Yikes! Sounds like noise, smoke, and odor might all be a problem at one time or another. I hadn’t thought of noise or smoke being a problem so a special thanks for those comments. I went with a Pro + filter so that filter might be a lot more essential than seemed likely at first.
Now it seems like it would be a good idea to explore venting through our radon abatement system (3-in PVC pipe) or maybe relocating the GF and trying to vent into the fireplace on the 1st floor. Either of those options would probably mitigate the smoke and noise issues and almost all of the odors. I’m not too crazy about either of those possibilities. Venting to the radon abatement pipe might tricky due to the diameter reduction (4-in GF to 3-in at abatement pipe, plus the pressure drop along the 20+ feet of pipe. If I didn’t have a townhome association to deal with I’d probably think about running a GF vent pipe up to the roof line and parallel to the abatement pipe.
Nothing like a personal engineering challenge to get the creative juices flowing.
craaap. I am in an apartment and plan on venting into the common walkway. My little neighborhood is spooky quiet, and this might be an issue. Maybe I can convince my wife to let me have the thing in the kitchen and vent out the back door? (I already know the answer )
Double Yikes! That’s 20 dB higher than my CNC mill spindle at 4,000 rpm and 10 dB higher than my CNC lathe spindle at 2500 rpm at the same distance or less. Thanks a great deal for taking the trouble to measure that!
@dan - is there any chance of reducing the noise from the vent? Might the filter be any more quiet? I gather that the filter discharges to inside the room (rather than outdoors) but 80 db inside the house is pretty darned loud. It’s uncomfortable to crank the radio in my office up that loud.
@takitus - I recall that you have reduced vent noise near the GF with insulation. Do you think that sort of insulation would have any effect on noise coming out of the vent?
I never considered how loud the Glowforge would be… In the video it shows the lady in her kitchen or something, and music playing instead of hearing the noise. The Tested video has music playing over a timelapse, so again I figured it was silent, or pretty quiet…
Not at all, especially since my vent is a straight run right out from the laser. It’s way louder outside than it is inside because of the soundproofing indoors.
If there were more bends in the tube and the exit point was pointed downwards, it would help a lot, but at this point the people in front of me get to hear that whine at all hours of the day
Could be worse. I had an indoor aquaponics setup once. I grew some leafy vegetables and broccoli IIRC. One winter night I came home through the front door (the garage is on an alley so 99% of the time I enter through the back) and notice the grow lights are like a beacon pouring out an upstairs window. Thought to myself, “great, I’m going to die in a drug raid over a salad.”
Thanks. I had too many problems keeping the fish alive. They’re sensitive to composition changes in the water besides O2. The volume of water was so small that I think it didn’t have enough buffering capacity for my noob skill level and the fish kept dying. I could have switched to peeponics, but didn’t. The table that is patiently waiting for its glowforge was built for that experiment.
Covering the vent tube helps with noise IMMENSELY. Also putting up some sidewalls around your table can cut down noise. If you’re up for it, building a noise filter box helps even more.
Excellent videos of sound levels. I had not even thought of the sound level. I wonder how loud the sound will be with the air filter installed, especially since ALL of the sound will be staying inside the house.
Do you think that either of those will help with noise outside where the vent discharges?
The muffler that @joe linked to might be worth considering - looks like roughly 10 dB of attenuation if I understood the spec ship right and assuming the 4-in muffler performance is comparable to that from the 5-in muffler.
Those only help for noise inside. It might decrease external noise a tiny bit but not much.
Adding curves will help a good bit, and that muffler looks like it would help even more, especially if you could have it at like a 30-45 deg angle from the direction of the fan output.
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