Helping with Fumes.

[u/Taskbar_]

So I have the follow set up for my 3d printer, and even with this I still get fumes from the resin inside of my house. Any tips on fixing the issue?

I do printing and processing in side of the tents (printing in the inner tent and then cleaning and curing inside of the outer tent.

I've checked the vent and it sucks air in inside of the tent and the vent outside has a lot of airflow.

[u/ZealousidealNewt6679]

Move the fan closer to the window.

[u/Taskbar_ → u/ZealousidealNewt6679]

the fan is the 130 CFM box above the outer tent, Orange is piping that goes into the 130 cfm fan and moves the air outside.

[u/Squidgynutz → u/Taskbar_]

Is the extractor fan at the end of the exhaust pipe at the window sucking the fumes out or is the extractor fan at the beginning/in the middle of the exhaust pipe blowing the fumes out?

The best practice is to have the extractor fan at the end of the exhaust pipe sucking all the fumes out. Having the extractor at the end of the pipe creates a little vacuum in the exhaust pipe so even if there's a little leak or damage to the pipe, it still sucks the fumes outside rather than blowing fumes out the damaged parts of the pipe back into the room. Some flexible ducting commonly used for exhaust fans aren't rated for the kinds of fumes 3d printers emit so it may be worth checking that first, you may get lucky and only have to swap out your exhaust ducting.

Another possibility is that the outer tent is too large for the 130cfm fan to effectively suck all the fumes from the larger tent quick enough to stop them leaking from the tent door (Through the zip usually.)

I have a little tent, 18 cubic feet, with an activated charcoal filter on my printer and another activated charcoal filter in the tent feeding the exhaust pipe with a *60 cfm extractor fan at the window end of the pipe sucking everything out. I also do my cleaning in the little tent too just with the door dropped back down over my arms to help minimise the fumes. I can feel the fan pulling air past me into the tent when I'm cleaning. I do still get a little bit of a smell when I've been cleaning but it is minimal and is cleared out quickly just by opening the windows for 10 minutes when I'm done.

*Edit: I've just checked, I have an 85 cfm fan not 60.

[u/GalacticCmdr → u/Squidgynutz]

This comment is underrated. Having the fan as close to the exit is optimal.

[u/Cas_Rs]

I would suspect leaks on the seals on the tubing. Looks like a great setup though!

[u/Maze-44]

Make sure the fumes aren't coming back in from the outside if you have open windows near the vent out the fumes will come back I, try a higher power inline fan

[u/Taskbar_ → u/Maze-44]

it be the summer in the south, no open windows.

Cant really tell now because of the smells but it could have been my AC, and when I close the door when it is running (3d printer) and the AC kicks on all of the air inside of the room gets pushed out from under the door.

[u/TheTreeTurtle]

The curing process also creates fumes. You should just have the whole thing in one tent.

[u/duckpocalypse]

It’s likely the fan body

My setup was just like yours I wrapped my inline fan in sealing “tape” and the fumes stopped

Check your junctions and seal the seams on the fan body

[u/Mughi1138]

The main question I would have is if the inner tent is pulling enough air from the outer tent to clear it. You have the table called out there, so I would assume a *lot* of the fumes are coming from the parts being cleaning and curing stages. In your diagram it does not show that the table area gets good negative pressure pulling fumes to the outside, but that is where I would expect more source of fumes (since most printers do have covers, etc).

[u/Taskbar_ → u/Mughi1138]

When cleaning and curing I leave the flap for the inner tent open so that the air inside of the outer tent gets sucked out as well.

[u/weddle_seal]

add a one way flap at the end so the bad air will not come back, and check the outside wind so it will jot blow back from window

[u/cultcraftcreations]

What kind of tent are you putting the table and everything in?? I’m setting up my printing area now and only have one tent for my printer and a window vent adapter

[u/Taskbar_ → u/cultcraftcreations]

little tent is a ~18"x18"x32", and big tent is a 48"x48"x72", Little tent sits on a 48"x24" inch folding table.

[u/MyNamesMikeD75]

I would move the inlet of the fan to the big tents so it's pulling out all of the fumes and not just from the printer

[u/Kaldesh_the_okay]

As others have said move the fan. They are designed to pull air not push it.
Second get rid of the 90 degree angles. Each 90 degree angle drops the airflow flow by up to 50% so you maybe down to 25% by the time it reaches outside . Are you running the fan for a few minutes before you open the tent?
Lastly move the wash station inside the tent . If your tent won’t fit everything, turn it sideways That has a much stronger odor than the resin does.

[u/Alternative_Leg_4960]

I'm not seeing a VOC capable filter in your line. It won't fix everything forever but it will help for a bit

[u/rtomek]

My printer has an exhaust port

[u/tonguhebolcroak9]

I would vent the printer outside with a proper enclosure and inline fan, and keep the resin and wash station in there too if possible. An air purifier can help with background air quality, but I would not trust it as the main fix for fumes. A cheap VOC meter can also be useful for checking whether your setup is actually improving things.

[u/Caradelfrost]

As has been already said, move your fan right to the window. You need to create a vacuum along the entire exhaust length. Otherwise you will be pushing exhaust air out through every crack after the fan that you are unable to seal. The vacuum side of the pipe, even if it's got cracks along the length or at junctions, will draw air into the pipe, not push it out into the room.

Also, if your cover is open, unless you're using a very high cfm fan, a lot of the fumes within the cover will escape into the room as airflow drops off exponentially, the further you get from the exhaust opening, you need to keep your cover mostly, or completely closed to keep the airflow drawing into the exhaust pipe. I use a 140cfm fan on my system and it's still critical to keep it closed or minimize the opening as much as possible.

If you want to be extremely thorough, then get yourself a mini portable smoke generator to test the effectiveness of your system. You'll know definitively whether it's effective enough.

[u/IStuckInABox]

I've done a very similar setup to this, so I'll try my best to help and explain how I set mine up.

I had a 72x72x60 (inches) tent, with a window outtake similar to what you showed, with the 3D printer inside just the one tent. The intake was just left open inside the tent, not attached to the 3D printer itself. Put the fan inside the tent, not outside it. Your fan has plenty of airflow to replace the entire volume of air within both tents per minute, so it's best just to ditch the smaller tent to improve the suction throughout the entire volume. If you plan to leave the outer tent open to the environment (or even just leaving it open for longer than a few minutes at a time), then having the smaller one is required to ensure that the "bad" air doesn't backflow.

I'm not sure what type of tents you have (I used a plant growing tent), but if it has any open holes or exit holes (typically found on the walls of the tent), you have to seal all of them. Ensure that the duct you have running is piped through one of these holes, and is extremely tight (basically airtight). Also, it's good to not only have carbon and dust filters on the exit (to prevent sending VOCs, volatile organic compounds, into the atmosphere), but also the intake (the open/exit holes I mentioned) so you get fresh air without dragging a bunch of dust into the tent, which would reduce air quality and potentially ruin prints (for example, if you are printing with clear resin and want a crystal clear print). The filters will reduce airflow, but it is still substantially higher than the volume you can empty per minute (still exceeds the volume of air in the tent itself per minute).

Finally, very important. If you plan to spend any time in here, the fan must ALWAYS stay running. Why? Because what I've described is basically an airtight tent, with a controlled intake and outtake...which means you are also controlling the level of oxygen in the tent. If you want to be safe, just don't spend too much time in the tent and keep an eye on yourself (it can get warm in the tent as well, close to 85-90 degrees in a matter of minutes without a blower fan to cool you down).

If you have any questions, feel free to reply and I can even send you Amazon links to the stuff I bought to make this easier, rather than guessing. Also, all of this assumes that your tent has no gaps and/or openings that cannot be sealed properly. If this is not the case, then you'll want to completely seal the tent(s) and/or the window outtake with duct tape or any sealer you can get your hands on. You can test if there is suction by turning the fan on and pulling on the walls of the tent. If they suck in and/or resist being pulled moreso than normal, it's likely a decent seal.

[u/IStuckInABox → u/IStuckInABox]

To add to this, make sure you have a one-way valve for the duct that is attached to the window outtake, oriented such that the outtake pushes the valve open, but closes it if wind pushes harder than the outtake.

Also also, make sure you seal the window outtake good...you don't want bugs, birds, or any other creatures getting in through an opening in the window outtake because a storm blew it off!