Lets see what is happening

Beyond the Manual
#1

At most of you know, I have been fighting to keep enough air moving and frequent and heavy cleaning has worked for a while and then not so much, , we can see the laser firing even if there is much dirt on it and I was thinking that the same might be true of the exhaust.

I generally keep an eye out for things that are close to 4 inches in diameter both for bending wood and making a quick release to unplug and get at the exhaust. a while back I found that the smaller Folgers coffee can was just a bit smaller than the 4" exhaust hose and makes a nice plugin fitting but I really wanted to see what was happening in real time while it was working. I picked up an endoscope but have not as yet got it working. but I discovered that the 2 liter Soda bottles were just over the 4. I would have pictures of the process but as there were many restarts and blind alleys the story would only be a sad one.

So skipping all that you start with a 2 Liter Soda bottle and using scissors make a clean cut just beyond where it starts to curve. This is a kind of floppy cylinder that will not make a tight fit, but and this is a bit tricky an old Teflon pan heated and the cylinder pressed on gently and removed. the part heated will shrink in diameter rapidly and continue so till it cools completely. by taking it away from the heat and letting it cool slowly it will create a flat ring almost 90 degrees and now be too narrow to fit over the [orts. I had already made a flat ring to fit over the exhaust hose and I now use ca glue to hold it at the end of the now not at all floppy cylinder. however, the opening is now too small to fit, to solve this I use a punch and make many notches every half inch or enough that each little tab will give and bend both making tight-fitting hold but pointing out they resist being pulled off

The coffee insert was fitted with masking tape over foam tape to make a jam fitting and the same heating with notches at a much finer level makes the whole business look like so…
clear%20vent

I have not experimented beyond this point but will post a follow up if there is a need. before putting it together I totally scrubbed all that I could reach and ran all the various cleaning regimens including the lenses and head fan that had again dragged to a stop.

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#2

Clever! and affordable. Look forward to see where this goes. Thanks for sharing!

#3

It would be interesting to see how much particulate goes down the hose for a given material. Keep posting pics as you experiment please?

I changed my dryer hose basically at 1 year of use, just because. Turns out I really didn’t need to, was only a foot or two down the hose that was really dirty near the fan. Then again, cheap and easy to do.

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#4

That was my primary reasoning but I was concerned it might leak but I am cutting oak at the moment and everything looks better than usual.

I did a lot of extra cleansing of the bigger head fan and now the smoke is going away so fast it never gets a chance to flame on. We will see if that is so after the engraving. I am trying cutting first to make that as clean as possible but some of the cutting is inside then engraved area so will see if that is having a deleterious effect.

#5

Curious as to what you’ve actually been using historically? That ring of debris is something that I haven’t seen and looks like something oversized, and loose, was used before.

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#6

What I did was put the wooden ring sealed at the end of the exhaust hose, and then taped down the wooden ring. I kept pushing the tape back in place but over seven months even the Gorilla Tape was dirtied a fraction of a millimeter at a time and would no longer stick all the while the smoke pilled up under it. I had left six inches or so of exhaust with the coffee can bayonet fitting that I could remove to get at the exhaust port without removing and replacing all that tape.

Today I removed that extension and replaced it with the soda bottle piece and found what buildup had snuck in under the tape. Most is gone now. It was really thick beforehand.

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#7

Judging from the smoke stain there, you have had a leak there for some time. I have been so happy once I got everything sealed. zero smell.

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#8

Here is what I use. https://www.rockler.com/dust-right-reg-quick-connect-4-elbow

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I use metal duct tape and clamp the vent hose on the side of the elbow not connected to the GF. On the GF end it just clamps directly to the exhaust port. It’s a very good seal without any taping at the exhaust port since the material is soft rubber. Clamps tight and releases with only one or two turns of the screw. Easy Peezy.

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#9

Ah, but does it come in clear? :wink:

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#10

I was using metal duct tape and Gorilla tape in ever larger circles. beyond where the stain was the tape was holding and doing well. I had been removing cleaning and re-taping for a while before just taping down eight inches and inserting the coffee can and initially taping that before using foam tape to get a better seal, The clear part grabs hold on its own with those tabs and for the moment seals pretty good. far better than those spring clamps that came with it. I looked for those strap clamps as in the picture while at Lowes, Home Depot, & Ace locally but have not found them. Looking at the customer photo, that rubber angle looks a lot bigger than the company photo, and what I have now is already taking more distance than I would like.

If I had a 3D printer and a material that emulated hard rubber, I would have designed something different.

A note to @dan at least where design changes are possible on the filter a bit longer and a slight bead at the end, and even those spring clamps would have worked.

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#11

I have a clear exhaust hose and I’ve never seen anything in it. I think the smoke is too dissipated in the airflow at that point.

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#12

This is looking at the exhaust port while it is engraving. Easier to see in person than in the picture.

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#13

You definitely win the award for… most broken-in exhaust!

#14

While the photo does not show things clearly , before assembling I scrubbed down the part I could reach so it was back to straight metal and no grunge on that part anyway.