I had some issues with venting my Glowforge Basic. It stunk! The smoke wasn’t reliably venting outside and my office smelled like a campfire.
After some investigation, the built-in fan in the Glowforge couldn’t reliably overcome the pressure of the wind blowing on the west side of my house. Adding an inline duct fan overcame that issue.
Space is a little tight in my home office, so my Glowforge Basic is on a 4′ (48″) shelf in the corner by the window. I needed to keep my venting solution compact as well.
Starting at the exhaust port on the Glowforge, I never felt I was able to get a good seal with out risking damage to the port. I found a 3d printable quick-release adapter and printed one. The 4″ hose is clamped to the adapter.
To keep the look clean, I decided to make a new shelf out of 1/2″ ply, cut a slot along the back, and mount the fan on the bottom side.
The 4″ hose goes to a 4″ to 6″ reducer and is strapped to the underside of the shelf
The inline fan is attached to the underside of the shelf as well. All seams are clamped and covered with silver foil tape.
To go through the window, I tried a portable AC insert but was very unhappy. I cut a piece of 1/2″ ply to the width of my window opening, by 10″ tall. There is a 6 1/2″ hole in the middle for the vent. It is covered in contact paper because I didn’t want to wait for paint to dry.
On the outside, the vent is all that’s visible.
Materials Used:
- AC Infinity Flexible 4-Inch Aluminum Ducting, 25-Feet Long
- AC Infinity Duct Adapter, 6″ to 4″ Reducer
- AC Infinity CLOUDLINE S6, Quiet 6″ Inline Duct Fan with Speed Controller
- AC Infinity Flexible 6-Inch Aluminum Ducting, 25-Feet Long
- 6″ Exhaust Cap – White
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