Hi, I am a glowforge owner of an Aura. I cut draft board and had an allergic reaction. My face swelled up, burns and itches. Had to go to the ER. Has anyone else experienced this?
Yikes! Was it Glowforge Proofgrade? I don’t know if it would help but the Aura has a problem too, and should never cut any thing made from glued together sawdust or wood chips. It is about the dirtiest material you can cut and will jam a filter at stunning speed.
If you have been cutting, or worse, engraving draftboard, it could be a part of the problem that the the filter is full and the smoke is just going out into the room.
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Draftboard/MDF is cheap and versatile, but one of the worst for the machine and your lungs. You have to be prepared to clean more often, and ensure your vent system is sealed so the microscopic particles don’t end up in your home - and your lungs.
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I found a few posts of people talking about acrylic allergies, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone mention an issue with draftboard.
I’m sensitive to smoke of any kind, I get a sore throat really quickly. Even though there’s very little leakage from the exhaust, if I’m cutting or engraving a lot of wood, I wear a full respirator (3M 7502 with 2091 filters) and I run my HEPA filter on high for a while before taking it off, otherwise I’m going to be uncomfortable for a while.
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I have really bad allergies, and I’ve had severe reactions to some things (like epoxy, for example) but never anything that I’ve experienced with the glowforge (knock on wood). I’m very curious what draftboard it was (where you got it).
If this was me, I would not use the laser for a while, give your body a chance to fully recover. Then if you try again, use other materials - not draftboard. Have you used any other materials before? Also, sometimes it’s not one specific material but the combination of exposures over multiple times that builds up and causes the reaction. I had to go to a dermatologist for the epoxy reaction. The dr and I discussed how once you have a reaction, then you start reacting to many things that you’d otherwise be fine with.
So you might need to not have any exposure for maybe a month or so after you fully recover, then try something small with a material that is not mdf. (I never used epoxy again after that. I even had a reaction later when I was going through my supplies, wearing gloves, to give the stuff to a friend, and I had to just leave it all in a box and give it to her as it was.)
Hope you recover quickly and are back up and running without any problems in the future!
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I’ve never had an issue with the GF, and I’ve never had a venting issue, but I learned the hard way not to run my CNC router on MDF on my dining table, which is in the same huge room as my main living space, including kitchen.
If you’ve ever shone a flashligh thru smoke, or seen a laser in the same, yeah… but I was breathing it… for days…
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That is why I started running my Blu-Dri 24/7 and just added a new charcoal and pirimary filter as they were jammed. I can clean the whole house of dust and smells in half an hour, but anything in one end will not reach the other in any case.
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