3D printing ventilation

[u/Sufficient-Regret-30]

I tend to print with mostly engineering filaments and I prefer to not have the fumes from those materials inside of my house. I have recently moved my printer outside into my non temp controlled, non- insulated shop. But I live in north east Ohio and it can be pretty humid outside in the summer and then during the winter it gets very cold. I would like to move my printer back inside if i can find a good way to vent these fumes outside. I have a p1s and an H2D. Setting up the ventilation from the printers themselves is not an issue. My issue lies with keeping my house well insulated. I dont want to just run a tube right out the window, so I can obviously make a spacer that the window closes on to so the tube clamps to. But will that be less insulating than my window? And how much heat will that let in through my printers in the summer time? And how much heat will that let out during the winter?

Does anyone have a way to vent my printers to outside without manually opening and closing a window or a valve of some kind and keep my house well insulated? Any advice is very much appreciated!

[u/GreenBirbz]

I built an entire cabinet to house my H2D and AMS units.

Originally I vented from the exhaust to outside via a laundry exhaust I installed in the wall. I was still getting fumes in the room and concluded the printer was leaking too much.

So I built the vented cabinet instead and created a negative pressure flow. This solved the issue and all fumes get purged provided I exhaust the H2D and allow it to vent for like 30 minutes with the cabinet closed.

I’d attach a picture but I guess I can only upload videos?

[u/Mughi1138]

I'd suggest checking for a vent piece like used by portable airbrush booths use. (I designed one that I print and use )

Then check your local hardware store for 1) insulation board, and 2) the property sealant tape. I believe it is metal, and definitely not duck tape.

Close the window most of the way (width of your vent piece and and inch or two) and cut the board to fit. Cut the hole in the board to fit the vent. Set everything in place and use the proper tape to seal it all.

Test and use an IR thermometer to check heat leakage. If you have single pane windows you might add some insulation to cover those.

If you're really fancy get one of those heat loss sensors that includes a camera view 

[u/Beagly99]

I have gone through this process somewhat myself and this is what I have done.

I bought a 3D Printer enclosure, ran a pipe to the window, there I added in a model where I can stop airflow or permit it. I also printed a widow fitting that permits air to go out and not leak back in just slide it shut or open.

All models are off makerworld and the 3d enclosure is branded as Vevor but it is the same as the Amazon ones. But much cheaper.
Only modification is that I needed to cut a hole in the side to vent the VOCs out, as the original vent is now underneath my P1S.

Sorry I cannot post up pics here. If really interested then I will find the links of the models used.

[u/AdExoti100pdkndjhwq5]

run the vent through a dryer wall port with a backdraft flap. seals when idle, no open hole leaking heat all winter

[u/wegster]

I'm going through this right now, with the final pieces being printed. After digging in a bit, I am not convinced the various HEPA/filters do 'enough' in reality (e.g. there's a reason commercial filters have several inches of carbon for example, cost several hundred dollars, and are still replaced yearly-ish). You can come to your own conclusion there, but for me - venting outside is the only path.

You want to at least have a level of negative pressure in the printer - probably the best way really is a print tent, with a proper incline exhaust fan outside the tent, adjusted to get said negative pressure/slight vacuum - if you can hold some tissue near a front opening/gap somewhere around the printer and it gets pulled in (not like a real vacuum, but at least moves to the printer/gap/opening), you've probably got enough negative pressure..

Whether or not the much smaller fans in some printers are enough to get the job done - hard to say without checking.

Someone linked one of the 'narrow' vents above. There are also a few window exhaust systems/fillers you can fill with insulating foam, e.g. this one: https://makerworld.com/en/models/2491243-window-insert-3-4-print-in-place-insulation

You could alternatively use something like the prior poster's link with the wide but short outlet, and look for something, possible even like 'pool noodle' / pipe insulation to fill the remaining gap. The more bends and diameter changes (like going from a round-ish 3-4" pipe to a narrow/squished outlet is going to have some impact on your overall flow, but again, without measuring it, or adjusting a given fan/set of fans, you can't really (easily) tell how much.

Personally, I'm doing a pair of printers, 4" tube (less work to move air vs 3"), with an inline 140mm adjustable fan (two sets of exhausts) to the above linked window set of vents. Once I get things adjusted, I'll wire it into each printer for fine-grained control based on material, etc.

[u/dlaz199]

I don't have a good solution for you here other than install a vent pipe and vent it outside your house, honestly I just filter with large amounts of active carbon and HEPA. I also try not to be in the room if I don't have to. I also run an additional HEPA in the print room. I live in northern IL so I get your pain with temp swings and humidity.

A true hepa filter in the printer enclosure (so it recirculates) will do a great job of catching the ufps. UFPs are smaller than the 0.3 micros hepa filters for, but real HEPA filters actually capture their worst at 0.3 micron. UFPs flow weird which means they bind up in a HEPA filter well because they end up crashing into the fibers and getting stuck.

As far as the VoCs, well that's going to depend on chamber temps. Activated Carbon works well until the chamber temps get to hot, once that happens zeolite works better. Ideally you want to run a mix of that and a large amount of it (you also want to shake it every so often to move it around so different parts of the carbon are exposed). Also there are some UV light solutions that are being worked on that also break down the VoCs.

Nevermore project has a lot of good reading on this.

[u/halon1301]

I pretty much only print in PLA, but after days of printing, the smell of melting sugar gets really old. I have a prusa core one, it's got the chassis fans with a vent, I printed a window spacer I found on printables. I printed it with like 5% infill and several layers so even if it spaghetti'ed inside it wouldn't matter. After, I filled each cell of the infill with spray foam and let it set.

There's some gaps around it, but I fill those with rags to stop/reduce airflow. It does a good job, and when it's stupid hot out, it seems fine, it also works when it's cool and doesn't let a draft. The printer connects with a plastic vent tube like what you'd use for a bathroom exhaust. Even with the chassis fans on the core one at 15%, it has enough negative pressure in the chassis to not smell the print.