concrete walls.
The carbon filter route works ok....not well enough for a c02 laser that makes lots of smoke, but for a fiber it may be just fine. A fiber laser mostly by nature of the substrates you will be using is not that bad. Anodized aluminum only ells a little, stainless not at all. With plastics it can be all over the map. Bottom line I would be inclined to try it.

[Kev Williams]

What a hepa filter will have a hard time dealing with is when engraving painted or powdercoated metals. It will help, but I'm not sure how much.

And Nick, our house has been an engraving shop since 1969, and my signature lists all the engraving equipment that's stuffed in this place. In our basement the door has a 4" hole bored thru for exhaust hose, and 2 windows have plex inserts with holes for exhaust, one also has a second hole for power and air lines to/from our big air compressor and large HF blower that reside in a shed by the window...

-as the saying goes, 'you do what you have to' ;)

[Nick Keith]

What a hepa filter will have a hard time dealing with is when engraving painted or powdercoated metals. It will help, but I'm not sure how much.

And Nick, our house has been an engraving shop since 1969, and my signature lists all the engraving equipment that's stuffed in this place. In our basement the door has a 4" hole bored thru for exhaust hose, and 2 windows have plex inserts with holes for exhaust, one also has a second hole for power and air lines to/from our big air compressor and large HF blower that reside in a shed by the window...

-as the saying goes, 'you do what you have to' ;)

Thanks for the advice. I may look at picking up one of the FUMEX systems used off ebay. They have a pre-filter, Hepa and then Carbon, and exhaust out the bottom back into the work space. I think they even have different filters depending on what type of gas/fumes you will create. The House is over a hundred years old and I would have to punch through reinforced block wall, go through a crawlspace and punch through another reinforced block wall to get outside.

The plan now is mostly metal engraving/marking. If I end up needing a c02 down the road, I'll deal with that when the time comes.