Help venting laser enclosure and fume extractor suggestion?

Anything to do with air assist, vacuum tables, fume extraction and related...

Help venting laser enclosure and fume extractor suggestion?

Postby shatterjack » Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:56 pm

I have a vacuum pump which pulls air out from a plenum under the honeycomb and also acts to pull the material flat. I wanted to add another exhaust to the area above the work because sometimes it seems like smoke and fumes linger up there. I don't know much about pressure differentials and static pressure but does any one have some idea as to how I could do this? In theory I'd have the exhaust pulling the air on top at a lower rate than below to maintain the suction to pull the material flat.

Also, I am running my exhaust through a homemade sealed box with about 8" of activated charcoal (20"x20") before venting to the outside. I am considering buying a real fume extractor (cause it's my health you know? :) I saw this model at Sentry Air http://www.sentryair.com/MountedSentry_SS400_MS.html but it's gonna be a bout 3k. I run a small laser cutting business so this is what I'm doing most of the time. I was wondering if you guys knew about a good fume extractor at a lower cost? Thanks

tony
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Re: Help venting laser enclosure and fume extractor suggesti

Postby shatterjack » Tue Feb 14, 2012 3:48 am

So just to update, I'm running my exhaust through about 8" of activated charcoal and then outside. I was cutting some real dense wool felt about 1/4" thick and it was making a lot of smoke so I checked my vent stack to see how much it was cutting it down and it was still a lot of smoke coming out. It seems like I'd need a real fume extractor to filter all that stuff out but I'm just hoping someone would have a suggestion besides the one I found. Thanks

tony
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Re: Help venting laser enclosure and fume extractor suggesti

Postby TLHarrell » Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:56 pm

Activated charcoal will cut down on odors, but in it's granular form won't keep smoke from going through. I'd toss a furnace filter in front of the charcoal filter to trap particulates. They're inexpensive and are designed for a low air resistance.
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