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Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

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Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#141

Post by fIREpOK »

exabrial wrote: post #83

So don't operate your 3d printer in an enclosed space? Sounds reasonable. You already have to do that with bleach, paint, window cleaner, stove cleaner, superglue, your car, your stove, your oven, your chainsaw, your weed wacker, your turkey fryer, when making beer from wort, and when making salsa from carolina reapers. Not that difficult to understand: open a window.

Any kind of dust isn't is definitely not good to breath in... i.e.: wood dust... don't think opening a window will help much though

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#142

Post by nomel »

PetitPrince wrote: post #111
martin_a wrote: post #106

Headline: > Commercial 3D printers emit [...] Next paragraph: > [...] emitted from consumer-grade 3D printers Now what? Commercial or Consumer devices? Sorry, can't take this really serious if there's a mistake like this directly in headline/teaser text.

Maybe it's "commercial" as in "sold as a complete product" as opposed to a DIY printer using the RepRap firmware or similar ?

Yet there's no difference between any of these.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#143

Post by nomel »

RobotToaster wrote: post #126

>All of these tests, which were done at high doses

If your purouse the 3d printing forums, you'l find many that want to swap their mainboards to one that supports micro steps, so the printing doesn't keep them awake at night.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#144

Post by berjin »

My first thought: no shit. Plastics are the the asbestos or lead of our time.

Not only are microplastics are huge burden on the environment but plastics and related chemicals are a health burden as well dropping sperm counts and causing mutations in babies. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/books/review/shanna-swan-...

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#145

Post by zander312 »

alpaca128 wrote: post #129
asddubs wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that if I print PLA and stay in the room, it will give me a headache after a while. And I can definitely smell it, so at least something is getting released into the air. I don't know if that actually means it's harmful, but I stopped staying in the same room if a printer is running.

In over a year I've never noticed a smell from PLA during a print. Maybe that varies between manufacturer, some "PLA" filaments are actually weird mixes (like PLA+). But keeping it in a separate room doesn't hurt.

I use Prusament PLA and definitely notice a smell. I usually open a window in the room where my Prusa sits.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#146

Post by danielheath »

alonmower wrote: post #100

I bought a combo laser cutter/3D printer a while back and ended up putting an enclosure around it and a dedicated dryer vent in my garage wall with a blower fan attached to it so the whole thing is at negative pressure. Few hundred dollars an a couple of hours of my life but I feel a lot more confident using it now. I mostly did this because of the laser cutter (plywood can let out some horrible smells when cut), but…

> The printer also has a CNC but I very quickly learned that I should _not_ run the blower fan when that's running. That was no fun to clean up.

As someone considering a dust extraction hood for a hobby CNC - what happened?

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#148

Post by alonmower »

danielheath wrote: post #146
alonmower wrote: post #100

I bought a combo laser cutter/3D printer a while back and ended up putting an enclosure around it and a dedicated dryer vent in my garage wall with a blower fan attached to it so the whole thing is at negative pressure. Few hundred dollars an a couple of hours of my life but I feel a lot more confident using it now. I mostly did this because of the laser cutter (plywood can let out some horrible smells when cut), but…

> The printer also has a CNC but I very quickly learned that I should _not_ run the blower fan when that's running. That was no fun to clean up. As someone considering a dust extraction hood for a hobby CNC - what happened?

The fan is in the enclosure and wasn't strong enough to collect everything but it blew it around and coated everything in the enclosure. It also sprayed it around a decent amount of it outside on the side of our house (vs just venting the gases when using the laser or 3d printer).

I've seen some people set up vacuums that attach to the head so that dust is actually collected (and you get a filter in the vacuum to collect the dust). That seems like a better approach. I don't use the CNC very often so I haven't bothered. For now I just keep the fan off and occasionally stop the job to vacuum up the dust that's been produced with my shop vac.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#149

Post by worthless-trash »

alonmower wrote: post #148
danielheath wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The printer also has a CNC but I very quickly learned that I should _not_ run the blower fan when that's running. That was no fun to clean up. As someone considering a dust extraction hood for a hobby CNC - what happened?

The fan is in the enclosure and wasn't strong enough to collect everything but it blew it around and coated everything in the enclosure. It also sprayed it around a decent amount of it outside on the side of our house (vs just venting the gases when using the laser or 3d printer). I've seen some people set up vacuums that attach to the head so that dust is actually collected (and you get a filter in the vacuum to col…

Can i suggest using a 'wet trap' (or dust seperator), they work a treat and you can make your own, and are easy to setup.

Re: Commercial 3D printers emit traces of toxic fumes, study finds (2019)

#150

Post by joe_guy »

nirav72 wrote: post #125

I've been meaning to create an enclosure that many people do using the ikea lack tables. But haven't been able to find any plexiglass at local hardware store.

Call your local glass installers and ask them for a local plexy supplier or if they can supply it.
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