It appears to be a perfect knock-off of the Affinity that everyone in the US is using, except the affinity costs about $300 in the UK whereas this was about $100.
I also fitted 6in insulated ducting too.
Wow, the difference to the noise level is astounding!!! I knew that rear fan was noisy and the pitch seems centred right on the centre point of my hearing. But with the fan turned off it’s barely more noisy than a fan heater or laser printer. Absolutely gobsmacked.
The external fan gives a low rumble - I’ve mounted it on hard and soft foam, rather than screwing to the floorboards to help cut any rumble down. Again, no more noisy than a small fan heater.
Overall, I have gone from an evening of forging being very tiring on the ears (even with noise reducing headphones) to “noise? What noise? Is this thing on?”
Highly recommended.
In UK prices I spent £100 fan, £16 two sets of hose, £8 hose clips, £6 4 inch to 6 inch connector. Total £138 - I would guess the same in US dollars.
I just did the same thing, using an inexpensive booster fan that has an impeller that is around 10". It moves the required CFM while turning a fraction of the 13,000 RPM the 4" had to.
Gobsmacked was exactly my reaction! The environment around the machine is so much nicer, I am thrilled with the result.
The founder’s self-contained design is a great innovation making the laser much more portable, but in a permanent installation like my shop, a quieter external booster is a wonderful upgrade.
On mine, yes it comes with a short cable that you need to wire into something. It is only about 30cm long - you could wire straight into a plug and then use a regular extension cable.
I did it the other way and put a longer cable onto the fan. So you need a little junction box and any old plug and cable - what in britain we call a kettle lead. Cut the end of the plug cable (so you you have the plug part for the wall, but not the part the plugs into the appliance). Just attach brown to brown, blue to blue in the junction box. It’s no harder than wiring a plug.
There is a separate remote control, that has a little mini plug. This has a very long reach. From here you can turn the fan on/off.
I have my GF and the fan on an Alexa driven plug. When the plug is turned on, both the GF and the fan automatically start.
It sounds more complicated to explain than it is to do.
I’m in my shed right now, the temperature is 2 degrees centigrade (just above freezing for those in imperial units).
I’ve got the room heater turned on and I’m hoping that the external fan will draw warm air through the GF so I can get past the “it is too cold” earlier.
TBH, I’m not sure, once the ambient gets to the upper end of the temperature limit if it will make any difference to cooling at all.
This is something i’ve been thinking about (reducing noise) so thanks for the info. This maybe a daft question, but you mention turning off the internal fan, is this as simple as a setting? I’m in the UK as well so thanks again for this.
I didn’t mean to imply that it would extend the operational limit, just that increased airflow across the heat exchanger would increase efficiency of the exchange.
adding an external fan was the best upgrade thus far for my forge. kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I can cut any time of day now without bothering the neighbors. That is a boon, they were organizing with pitchforks and torches a little while ago.
I plan on adding an external fan soon. However, I like to note that I purchased a heavily insulated venting hose for my GF and the noise reduction OUTSIDE was immense. Anyone walking by would think it was just a regular dryer running now.
@sqw can you describe the exhaust fan installation? Is it mounted adjacent to your GF which is connected to the duct? Also, @PrintToLaser did you use an adapter/coupler to for the 4" duct to 10"? I’m considering cutting a duct hole for my GF, but I’d love more info before I do something so permanent. BTW, I have weird crank windows, so venting through them is not an option and my compact filter is filling up too quickly. I’d also like to offset some of the odors (especially from wood). TIA!
cut a short length of the standard 4 inch hose as supplied. This is about 10 inches long. It has a big clamp onto the GF which is permanent. I wanted this as short as possible to avoid restricting the flow - but long enough in case I end up boxing the whole unit.
This then connects to a 4 inch to 6 inch convertor. I use the supplied spring clamp. This means I can unclip it fold back the short tube of 4 inches and clean the fan area if I need to.
The 6 inch connector then connects to 6 inch insulated tubing which runs down to the 6 inch fan. In my case I vent out through the floor, so the fan is mounted on the floor on foam blocks to stop any amplification from fitting to floorboards.
From the output of the fan goes a non-insulated 6 inch tube, straight out of the fan and down through the floor. This tube is about 6 feet is the end of it I have pulled out into the bushes in the garden. Otherwise the fumes would just come straight back in through the floorboards.
I would take a photo but it is all hidden behind stuff so there is nothing to see.
But to repeat the first bit. You want a very short tube of 4 inches from the GF output fan to a 4 to 6 inch convertor. You want to short to avoid any air flow restriction and so you can unclip it and gain access to clean the fan (even though it is not in use it will collect crud).
