Exhaust

[Arturo Villegas]

Great to finally be here!

I was wondering what the rest of you guys do to your exhaust?
Is there some kind filter or anything to filter the toxic smells before it kills my neighboors? Dust Collector?

Thanks,

[Stephen Beckham]

I pointed my towards the Chinese restaurant. Can't tell a thing! :rolleyes:

Seriously - the smell breaks up pretty fast. If you're doing anything toxic, it might be ruining your laser anyway (PVC) so other than that - you shouldn't be hurting too much.

[Joe Pelonio]

I have mine with no filter going out the 2nd story wall, and have spent the last 2 days cutting acrylic. Periodically I went out to various positions in the yard and found that there's an occasional whiff here and there but most of it
either disperses or goes up. It helps that no neighbors are home during the day. :rolleyes:

[Bill Cunningham]

I fire mine out the wall of my building about 8 feet off the ground.. Every so often I will go out and try to stand in the breeze and see what it smells like.. But I 'do' have to stand right in the flow to smell anything.. We used to live in a rural area, we are now surrounded by subdivisions.. But, there sitll 'IS' the odd chicken farm and manure field to blame .. Even acrylic smells better than a chicken farm!!:D

[Jakub Borowicz]

Hi All,
It's my first post on this forum:)
I'm lasering fom 6 years. Now we have 2 lasers - ULS M300 and
Laserpro Explorer. The exhaust from both is fan 2500m3/h connected to chimney 10m high. When lasering or cutting acrylics, laminates, wood the smells inside and outside are imperceptible. But when engraving rubber stamps the smell outside break up a little. Because of it don't mind my neighbours I don't have special filters.
But some of my friends use filters similiar to this:http://www.trotec.net/020+Products/_en-US/_400+Exhaust+Systems.htm

Best Regards
Jakub

[Rodne Gold]

We just bolted a pvc drainpipe to the wall and exit above roof height , no smell , no fuss.

[Rob Bosworth]

I've been playing with this idea for a number of years. I had a customer in Portland, OR. who bought a huge 9 axis laser cutting system to cut and trim large vacuum formed parts. Portland is very sensitive to their environment. This company made a large water bath filter and you couldn't smell anything outside the plant.

So here is my idea for an inexpensive filtration system. Take a large plastic reservoir or plastic 55 gal. drum. Make two holes in the lid to run your exhaust pipe in and out of the drum. Run your exhaust from the laser system, to an exhaust blower. Then run from the exhaust blower, through the top of the drum and to within about 6" - 8" of the bottom of the drum. Then run a second exhaust duct from about 6" of the top of the drum and out to a second exhaust blower. Then pipe the second exhaust blower to the outside. Fill the plastic barrel with water about 2/3 of the way up. The laser effluents should "bubble" through the water and leave most of the heavy particulates in the water.

The only downside to this filtration unit is having to drain the water out every once in a while, so you can discard the sentiment in the bottom of the barrel.

[Larry Bratton]

Wood fumes attract people looking for the cookout and a FREE meal!:D

[Joe Pelonio]

I've been playing with this idea for a number of years. I had a customer in Portland, OR. who bought a huge 9 axis laser cutting system to cut and trim large vacuum formed parts. Portland is very sensitive to their environment. This company made a large water bath filter and you couldn't smell anything outside the plant.


Rob,

I really like that idea, though it does remind me of the 60s for some reason.
My question is, what to do with the water? Is that something that can safely be used to water the lawn, or will it have to go down a sanitary sewer drain?

Probably not a great idea to use a storm sewer, especially here where most storm water goes into salmon streams.

[Rob Bosworth]

I'm not sure what you do with the water. You could probably check with your local waste treatment facility. I bet they would not have any problem running it through their system.

I agree with not putting it in the storm sewers. We already flush enough stuff off our lawns and streets and send to our lakes and rivers.

[Sandra Force]

It would be interesting to send it through water testing to see what all is left behind.

[Rick Larson]

Hi I have a new 36 ex epilog and need to hook up the exhaust. It has duel and i need the y for a six inch. I have a graing blower but can't fine a y. Aslo it sounds ok to vent to the side of the shopp or the roof. We have a house close to us and don't want to smell them out. Any help will be appreciated. :confused:

[Sandra Force]

I used a sewer abs y for hooking up my dual exhaust. Been using it for 5 years and neaver had any problem. Got it at the local HD.