As if slinging around 40 watts of potentially tattoo-removing or retina-singeing laser beams wasn’t anxiety-inducing enough, now comes a new, scary acronym – LCAGs, or “laser-generated airborne contaminants.” With something that scary floating around your shop, it might be a good idea to build a souped-up laser cutter exhaust fan to save your lungs.
We jest, but taking care of yourself is the responsible way to have a long and fruitful hacking career, and while [patternmusic]’s “Fume Coffin” might seem like overkill, can you go too far to protect your lungs? Plywood and acrylic, the most common materials that come across a laser cutter’s bed, both release quite a witch’s brew of toxins when vaporized by a laser beam. The Fume Coffin clears the air in your shop by venting it to the outdoors after giving it a good scrubbing through an activated charcoal pre-filter and a HEPA polishing element. Both filters are commercially available so replacements won’t be an issue, and the entire thing is housed in a wooden box that gives the device its name.
Since it’s ejecting 200 cubic feet per minute, you’ll have to provide at least that much make-up air, but other than that the Fume Coffin should be a welcome addition to the shop. We’ve seen a few other attempts to handle LCAGs effectively before, including a DIY charcoal and automotive air filter design.
LCAGs, or “laser-generated airborne contaminants.” Laser-Contaminated Airborne Generators? Or should it be LGACs?
https://hackaday.com/submit-a-tip/
The hackaday summary is quite awful. Two glaring errors that I saw on first reading without checking the linked article. First the acronym is wrong. Secondly, I would recommend putting the charcoal filter AFTER the HEPA filter. Well, that’s exactly what the article says too.
Was hoping for laser in an engine exhaust to remove particulates of carbon.
If you don’t heat or use A/C this makes sense, otherwise why vent outside?
Conversely, if you’re venting outside, why bother with filters? The particulates will be dispersed within seconds.
In a word: neighbors. My unfiltered laser cutter exhaust produces a gawd-awful stink that my neighbors 40 feet away complain about.
The laser cutter should also be in the middle of an indoor jungle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Clean_Air_Study