Really think that is necessary now that you have an great venting rig?
Just saying, because once I solved my venting problems the filter was not needed anymore.
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The main reason for me to get the filter is just so I can easily move it over to the other side of the basement. But you definitely have a good point. Having a good venting system is probably better than a filter in general, no filters t change out and certainly is cheaper. Maybe I could figure out a way to add some PVC pipe to another spot closer to my workshop that could also work with venting out that same window.
Moving the vent to the other side of the house alone will be huge help, since it’s so close now to the air intake for your furnace, you are drawing the exhaust back in and running through the furnace and distributing throughout your house.
More useful than a filter with such a long run, get motorized in-line booster (someone posted a thread a while ago with some ideas). With such a long run, the GF can’t push the exhaust that far, and it starts failing to exhaust…
And likely once you get the booster for the long run for the vent, and get it far away from the furnace intake, likely the noise will go down since the loading/stress on the fan is gone–as that is what produces most of the noise.
And with such a long vertical section–make sure you almost have a “j” trap so solids blown out the exhaust have a place to go and not getting stuck in the fan or the GF, and don’t forget to clean this “trap” routinely. Odds are will all of that, you won’t need a filter at all.
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I’ve got a similar setup (lower ceilings though) but I removed the window and replaced it with a plywood/foam insulation sandwich that I cut my vent hole through. I also put the Vivosun fan in my run - but I siliconed all the seams and taped (foil HVAC tape) all the connections.
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I was using the Vivosun when the main fan on the Glowforge died but it did not make up the needed volume so there was still a lot of smoke, The Blue Whale that I got before the Glowforge first arrived was able to make up the difference just cleaning the air in the room. I think that having at least somewhat warm air going vertically up the tube is helping,
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Yeah I could see where that might be an issue if your fan isn’t working. I don’t have a way I’d officially measuring the CFM on the Vibosun. But it’s definirely less than the GF. When I watch the flap of my vent on the outside, it lifts up about 3/4 of what it does when the GF is running the fan. Despite this, so far so good, and it seems to give the venting that extra boost it needs. If my GF fan goes out, I don’t think it would be that difficult to replace since I am running a Plus. Have you thought about replacing yours? Or are you running the Pro?
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Does the Vivosun booster have a switch or do you just plug it in each time you’re running the GF?
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I was running a Pro, but alas it has flown back to the mothership and left me in withdrawal mode. I could manage the smoke but it also developed a tic of not working at all so instead of sending it back after the Christmas rush it left early and took a week just to get it out the door so it has been a while already. I do wish they had made the fan modular that you could remove it out the back, The Novec turned the gum into a brick and while I managed to chip it out and free the fan some wire must have been damaged so it may have worked some, mostly it did not, The Vivosun did manage to spin the dead fan when hooked up and worked as long as the amount of smoke was minor, but cutting through most stuff was like dropping in a smoke bomb and the smoke went everywhere.
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nice job. it looks like you may have one weakness there: multiple connections. and it looks like you’re using standard duct tape on them. if you’re still getting odors, i would suggest switching to the aluminum HVAC tape. better seal.
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I would try working with the 3/8 Walnut. There are some materials that will turn to a black mess if you try to cut 1/2 inch but fortunately Black Walnut is not one of those. I even did a deep engrave in 3/8 Walnut that left less than an eighth of an inch thick in the background,
It doesn’t have a switch, I just plug it in when I’m going to use it. My outlet is right above the glowforge and it’s on a dedicated 15A circuit, only the GF is running on it. The fan draws around 30 watts so hardly any load. It would be easy to add a switch, and I may do that at some point. The cord is also pretty short and barely reaches to the outlet in my setup.
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Thanks! I do have some aluminum tape somewhere but I couldn’t find it when I sealed it up. Good idea, and I’ll have to do that if I notice any more issues.
Thanks for the tip on Walnut! I will have to try it with 3/8. I really would like it to work. Santa also brought me enough gift cards so I’m going to try out a WEN planer, seemed to be a good budget option. It should come in handy for future projects as well.
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I hauled out my test strips that I make of every new wood:
(the engrave is 340 LPI at double the speed) the numbers a light engrave and thus you have a collection of all the woods you have without losing too much. most woods will make a mess at the 100 but half inch Walnut did not, and just about made it through in a single pass. the 3/8 cut clean at 100 and almost at 120 so I would run this at 110 to cut, but I put up the SVG so you can do your own tests
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I have found that the Vivosun also clogs with the gunk in the smoke, I keep an eye out for plastic containers with a 4 inch diameter and have found many, A strip of foam tape makes a good seal and makes removal of the hose for cleaning a snap.
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I hauled out my test strips that I make of every new wood:
That is very helpful info! Thanks for sharing it. I like your svg cut test, that is awesome. This will be great for me to expedite my testing, especially as I get new wood. I found someone selling pallet wood for $4 a pallet near by, with no minimum purchase… May try to do some experimentation. Also, I keep a pretty detailed spreadsheet when I do testing, but I usually just do it one pass at a time.
most woods will make a mess at the 100 but half inch Walnut did not
That has been my experience as well! I once went down to 100 to cut some Hickory, and it really singed it. I would not have thought it would work well for Walnut, so thanks for suggesting that. I’ll try at 110 as you suggest
Thanks again!
I have found that the Vivosun also clogs with the gunk in the smoke
I was wondering about that. Makes sense that you’d want to periodically clean it, just like the GF fan. I was thinking about designing a gasket to go on the outside made out of TPU as well, but I’m not sure if it would seal up tight enough. I like the foam tape idea. I have some of that laying around and may try it. Something else I might do is just buy an extra Vivosun fan so I can easily swap them out, and then clean when needed.
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Moving the vent to the other side of the house alone will be huge help, since it’s so close now to the air intake for your furnace, you are drawing the exhaust back in and running through the furnace and distributing throughout your house.
I definitely think you are on to something here. 
A few weeks ago when I had let the GF run a little longer than I should have before cleaning, I could smell it throughout the house, so it was indeed going through the furnace. Not pleasant at all!
I’ve done a bit more testing with my new setup, and I think it is good enough that you can’t really smell anything more than 4ft away, which is a bit less than the distance from the GF to my furnace. I plan on cutting some leather and acrylic soon, which will be another good test. Hopefully it works out, I may end up just leaving it sit on that side. I have another window on the other side of my basement, but it is on the more finished side but I don’t want to have a bunch of duct work running. Maybe I’ll just call a professional/HVAC engineer out to see if they can run it from where I want on the workshop side. There is probably 30-40 ft that would need to be run. I like your idea of doing a jtrap also.
A few years back I happened to be at the Rice University Student center when a couple of guys thought they had found the perfect hidey hole to smoke a joint not realizing that the reason there was an open area shielded by plants was that it was the intake for the AC system…
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