Hi Guys,
My venting situation is limited, and I don’t want to modify my windows of my bedroom just for a hose. It’s been annoying to continuously having to open a window every time I want to use my GF to throw the hose out. Which brings me to this, does anyone recommend or have any history using this indoor dryer vent? Would it be adequate and safe? Thanks as always.
-John
I’m hardly an expert, but the dryer vent is to mostly catch lint (you vent it outside where possible so you don’t get a ton of extra heat in the house). You vent the laser outside to get rid of toxic chemicals in the air as well as particulates. You need something much more robust to pull that off. They sell indoor fume extractors… they go through charcoal and HEPA filters and and such. If you search, you can find instructions on making your own for more reasonable than buying them. I can’t vouch for those, but might be worth a peek.
I see, thanks for taking the time to point that out. I figured I needed something more serious like you said. I just can’t stand having to keep opening the window every five minutes. But I’m already looking up fume extractors. Thanks again.
Not sure what kind of windows you have, but have you considered just placing a board in there with a vent? Sort of like the setup with a window AC? We have casement windows, so it’s not quite so simple. I’m still trying to decide between adding a vent and waiting for GF to release their extractor. I’m worried that the ongoing costs of that may be very high, though.
Mine are French windows so that would mean knocking out a pane for the hose. Not really something I want to do; considering it’s not permanent. I know GF’s vent is 1,000. That’s steep and also like you said to continue to buy filters over time will surely mount up in price.
Totally understand. I think we’ll end up putting in a vent. I figured my husband wouldn’t be so excited about a hole in the wall, but it turns out that he doesn’t mind. I’ve still got a couple of months to decide for sure, though.
Unless you are in an environment where venting is not practical or possible it makes zero economic sense to purchase the filter unit. There are significant recurring costs in replacement filters.
Thanks. That’s my thinking, but we have casement windows almost exclusively throughout the house. My office actually has two bay/bow windows. I don’t even know if they open wide enough for a hose to go through. I will either have to rig some sort of robust plexiglass insert for one of the windows, or install a vent. I’m not psyched about cutting another hole in the side of my house and it restricts me if I ever want to move the GF, but options are fairly limited. At this point, I’m just trying to think about it creatively to see if I can come up with something practical that’s within my current (or close to current) skill set!
It’s easy to remove a small pane of glass and replace it with a Plexi-glass insert that has a hole cut out of it for the hose connector to go through. (We put a Quick Connect on ours - built into the plexiglass, and caulked into place. When we’re done with it, we’ll just put the pane of glass back in.)
If it’s a large pane though, you might not want to do that.
It looks really cruddy from the back, but this is what it looks like…can’t even see it from the front of the house - there’s a shrub in front of it.
That’s my situation in the air conditioned space. Mine are side opening (like a door) which means I need to replace a full window sized opening with acrylic or something else. They’re all 60" tall & various widths.
But since they open outward, the screen is inside. I can pull the screen and replace it with a plywood panel with the vent for when I’m forging. I lose the light from that if I don’t use acrylic but it’s much cheaper to use ply/MDF. It’s easy enough to pop in & out when I need it and drop it behind the GF when I’m not using it.
Same thing might work for you unless you have horizontal ones.
Nope. We have the same ones, although thankfully not as tall! Ours are more standard window height. I’m not sure there were ever screens in them when we bought the house. I know I can use wood, but these two windows are huge focal points on the house. I’m thinking it might be worth paying a bit more for something less obvious , although I’m not sure how I’d cut the hole in the acrylic for the vent. At least I’ve got options. I could install a vent in my office and then use a different method if we have to move it.
This is fantastic. Mine, unfortunately, are not small panes of glass.
But @johnnyblantons should take a look, since this would be his situation. I don’t think it’s hard to remove and later reinsert a standard pane of glass unless it’s particularly old.
for what it’s worth, when i did my vent, i hung the gf hose out the window and let it droop a few feet below. then i cut my board (or acrylic in your case), and pulled the hose back in. it was far enough outside the window that i didn’t get much smell back in and cutting a circle doesn’t take very long.
I knew someone would say that! I don’t have the laser yet. 
But I’m only getting a basic, so it will definitely be too big for that.
Do you have a Pro? I’m probably getting a basic. I don’t mind hanging the hose out the window, but that doesn’t change that it’s a big piece of something and a small machine. 
Darn. I haven’t even ordered my GF yet and it’s already too small! 
The makerspace has a basic, too. They’ve got a Full Spectrum and I am fairly certain the base comes off, but I don’t want to risk the wrath of the shop captain… I could cut ply in the woodshop, but not sure where I’d cut the acrylic. I think they frown on that sort of thing.
i have a basic. but the board i needed to cut was probably smaller than yours, reading your answer.
honestly, since i would put a mounting piece through the board, i would just draw the circle, drill a small hole, and then use a jigsaw to cut the hole.
i put a blast gate through the hole in my board, so it covers up the area the hole goes through, and i have a louvered vent cover on the other side, which covers the hole from the other side. so if it’s not perfect, that’s ok. you can cover it up.
And the plywood is a canvas - someone here made the exterior of their window vent look like something entirely different (& I can’t find it in search ️). Even a simple faux wall or some really neat trompe l’oeil would be neat.
I lack the artistry for that so mine would look like a boarded up window while I used it (the basement version just looks like a dryer vent). 