Dark art indeed. Those of us that started as woodworkers are all to familiar with the issues. 1300 Pascals is over 400 inches of water which is over 4 x the vacuum of most good shop vacs. Remember CFM is a "no load" rating. The actual CFM attached to a semiclosed enclosure is probably a lot lower so that would be why actual vacuum the fan/unit can generate comes into play. Flex hose and turns add resistance but I would guess more an issue of the rate at which air can get into the engraver enclosure. Welcome to the fun!!!
Interesting test as ducting can be a bit of a dark art. With my setup, S1 in a second story room four feet from a window vent, I first tried just the included rear fan on the S1 connected via 4" hose to the window vent. This resulted in a noticeable odor after a few minutes of cutting plus it would take up to five minutes for the smoke to exit the closure at the end of the job. On my $100 AQ monitor it showed a quick rise in both PM2.5 and VOC that lingered in the room for up to ten minutes. My second attempt was a off the shelf in line fan attached to the exhaust hose. That worked better with a reduction in odor, 15% reduction in PM2.5, 21% reduction in VOC, and less smoke in the enclosure at the end of the job. One interesting thing is even after waiting one to to two minutes after job completion when removing the cut piece there was a small concentration of smoke trapped under the piece that would escape. In observing the cut and smoke during the job you can see the smoke gather toward the back of the enclosure then exit. This solution was OK for about five months and in mid December I ordered the IF2. It arrived and I replaced my in line fan with the IF2 and made no other changes to the system. With the IF2 I see nearly double the reduction of PM2.5 and VOC from the original set up. Odor after a 20 minute job is very slight where I had to sniff near the riser base to detect anything. The most dramatic difference was in observing the smoke at the rear of the enclosure as it is immediately was removed and there is no smoke left in the enclosure even when opening the lid after 30 seconds after the job is complete. This is the first laser I have personally owned but have several years experience teaching laser skills and developing classes for adults at a makerspace.
Challenge for you (and me)! Can I make holes and smooth the sharp edges during the laser cutting process? Like with a router. (I need to make more than 20 holes per piece.)"
What a joke of a comparative test. The reference meter was measuring the air in the room. In some cases the door is open, in others the window is open. The original exhaust tube was vented to the "roof"? (or at least outside, not near a door/window) In some of the other tests, the tube was vented under the garage door (where, depending on the breeze, the smoke could just blow back under the door.) In the goal is to test the FILTERS, one has to measure what comes out of the filter. If they are all "equally" vented out, you are merely testing how strong the fans are.
![The BEST Way to Color Fill Laser Engravings [29 TESTED]](/img/n.gif)
Dark art indeed. Those of us that started as woodworkers are all to familiar with the issues. 1300 Pascals is over 400 inches of water which is over 4 x the vacuum of most good shop vacs. Remember CFM is a "no load" rating. The actual CFM attached to a semiclosed enclosure is probably a lot lower so that would be why actual vacuum the fan/unit can generate comes into play. Flex hose and turns add resistance but I would guess more an issue of the rate at which air can get into the engraver enclosure. Welcome to the fun!!!
Great test results very comprehensive!
hey, thanks @Chad!
This seems to be a good unit after light use, but it would be good to see well it works at half to three quarters of filter life.
Interesting test as ducting can be a bit of a dark art. With my setup, S1 in a second story room four feet from a window vent, I first tried just the included rear fan on the S1 connected via 4" hose to the window vent. This resulted in a noticeable odor after a few minutes of cutting plus it would take up to five minutes for the smoke to exit the closure at the end of the job. On my $100 AQ monitor it showed a quick rise in both PM2.5 and VOC that lingered in the room for up to ten minutes. My second attempt was a off the shelf in line fan attached to the exhaust hose. That worked better with a reduction in odor, 15% reduction in PM2.5, 21% reduction in VOC, and less smoke in the enclosure at the end of the job. One interesting thing is even after waiting one to to two minutes after job completion when removing the cut piece there was a small concentration of smoke trapped under the piece that would escape. In observing the cut and smoke during the job you can see the smoke gather toward the back of the enclosure then exit. This solution was OK for about five months and in mid December I ordered the IF2. It arrived and I replaced my in line fan with the IF2 and made no other changes to the system. With the IF2 I see nearly double the reduction of PM2.5 and VOC from the original set up. Odor after a 20 minute job is very slight where I had to sniff near the riser base to detect anything. The most dramatic difference was in observing the smoke at the rear of the enclosure as it is immediately was removed and there is no smoke left in the enclosure even when opening the lid after 30 seconds after the job is complete.
This is the first laser I have personally owned but have several years experience teaching laser skills and developing classes for adults at a makerspace.
Thanks for sharing your detailed experience here. This is great to see!
Wind direction and location of the make up air intake.
Challenge for you (and me)! Can I make holes and smooth the sharp edges during the laser cutting process? Like with a router. (I need to make more than 20 holes per piece.)"
What a joke of a comparative test. The reference meter was measuring the air in the room. In some cases the door is open, in others the window is open. The original exhaust tube was vented to the "roof"? (or at least outside, not near a door/window) In some of the other tests, the tube was vented under the garage door (where, depending on the breeze, the smoke could just blow back under the door.) In the goal is to test the FILTERS, one has to measure what comes out of the filter. If they are all "equally" vented out, you are merely testing how strong the fans are.