It’s getting cold in Boston and venting to outside is not an option for my shop, which is expensive to keep warm and I don’t want to be sucking cold make up air inside. I’ve been looking through the affordable extraction units that vent inside and could get one with the articulating input, sticking it near the action. Another thought is to build my own. I could just buy the filters that claim 99.997, which is good enough for me.
I’m curious if there is another option for the actual collection, like a base with a 6 or 8" hole under it, where I’d go through the QCW. This would get everything from under the honeycomb. Still thinking through ideas about perimeter collection for grabbing the top smoke. PS, this is for cutting and engraving.
Do you have a cool solution that eliminates most of the foul smoke and smell?
I get free stuff from Amazon to review. One of them was a 210w fume extractor. I don’t think I would buy one simply because making one would be extremely easy. It’s just a square box with a series of stacked filters. With some plywood one could build the same thing. As long as you use a static pressure gauge you could even use a shop vac for the pump.
The one I got has a remote, timer feature, and LCD display that’s sort of nice but not needed. I have it set up so it plugs into the same outlet that my dust collector plugs into. Once the job is over the controller turns off a relay that shuts off the outlet.
A static pressure gauge will measure how clogged the filters are. A shop vac’s motor requires airflow to keep it from overheating. Depending on the shop vac you use that air flow could come from air it’s sucking up. A clogged filter could reduce the air flow too much. In general having a gauge will help you judge the condition of the filters.