No worries thanks tho! I ended up ordering it off Amazon
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Iām not sure why youāre so hooked on this - when Iāve proven just three responses above yours that itās incorrect as a difinitive answer. Scaring people into getting a more expensive fan doesnāt get you anything, so why are you so focused on it? Possibly the Cloudline is the problem? Iām using the Vivosun which lists 10cfm less than Cloudline, is 1/3 the price, and does a lovely job.
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Have to agree with @deirdrebeth, my 4" Vivo-something is rated for 195CFM and works just fine. Thereās an iPower 4" fan thatās supposedly 230 CFM.
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I am using the much cheaper 195cfm Vivosun and I donāt think it is powerful enough for the most extreme needs. If I am doing Acrylic or light engraving on strong woods I let it work alone, but cutting anything like oak or the rarely used MDF and I use both fans. When I only had the one fan, cutting smoky stuff had smoke leaking out the known places but especially the front where the carriage fan was blowing the smoke against it.
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I use the same fan, and it looks like @ekla does too. The only time I do have issues is with incredibly smokey stuff, in which case I turn on the 2nd fan - but BB, all the PG stuff, koa, purpleheart, etc. no issues with smoke - which is why I say itās not a definitive answer. I live in the Bay Area of CA so I deal with practically nothing weather wise, and I realize that comes to my advantage with the laser, having someone say āthis will not workā when it clearly does for some number of people leads a newcomer to possibly spending way more than they need to in order to move forward. While some people here have money to spare, for others (me included) decisions have to be made and Iād hate to know they wasted material money on a fan based on inaccurate info.
I am not sure if I was the first to get a Vivosun but in 20/20 hindsight I feel like I wasted money on it and wish I had spent a bit more on the higher CFM blowers. Still, I am cheap enough to turn on the exhaust fan when needed rather than getting a bigger one.
Might I suggest getting a 2nd Vivosun and hooking it to the back of your machine? It remains silent unlike the jet engine whine of the actual exhaust fan! Itās hard to beat for ~$30.
I do not think the CFM would go up all that much. The fan speed would not go up much and the path to the window is pretty short. If I went to 800CFM I might never have to clean it again.
Theyāre pretty cheap at Home Depot in the heating section where they have sheetmetal parts.
I will say this, a 195 CFM inline fan is not moving 195 CFm when itās all said and done. These ratings are at essentially 0ā static pressure. Axial fans drop off rapidly when any static pressure is introduced - examples of this would be, well, everything that is in front of the suction side/inlet side of the fan ā the tubing, the wrinkles in the tubing, the bends in the tubing, the fan grate, the non-running GF fan, the cabinet of the Glowforge, etc.
The stock glowforge fan gets the most performance that itās able to by being mounted directly on/in the body of the laser.
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In my opinion, this centrifugal impeller fan would probably be a better fan than the inline axial fan. Itās only running at 49 decibels, so itās still quieter than the motion system of the Glowforge itself. Not sure if a spec sheet exists for it, but just a hunch.
VIVOSUN 4 Inch 203 CFM Inline Duct Ventilation Fan with Variable Speed Controller https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CTM0H6I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_9SS43BZCTBX4FANZB9CZ?psc=1
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I would replace it before using you machine again
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I bought the 6" version of this once - it was horribly loud, and seemingly no more effective on removing smoke. Iād be happy to pass it to someone if they wanted to give it a shot!
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