Hey Everyone!
I’ve been hanging out for a while but this is my first time posting. I just got the new laser upgrade from Avid and have been having a blast! One thing I noticed was that the smoke produced by the laser is pretty substantial, and my space was not the easiest to ventilate. I do a lot of engraving, so most of the smoke ends up on the top of the material.
To respond to this I whipped up a Smoke Extraction Hood! An image of it mounted to the pneumatic drop plate is provided below. (I’ll post other images and files in responses)
It is currently configured for a 4" spiral flexible dust hose, the common type that would be used for dust collection. The print is in two parts, the hood and the adapter ring, and you could theoretically update the adapter ring pretty easily to use a different diameter of hose if you like. I’m currently using a fan with a rating of 100 CFM, and it is working OK. Ideally I think 200-300CFM would be best.
Attached down below are the .STL files if you want to print it! I have the laser on the left side of my Z-axis, so if you have yours mounted on the right you would want to mirror it before printing. I printed it at a .15mm layer height because I wanted to avoid support material, and the material is CF reinforced Polypropylene. It prints with the hose-side down. If you want to modify it let me know and I can share the .STEP file somehow, I can’t attach it here due to file-type upload limits.
SEHmain.stl (7.5 MB)
SEHadpt.stl (208.3 KB)
The smoke extraction hood mounts to the aluminum drop plate of the pneumatic deployment system. to mount the hood, insert the angled side of the “clip” feature in between the drop plate and the main mounting plate that attached to the Z-axis. The back side of the drop plate is milled out with some features to mount the laser, and the clip sits right where the extrusion is cut away back there. Once the angled side is hooked around the lip of the extrusion, rotate the hood toward the laser to lock it in place.
To keep it from rotating once installed I used a bit of paracord and a normal drawstring toggle. The paracord wraps around the nozzle of the laser and keeps the hood from rotating and falling off. To secure the paracord to the loop feature printed into the hood, I found a soldering Iron works great to “solidify” the looped paracord and that keeps the paracord from pulling out once its looped through. The hood is remarkably secure once installed, though I havent crashed it to find out what that’s like (and don’t plan to).
Please feel free to try it out and let me know what you think! It is designed to create a cross draft under the laser, and I havent found a way to make a toolpath that leads to the smoke getting past the cross draft. it will allow a relatively good amount of Z-axis movement also if you are burning on a 3d surface. Limiting the inlet opening of the hood will cause static pressure in the hose that decreases flow, so this is the smallest I could think to make it but someone might be able to do better. Excited to see if anyone modifies it, please post it here so we can all see the development!
Happy Lasing! If anyone has questions or suggestions I would love to hear them and if you print it share photos even if you didnt modify it!
