Recently I just purchased a glowforge, it should be arriving second week of September. I’ve figured out were I’m going to place it and got a table for it already. So I wanted to find out if this was a good idea, the forge is going into the laundry room in the basement and what I am thinking about doing is Y-ing the duct for the dryer into the forge. Is this a good idea? Would I need to install a external fan like I have seen some people do on youtube?
My other question is since I have month what else can I do to “prepare”? Should I start figuring out what software to get and is there any tutorials that I can start looking at to learn. I have messed with lasers just a little bit before and dipped my toe into inkscape and coreldraw. The coreldraw I used though was from 2005 (public laser). Fusion 360 interests me and I have had a good amount of practice with photoshop so idk if that will translate well to illustrator. So basically where is a good place to start and something that is user friendly and easy to build upon to make complicated stuff like I see on here.
You would want to install a “blast gate” to isolate the machine from the hot, humid air being exhausted by the dryer. You will also get a lot more debris buildup in the dryer vent line from the Glowforge - depending, of course, on how much you use it.
You would need an additional fan if the duct is more than 8’ and/or has more than two 90-degree bends.
There are dozens of threads on “which software” to use - here’s one recent example. If you’ve already used Inkscape, you’ll know that it’s free, which differentiates itself from most other offerings. It is on-par in terms of features with the industry “standard” Adobe Illustrator, so if you are comfortable with the interface, it’s probably the best choice. Fusion is great but overkill for 2D vector designs. Still a fun challenge if you want to get into 3D modeling.
For the “blast gate” is that something that I can buy off amazon or would I need to make one custom for the GF?
The duct I’m thinking is going to be more then 8 ft. So where would be the best place to put the fan? Further away from the GF or close to it? I’m also guess that it would not be a good idea to have it in the same channel as the dryer.
To be honest I think sharing with the dryer is a recipe for trouble. Even the best blast gates leak, and you’ll definitely notice the smell even with a booster fan.
If it were me… ideally I’d cut a dedicated vent for the Glowforge and put a louvered cover on the exterior.
Barring that I’d look at quick connection options so that I could easily switch between dryer or Glowforge.
I’d also look at insulated duct hose from Home Depot or the like. It will greatly reduce the noise.
I didn’t realize there were quick connects for duct work. Is the big worry the humidity? If i put the blast gate as close to the Y on the GF I would think that would be the best. Also would have a long duct also help?
It’s the smell. You won’t believe how small of a leak you need to make the entire room (and by extension the house/apartment) smell like lasertown.
Blast gates are fairly cheap and are best used under negative pressure because they’re leaky. However you have a laundry vent, and placing a booster fan between the blast gate and the wall isn’t an option, so booster fan or no your blast gate will be under positive pressure, and will absolutely leak.
Does you basement have windows? I would make a insert for the window and attach you duct hose there and plant a bush out in front of the window to act as a sound buffer.
The basement has two windows but they are in really bad spots. So that’s why I thought about using the dryer vent. Also the laundry room is behind a closed door down in the basement
I thought about using the garage originally but I’m worried about the temp. Especially in the winter. I live in Cincinnati
Consider that you need to be watching the machine while it operates. If you end up printing jobs that take an hour or more, you’re likely going to want the machine on a surface next to a desk or similar, not tucked away in a laundry room.
I pose this as a question as I don’t know the answer.
We hear on the news about housefires from dryer exhausts all by themselves. That’s without adding any of the exhaust buildups out of the
Depending on your access and ownership/landlord permissions, it might be better to just run an additional vent through the walls. Could be cheaper than all the fancy attachments.
Lastly, I would be concerned about blowback into the lint and whatnots.
Go with another vent out a window if you can. Your laundry is going to smell like a campfire. (Or worse…acrylic and leather are gag-inducing.)
You do want to stay with the machine while a job is running, and that can run up to a couple hours for large engraves, so if you can find a spot near a window in your office, it’s a much more comfortable arrangement. (I got rid of a couple of printers to make room for it.)
For design software, Inkscape is good, a lot of people use it. Illustrator is excellent if you want a paid option. Fusion 360 is good for the fancy 3D stuff, but do yourself a favor and get comfortable with the 2D design software like Inkscape or Illustrator before diving into Fusion. You have to use either of those to convert the Fusion files anyway. And designing using vector drawing programs is different enough from raster design (Photoshop) that you have got a little bit of a learning curve ahead of you.
Don’t try to switch between drawing programs. They all do the same things, but it will be confusing if you start to learn one and then try to jump to another one. (Everyone hides the operations in different places, under different menus. It just takes getting used to where things are, and that comes over time as you get comfortable with it.)
You will definitely want to read through the Starter Tutorials that Glowforge puts out to get comfortable with the process here:
And there are a series of design tutorials here that will put you way ahead of the curve if you take the time to read them before getting started:
Anyway…you’re gonna love it! Welcome to the forum.
So my desk is right outside the laundry room so I will be close by to watch the laser.
So windows are really difficult like I said the basement due to where they are, putting in another vent is a project I don’t really want to tackle (afraid of messing up and making a bigger issue for myself), dryer vent is sounding more and more like a bad idea. Should I look at just getting the filter? Seems expensive and also having to continue to buy expensive filters
Just put a disconnect (not just a Y with a blast gate) near where it exits the wall. Most of the dryer lint buildup should be on the dryer end. Then just swap between the two sources - you only will “share” about a foot and when you attach the GF just look to see what the condition of that final bit is.
Filter costs will be in the thousands of dollars per year if you do any amount of real work (especially draft board) with the GF.
So in the past few days I have redone all my duct work to prepare. I decided to keep it in the laundry room still. Reason being is because it’s own separate room and secluded from the rest of the house. I replaced all of the old duct work. I did get a y to connect the dryer as well but put a blast gate on dryer side and GF side. I didn’t get a additional fan because were about 7ft and I was going to see how it worked with the GF and if needed I would get it. Duct work is insulated. So I hope this will work out
