@rpegg, believe it was 800w for laser and 600w (peak) for filter unit.
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Yeah, Thanks. I remember now. It was that original Oct 15 post from Dan with his estimate. 600W seems awful high to me for a Filter Unit but maybe there are some serious fans in there. Fans, power supply, some sort of interface between the main unit and filter unit to control the fans. Shouldn’t be a lot there. That’s the one component I will never see since my purchase was Pro without filter.
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You can get a pro without the air filter?! How?
I would have loved to have a pro unit without the air filter. I could use that $600 towards materials and a better ventilation system for my workshop…
edit: looks like you got the regular, then upgraded to the pro without the filter?
@dan is it possible to have the air filter portion of the pro package refunded if we arent going to use it?
This is from way back Oct 15. Don’t know whether the info is still valid and don’t know whether your place in line is affected. But here is:
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ah that was right before I bought mine. Didnt have access to the forums yet. Guess Ill be emailing support! haha. Thanks @rpegg!
The power consumption used by any system is not a reliable measurement of how much air the unit moves.
You really want to use a CFM measurement, regardless.
I think that something around the 120 CFM range would be plenty, especially if it’s well sealed and has good suction. And don’t forget, the GF comes with an internal fan that’s standard as part of the hose attachment. So you won’t be doing all the work with just one filter/fan.
That DIY laser filter is well done, but seems to have faults. Rather than using charcoal for odor absorption, they’re using multiple filters? Seems like expensive overkill at $10 a filter. And it’s HUGE! Maybe they found the smell too obnoxious (that’s what you get for not using charcoal) and just tried filtering and filtering and filtering…
I’m pretty confident that the one I’m working on will be plenty for most needs.
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Fantastic! Thanks Dan! Some very good points. The CFM is very helpful. Helps me in my planning.
Yes, that one is way bigger than it needs to be. Its a source for inspiration!!
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Put it this way… I have two 120 CFM fans that I ripped out of a server cabinet years ago, and running just one of them is enough to blow loose papers from about 3-4 feet away. On especially hot summer days, I stick the two of them in the window, and I have such a breeze from 4 feet away that my eyes start to get dry. 
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Haha. Well, that answers that! The 240 CFM fan I was looking at would be overkill haha!
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We can still refund your filter purchase, no problem - just email support@!
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Thank God the Glowforge won’t be shipping for a few months. I’ve been spending a few hours here and there working on my filter. I think I have a layout I think I’m happy with, I just have to do the housing box itself. 
So I was thinking along the lines of this. I abandoned furnace filters and went to automotive filters because they had more choice of smaller sizes. This filter is 10.75" x 5.25" x 1.75" (ish), and fairly common. The inlet is a perfect 4" can from some hot cocoa. (Gotta have something to drink when working on it, no?)
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now I have to chime into this disccussion too 
I rent an appartment with floor to ceiling windows. Cutting holes into wall/window isn’t an option unfortunately. So I was planning to use something like this:
Luftreiniger. And do a few modification on it. After reding this disccusion thread I’m not sure if this would be a feasible solution. The price tag was certenly nice(er)… what do you think?
Perhaps this has been discussed but I haven’t seen it.
Are there any potential problems that could arise from having a filter that’s pulling air at a greater rate than the GF is pushing it?
I’m sure @Dan or many others more knowledgeable than I will have the answer…
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Love the design @dan_berry!! I’ll look forward to seeing a finished version!
@jusjus I’m not sure that would work. I have a feeling fumes would escape, which is not good.
@tbelhumer I’m curious about this too.
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The glowforge filter is using hepa and charcoal, so I would see if you can incorporate the charcoal in some way (im assuming the filter you are using is hepa) as to reduce some of the toxins.
No, there are no problems. It’s actually something that would be encouraged, since the hose coming out of the GF is so long and even @dan has stated that the fans on their filter add-on are “significantly more powerful” than the one in the GF itself.
Let me tell you a thing about HEPA. It has become a marketer’s wet dream that lets them prey on people’s fears of pollution and dirty air. In a nutshell, HEPA filters work by providing a random path for particles (smoke, gasses) to impact into and get caught in the filter material as they flow through a volume of air. The effectiveness to do this is a combination of the density and impact surface area of the filter material. But people read HEPA, and they think it’s a magical purification. For a layman’s summary, read this: http://www.cnet.com/news/appliance-science-hepa-filters-and-the-physics-of-fresh-air/
Have no fears, I will absolutely be adding charcoal to my design, I just haven’t got there yet as it’s still a work in progress as I improve my Sketchup skills. But I think you have the purposes of HEPA and charcoal backwards. Charcoal is what removes the toxins, and it’s important to use activated charcoal rather than plain charcoal. HEPA removes the smoke.
ah, I think I must have just written it poorly, as the text in the parentheses was not meant to be the subject of the sentence. It should have read as “incorporate the charcoal in some way as to reduce some of the toxins”. I think were on the same page 
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@JeremyNielsen thank you for your thoughts. The fablab of Munich did
something quite interesting (you might need google translate for this
): diy absaugung - this isn’t that cheap though…
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