It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a CURING OVEN?

Well, when it is 97 degrees (36 C), the humidity level varies between 35 - 60%, you have a sealed machine, and a fresh air intake / exhaust with pneumatic actuators; you have yourself a pretty good curing oven for that pesky Danish Oil to evaporate. (With a ton of airflow :joy:)

3 Likes

Curious as to how you sealed the machine and where. I have my own ideas but I’d love to see more and others ideas before I do it myself. I am using this in my living room and am trying to prevent any leakage as well as maximize extraction.

When I say it is sealed, imagine… everywhere. For example, if I forget to turn on my compressor circuit and the pressure gets low and the intake actuator doesn’t open, it will suck the viewing acrylic down hard and the door is very hard to open.

I have weather stripping on every access panel and caulk in every seam.

1 Like

I guess I was asking for photos then. I am about to seal mine so it only draws air in from the motherboard side and then is spit out through the exhaust. It’s not a big deal, just wondering. I have been taking my time with the unit for a reason.

Thanks for the reply

For 100% smoke-free exhaust extraction the ventilation fan should be outside the room. Now anytime the fan is running all of the pipes up to the fan and the laser cutter itself are under vacuum and any leaks will leak room air into the pipe (reducing exhaust performance a bit) instead of spewing smoke into the room. Also now you don’t need to seal every little hole, seam, and gap which can be frustrating – especially if you have some of that flexible pipe which develops tiny pinhole leaks over use as it flexes every time you start and stop the fan.

I use the laser cutter case as an impromptu lacquer drying booth too. Great minds… Ha ha.

The (almost) same amount of air that your exhaust can suck must be supplied in some way, the remaining amount is used to make a little negative pressure.

My impeller is installed exterior to the shop.

Info / pictures here:

Sealing the machine (for me) is to prevent sucking the heated or cooled air from the building.

1 Like

I realize we have different machines, but I am sealing mine as well since I use it inside in a living space. I am going to run tests over the next month or so to see if I should seal the controller area and have it pull air in and vent inside, or rewire it to only pull air in and let that be the intake for air to vent. The way they have it set now, the fan over the controller pulls air out. Since the controller area is not sealed, it draws in smoke from the cuts and engraving and pushes it into the living space. I am almost done sealing the machine, just need to go around the body with some silicone sealant and should be good aside from the rewire of the one fan. I might have to upgrade from a 4" inline duct to the 6". Apparently my calculations might be off, but I was fairly sure the 6" into the 4" would be fine with such a short (less than 3 feet) run of hose.

Test test test.

The access door / compartment housing the motion control, laser controller, PSUs etc (on my machine) is ventilated to the room. It is sealed from the other areas of the laser machine as much as I could make it.

1 Like

I am testing mine out to see what would be best. I have a basic gate that won’t allow backflow etc so I am not worried about backflow into the machine. I am testing the area and equipment with my laser thermometer to see if this setup is better or worse for it.

So far the fan for the PSU puts out more CFM than the stock 6" fan (sure seems like it) and created too much turbulence for the stock fan to draw smoke.

Thanks for the reply.