So we moved into a new apartment and we finally have a basement that has a window, so naturally it has become the Glowforge room. I went and printed a piece of perspex, put the pipe through it and thought that would be it… but no!
After 2 minutes of printing the PM 2.5 in the room was 727!
So I attached my AC sleeve that I used in my last apartment (which worked a charm - PM 2.5 was never above 6), but that did not work either.
I wet my finger and stuck it near the frame and it seems everywhere it could possibly leak it is leaking from. So I started duck taping the entire frame but even then, if there is a tiny hole the smell still comes in and PM jumps from 8 to 52. At the moment I seem to have it steady at 52 but have not cut a large amount of stuff.
I then went into the small outside bit and ducktaped the entire window frame outside and then inside. I added that rubber window seal stuff to the frame and pushed the Perspex up against it. I then shoved some high density packing foam - the stuff you get with electronics to keep them safe in transit, in all the gaps wound the window to push the perspective against the seals. I then used ducktape on all that to.
Second go:
I ran the GF again, the room was at 8 for PM2.5. After cutting 20 circles out on a single piece of wood it was at 18 and then over the next hour engraving all of those we ended up at 310 for PM2.5. I left the room at about 90 and used the cameras to monitor.
Remember, you can only vent ‘out’ as much air as can be drawn in from somewhere else… So mabey leave a door or window cracked open at the other side of your unit.
Your set up looks like mine, and FWIW I’ve found the max setting on the Cloudline 6 can actually be too much. I don’t think it can pull enough air through the 4" on the GF, causing it to create turbulence inside the fan and reduce the output. I could be wrong, but it seems like I get the least smell at about 3/4 max on the fan. And I always run with a window in another room cracked open.
If you can close the open part of the window more, possibly getting some of the window sheeting that is used in winter to create an air pocket, and put that on the inside wall going over and around your hose would do the trick.
That’s a good point. I actually thought about putting some of that painters plastic that they lay down over the entire window frame on the inside and just cutting an 6” hole for the pipe in it. Kinda like a second seal.
Painters plastic and double-sided tape would definitely be stronger - though the likelihood of messing up the paint when removing goes up (but it’s not zero with the window kits either.) If you use a heat gun when removing it gets a lots closer to zero.
If the wind blows towards that side of the building the pressure on the outside of the window can be higher than on the inside. The small volume of the outside bit can raise the local particle percent so any hole would be pushing back.
If you ran the hose through and up to or past the opening at the ground level it will move the smoke farther away and harder to come back.
if you can put a curtain up around the hose, it might help.
I have a patio door that I use to vent and I have done all kinds of things for my set up (a DIY window kit) but the curtains help more than I imagined they would. The combination all of the things I’ve done works pretty well.
Hope you find the right combination of things that work for you, too!
So I tried with plastic (from a Amazon order I did) and it worked better, Pm2.5 jumps to 60-80 and stays around there. After the print it drops pretty quickly back down to 15 ish and overnight to 6. I might get some proper painters sheet and stick that to the wall. I also switched to my 4" AC Infinity fan that I used to have, not sure if that made a difference to; but only because a fan blade snapped on my 6".
