What are the realities of running the glowforge with a filter in an apartment? I would prefer to filter and then vent to a window but that doesn’t seem to be an option since the filter outputs through many small openings. Can anyone (company or current owner/tester) confirm that the filter will live up to the marketing as far as not destroying my air quality or setting off my entire buildings smoke alarms? Or am I now supposed to now figure out how to build some extra attachment box or something to capture the filter output just to redirect to a window?
Since there are no “outside of Glowforge” filters out there yet, it cannot be confirmed.
What can be said is, there are Purex laser exhaust filters that have been used in many environments.
This would lead to the reality of the custom filter units (from Glowforge) working. Plus, Glowforge cannot sell that filter without facing lawsuits and criminal charges if it doesn’t work as advertised.
I used one last night here at the office to do a 25 minutes print on acrylic, including a detailed engrave. From a totally non-scientific perspective, it seemed to work just as well as the industrial grade, $3,000 purifiers we’ve used since the beginning (and at events, etc.) and which I’ve run in my 600 sq foot apartment. Didn’t smell a thing.
Obviously I’m a Glowforge employee so this isn’t an unbiased opinion, but I would feel totally comfortable running one of these in a small, even windowless apartment.
I’m not claiming to know more than anyone in the other thread. I can only read what the news and the investigators print. The most recently printed articles I read said Carbon Monoxide was the cause. They then speculate (which I noted) it MAY have been from a laser cutter.
Beyond that I know that when I ran a cutter at my last job, the odors were bad even with a filter just from the direct fumes the suction didn’t pull through the filter. This was a bigger commercial cutter, though.
To be clear: I am NOT suggesting anything about the Glowforge or its filter. I am not qualified nor informed enough. I’m just suggesting a level of safety that’s generally a good idea any time.
I have an incredibly obnoxious CO detector. The self test loudly tells me “WARNING! WARNING! (BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP) CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTED! WARNING! WARNING! CARBON MONOXIDE LEVEL IS ZERO! (BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP)”
Oh, it likes to self-test around 2-3am.
At least I know that it will wake me up in case it ever actually detects something.
That’s the main reason why we switched to Nest Protects and the First Alert’s (z-wave) they all test silently. (Except the nest does a monthly audible test. But it’s all polite about it) And all of them report to the HA. So I can see battery levels, CO levels, last event or shut it up if I frying something. (False alarm)
Our old ones would just start randomly wailing then verbally said ‘Warning! The coast is clear!’ (?!) Yup. Nope.
I speculated it was the Church of the Spaghetti Monster who snuck in and suffocated them.
It may have been a faulty water heater, a faulty gas stove, a faulty furnace, a problem with car exhaust…
One speculative report doesn’t outweigh the millions of laser user hours that did not suffer from CO poisoning. The physics involved don’t support the speculation. It’s just science though so feel free to worry, just try not to scare new folks just getting into the hobby.
I don’t think pastafarians would sneak in and suffocate anyone.
According to Pastafarian beliefs, pirates are “absolute divine beings” and the original Pastafarians.[10] Furthermore, Pastafarians believe that the concept of pirates as “thieves and outcasts” is misinformation spread by Christian theologians in the Middle Ages and by Hare Krishnas. Instead, Pastafarians believe that they were “peace-loving explorers and spreaders of good will” who distributed candy to small children, adding that modern pirates are in no way similar to “the fun-loving buccaneers from history”. Flying Spaghetti Monster - Wikipedia
I imagine those millions of laser hours were logged mostly by shops with safety features and knowledgeable folks with training. I don’t believe that citing an example of people closer to the enthusiasm level of the users here where basic safety features would have prevented calamity (regardless of the cause, spaghetti monster or no) paying the ultimate price is fear mongering. If I cause anyone to buy a CO monitor, great. If they cancel the order, perhaps they weren’t ready to own a product that requires basic safety precautions to begin with.
The realm of machines previously occupied by industry is moving into our homes. We need to be vigilant and safe.
You didn’t, but that ass-hat reporter did in that article. (It’s a sore subject around here.)
Buy a CO monitor if it makes you feel better. It won’t be the laser that sets it off. This thing creates a flame the size of a candle or less, and people burn candles in their houses all the time. (The unfortunate deaths were likely caused by a generator.)
That’s how a product can get killed though without even getting started … through fear and spreading false information. Just to score a “relevant” headline. (That reporter was either opportunistic or a moron. Possibly both.)
All safety information for using the machine is included in the manual, and from a legal standpoint, we can’t discuss it here on the forum. So we should probably drop it before @dan has to lock the thread down.
