Toxic? Where to put printer?

General Discussion
21

I don’t remember who, but if you search the forum you’ll find someone who’s selling custom-made “slipcovers” for the Form1 and Form2 printers. I made my own. When the printer isn’t actively being loaded or unloaded it’s covered. Even while printing. I think this probably does a lot to keep the odors down.

But you can pretty much always smell a little something of the resin in my “man cave” room (cigars, too). I don’t think the odor is offensive (doesn’t smell like a dead animal or anything) but my wife would probably be unhappy with me if the house was permeated with the smell of the resin (or cigars). YMMV but I’m betting the guest room is probably your safer option.

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I really don’t smell the resin but using pretty much only clear. Does the other resins stink that much? I know one of the 3rd party resins is pretty pungent but I don’t use that. IPA is more offensive and noticeable than the resin itself. Curious on all the fuss.

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I’ve never been particularly bothered by the odor of any of the resins I’ve used. But they all do smell a little different. And some will certainly find the odors difficult to tolerate. I haven’t used Flexible in a while but my recollection is that it was a bit more “acrid”, stronger than the others. I used Vorex in my F1+ for a while and it had a nicer smell compared to any of the other FL resins I’ve used (clear, white, black, grey, flexible, tough, various revisions of each).

My hobby is Radio Control and we use a lot of Cyanoacrylate and “kicker” accelerant to make the adhesive cure faster. The kicker has a very distinctive smell which isn’t particularly foul but is kind of strong. Many don’t like it. But there’s one manufacturer whose kicker smells kind of like Lilac. Perfumy. I buy that brand whenever possible. I probably use more of it than I need to because it smells nice. Maybe FL should engineer their resins for how they smell as well as how they work? :smile:

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I have one from Zak Timan (or ZVatIndustries) but I believe he only has an offering for the Form1. Not sure how active he is on the forum anymore.

I have heard people claim that one of the Tough versions smelled of blueberries, mine just smells like methylmethacrylate soup…

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:joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:

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I had to throw out my Vorex after a firmware/software update quite awhile ago. How do you compensate for the software changes? I am pretty happy with the FL resins, but was happier for awhile with a different grey brand until the changes. I am hoping to get to like GreyV3 as well, but the non-FL grey was actually easier on my F1+ … until it wasn’t.

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Once I got my Form2 and Tough started working, I’ve stuck with Tough. Haven’t used Vorex in a while, will probably have to toss out the stuff I’ve got simply because it’s getting old…

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Just to add to this, I have noticed I get a bit of a tight throat when in the same room as the printer for long periods of time. Not sure if it is a reaction to the resin fumes. My girlfriend who hasn’t moved into my apartment yet is alergic to paint and chemical fumes and was freaking out when I bought the Form 2 (after reading about the health risks of FDM printers, entirely different thing :laughing:

By the way cjones cabinet build is awesome! I need something like this :slight_smile:

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I just bought a form2 and it is quite loud. anybody knows a place to buy a fume hood or cabin where it fits in in europe?

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I couldn’t find anything. I think best to build one or get someone who specialises in cabinets to build one. I like cjones one though think it can be even smaller.

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Fantastic work. This was my initial desire to build a containing box for my Form2 in my appartment to protect from dust and light.
By lack of time I found a kitchen furniture (from Conforama in France) which ended up perfect for my need → cost = 86€

Form2JL
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There is no smell and I can even keep my solvent + finishing kit in a closed container below the printer.

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Nice! I would think it dampers the sound pretty well too.

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It does indeed :slight_smile: I sleep the room next door but I haven’t printed at night yet. I think most bothering wouldn’t be the noise level but the repetitive muffled motor sound.

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Hello!

We have a Form 2, Wash and Cure in our university’s library. The room these are housed in is about 28 feet by 19 feet and is an interior room with an intake and an outake vent from the building’s cooling and heating system. We also have various grit sandpapers for hand sanding that folks can use. One of our folks has requested we purchase an in room air filter and I would be grateful to hear your opinions. This is the filter they have requested:

Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier

Thank you very much!

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i didn’t want to duct air thru the wall or out a window.

And fumes do not only come from the printer- they also come from your cartridges and tanks- which should also not be exposed to temperature extremes, nor excess light.

So I went to a used office furniture store to buy a nice Steelcase cabinet and found this thing

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what I liked about it was that its interior was dark with black adjustable shelves and it came with leveling feet. I paid $150 bucks for the cabinet.

Inside I set up the shelves to hold the printer with enough room to open the lid… and the spaced the lower shelves to be ideal for storing up to 6 tanks and as many cartridges as I please, properly oriented on their side with label showing.

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at the upper left you can see I installed a short shelf near the top of the cabinet to hold a large activated charcoal filter- this type is sold online for pot growing operations and is both affordable at $30 and large enough to last for a year of continuous use.
the top of the filter is ducted to a fitting I printed to fit in a 4" hole I cut in the top of the cabinet.
And that is ducted to a 4" whisper quiet axial flow fan. This was the most expensive component at $170.

filtyer-2

On the outflow port of the fan I installed another fixture I designed and printed to diffuse the outflowing air by directing it thru a another charcoal filter that can be purchased for $1 each or so and are made to fit home composters.
filter-3
As designed the outflowing air has to pass once thru the center of the filter, and then again thru the rim of the filter.

I print with the doors closed- the fan pulls air from inside the cabinet thru the charcoal filter to return cleaned air to the room. The doors and side panels of the cabinet are NOT air tight… and it is thru these narrow gaps that room air is pulled into the cabinet from all sides, and washes thru the filter on its way out.
that is, the fan maintains a negative air pressure inside the cabinet.

With the doors closed, the cabinet is pitch black inside and so no extraneous UV leaks in. Even with the doors open, its hard to see inside because the black interior swallows so much light.
I leave the fan running 24hrs per day.- but it is designed for that.

This particular fan also has a Probe that is mounted inside the cabinet that tells me what the temperature is inside the cabinet.

I find this enables me to live in the room with the printer and all the room air eventually is cycled thru the filter every 24 hours- so I have noticed a significant reduction in ambient dust.

I originally rigged this with the fan INSIDE the cabinet… mounted directly on top of the filter- but the odd thing was that the Fan’s motor created some kind of interference with the Form2’s accelerometers…so the the Leveling bubble on the display would wiggle back and forth and be unable to read a steady level.
Moving the fan outside the cabinet solved the problem.

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38

This is a great thread!

Personally I’m more irritated from the alcohol vapors than from any printing fumes - especially since getting the Form Wash (which is a great machine aside that the lid doesn’t seal). In exasperation one day I put a clear plastic garbage bag around my Form Wash. If I’m present when the wash cycle is done, I move the wet print to another room then twist the open end of the bag together to form a makeshift seal. I didn’t think it would help much but subjectively speaking it seems to be surprisingly effective. Enough that for now I’ve left it as a permanent (if ugly) fixture of my 3D printing workspace.

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39

I keep the IPA wash and curebox in my studio proper- which is not temperature controlled… like a garage.

The curebox has its own internal heaters- so that works fine, and the ordinary cure station has gasketed lids that keep the IPA contained when I’m not washing parts. However- I really don’t like how much expsoure to IPA i get when washing parts- so I plan to build a partial enclosure- like a small paint spray booth- that will have an exhaust fan and give me a strong positive airflow INTO the hooded wash station and thereby keep the fumes moving away from me.

The only problem with the BAG trick mentioned above is that it SLOWS or even halts the ability of the IPA to evaporate off of cleaned parts. Once the air in the bag is saturated with fumes- the ipa still on the part can not really continue to evaporate.

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No, I take the parts out and put them in another room before I close up the bag. I do leave the bag open during the wash cycle itself so the platform can raise without obstruction.

It’s not perfect and I’d love to improve the facilities (e.g. separate ventilated room, containment box with filtered exhaust, etc.) but it took all of 10 seconds to set up and seems moderately helpful as a stopgap in the meantime.