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  1. #1
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Feb 2006
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    Perth
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    Default Noxious gas filter.

    A few weeks ago I used ABS to print a small object and I'd forgotten how bad it smells while it's being printed. I did set up my enclosure with a small (20W) 240V electronics cooling fan with the view of venting any fumes etc but this also counteracts the need to often heat the inside of the enclosure. So I thought I would suss out a fume filter of some kind to see how well it might work.

    I settled on a charcoal filter commonly used by the "grow your own" community.
    These come in various sizes and I chose one of the smaller one (100mm inlet fitting x 175mm OD and 350mm long) and installed it inside the enclosure this arvo,

    To support the filter I replaced the 1mm thick polycarbonate cladding at the top of that section of the enclosure with some 5mm thick black acrylic and bolted two white PETG circular 3D printed brackets to the acrylic.
    The filter just sits inside these brackets .
    The fan is bolted to a square to round acrylic/glav adapter and its just a firm push fit into the filter inlet.
    Filter1.jpg

    Here are some close up of the filter and brackets
    Filter2.jpg
    Filter3.jpg

    The fan is connected to a dimmer switch which provides limited speed control.

    Fan is rated at 107 CFM but that's probably optimistic but there still seems to be plenty of air coming through the filter.
    Filter enclosure is 12 cub ft so even at a fan flow rate of 50 CFM thats 240 enclosure air changes per hour.

    The filter is supposed to last for about 12 months in a "grow your own" environment but I will only run occasionally so I'm hoping it will last for some time.

    I checked with my particle detector if any dust was coming from the charcoal granules inside the filter and could not detect anything above back ground.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Adelaide
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    574

    Default

    Looks like a job well done - I had a go at ABS a while back and it was instant recognition of the odours in the plastics factory I once worked at, the air there was filled with the odour - no mention was made of noxious fumes - I left a few years later to go back to school and earn a science degree - the demonstrators (usually 4th yr students) that supervised the organic chem practicals were always stressing "the fume hood is not there for decoration - if you can smell it - it's dangerous"

  3. #3
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Perth
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    Default

    I have another problem in that my sense of smell is not that good. Stuff that SWMBO can smell I sometimes cannot smell or it smells different eg, she can smell burning dog food away before I can. I lost my sense of smell for 6 weeks about 20 years ago and ever since then its not been the same. This happened while I was making a MDF carcase for a large office desk. I was doing this outside but I wasn't wearing a mask that often.

  4. #4
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Feb 2006
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    Perth
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    Default

    My son gave me 3 rolls of ABS to experiment with.
    Filter is working well - been printing all day and no smell.
    Enclosure also gets to 50ºC no problems.

    Not game to let it run ON - yet

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