I'm glad more people are talking about this. I see it genuinely worrying number of makers filming themselves disregarding a substantial amount of well known health and human safety hazards from various types of printers and I worry that this cavalier attitude is going to lead to amateurs taking unnecessary uninformed risks.
I wholeheartedly agree, and that's why I decided to push out safety videos first before doing more casual projects. I already have my video on UFPs out - the one on VOCs is slated, but it takes weeks for proper research. Over the past few years it does appear that people (at least on reddit) are starting to sway towards being cautious rather than care-free.
I made the decision to completely reupload three of my latest videos to fix the audio and add in a few more snippets. I have unlisted my previous Ventilation video, so if you would like to still watch that one or read the comments, this is the link: ruclips.net/video/QCeygGBwTgI/видео.html Thank you for the overwhelming support in the comments and encouragement to keep on making more videos and improving along the way!
So I bought an elegoo Neptune 3 max so it’s giant. Do I need to buy or make a tent to run a ventilator to exhaust the air and run an air purifier on the desk big enough for the whole room? I planned on having the ducting close to the print area and run it out a window..
Appreciate these videos. I bought an Anycubic on impulse after getting into crafting and learning Blender. Hit the brakes before doing anything with it after finding out how much needs to go into a proper workspace. Now I’m looking forward to making a workshop
Thanks for the support! Yeah the setups around the printers are often more in time and cost to get started, at least compared against the smaller resin printers.
Ok what if i place the resin printer to the corner of my balcony and cover it with completely black curtain or box while its printing and just open the cover for get rid of toxic fumes when its done? Would it be safe for me and the nature, animals, neigbours sitting on their balcony? Would it be harmful for them if they inhale even if the toxic fumes on the open air? and i wonder that whats happening to these toxic fumes after vent out? Are these dissappearing or stays on air? Thank you
Placing the resin printers in an enclosure on the balcony is common and a great way to solve the ventilation issue. However, if the balcony is more of a courtyard and there are not strong winds, then it could create an issue with neighbors. What happens to the fumes depends on the exact chemical makeup. Formaldehyde is one byproduct that when exposed to sunlight degrades in minutes. Other byproducts can settle in the soil and be broken down in days. A primary concern on this front would be plastic particle pollution (from primarily fdm printers) that can settle in soil and water, eventually reentering in our food supply. Filtering particles is very straightforward, but dealing with the chemical fumes is trickier and more costly.
@@ArisAlder Thank you so much for detailed answer. ^^ Im trying to decide between FDM and Resin for one week but its so difficult to choose. FDM has too much noise and Resin is toxic. There is a wind outside but also its living room's balcony and i can cause all the fumes inside to house :D Man its soooo hard to decide. Im feeling like im playing Oxygen Not Included in real life :D I think i need to ask to my neighbors which negative effect they want, Noise or Fumes. Thank you again. ^^
People often end up getting both, but FDM is usually the best place to start with most people. The FDM printers are often pretty silent when not printing fast and when inside an enclosure.
@@ArisAlder Thank you so much. I didn't know that. Yea im ok with printing with 50mm for silence. My mind is clear now and im gonna buy FDM. Thank you for your guide ^^
Thank you for mentioning this - I don't think I have ever seen those in one of the emissions studies so far. I will add this to my to-do list for when I do testing. Cheers
30 years from now we'll see generic lawsuit commercials for this. "If you or a loved one has been affected..." Ive only been printing with PLA and for not very long, but i got a resin printer recently to make miniatures. I was going to just throw it in my shed because i had heard the vapors were bad. Upon doing more research I'm going with a full fume containment and extraction setup like this
Just having it outside the house is the best thing, because it entirely prevents loved ones from being exposed to the emissions. Everything else like you mentioned, the setup around + the respirator is all for you. It's always good to see people taking precautions :)
Thank you for this insightful video. Would I be able to ask advice for my situation. A small, 2nd floor bedroom apartment with a balcony. Putting a table next to & behind the openside of the door at the end. I would have the resin printer in a grow tent. It gets really cold in the winters. I would make a small frame with a curtain around the table fot additional UV protection. It seems venting after printing is complete is ideal as well as an heater on the inside of the printer lid. Now would it be best to have a ventilation fan/filter outside or inside the grow tent, and should and a duct as far from the doors as possible? And the filters should be activate carbon + hepa? Balcony is only 6 feet wide, covered with a roof. Thank you.
I would keep the fan inside the enclosure to help protect it from the elements, and some duct can be helpful for directing the air away. Since it would be outside (and it’s resin) filters aren’t really necessary unless the fumes can become a nuisance for neighbors. MERV or HEPA filters for the particles would be more for filament rather than resin, because the nanoplastics can end up in the air and eventually deposit into our food/water supply. Resin is more problematic on the VOC side of things. If the smell/fumes become a nuisance to neighbors then the best thing to do is run the exhaust fan and duct through specialized media to breakdown the fumes. Generally, this isn’t necessary since most of the VOCs break down relatively quickly in sunlight (half-life of formaldehyde is 30 minutes).
Yep MERV 13 and HEPA filters are both perfect for this situation. You may find one cheaper than the other, but the main difference is that the MERV 13 filters perform best in recirculation setups like a closet. A HEPA filter would also work for this, but since their efficiency is higher and flow rate is lower, they are typically used for extraction. Happy Printing!
I only have 1 window, if I put my ventilation duct in that window the room will be left completely un ventilated for any remaining fumes, what can I do in this case?
So I just got a Bambu Lab A1 mini and I only print with PLA. Mostly Matte PLA. I have this large air purifier that sits next to it that has a hepa filter and carbon filter on it. Just the smell has been bothering me recently. So much so i enclosed it in my little bathroom and turned on the exhaust and had the air purifier in there. It still bothers me if I smell the PLA smell. Any Idea what I should look at adding to my set up to help?
So for most people, the ultrafine particles from PLA or PETG is what can cause problems, but those will be captured by the HEPA filter and they will not have a smell to them. PLA will still emit VOCs, even if the levels are drastically lower compared to say ABS or PC. The way to combat these VOCs from PLA without using ventilation is to utilize activated carbon in a canister. Canisters that are designed correctly can have several inches of carbon, whereas traditional air filter panels will use very small amounts of carbon that often have air gaps, making them useless from a safety perspective. So the things to look for are carbon canisters, coconut shell activated carbon (traps the VOCs), and/or specialized media like FumeFusion Zeolite that can breakdown the VOCs or act as an indicator for when to replace carbon.
@@ArisAlder thanks for the info. No one has specifically mentioned canisters when looking this stuff up. I saw them on the grow tent site I was looking at but didn’t think they were any different than my air filter I got. I just looked for the best budget air purifier and came away with the winix 5500-2. Thanks for all the info.
I print with PLA, and is searching for an air purifier to have beside my printer or maybe have the printer and purifier inside an enclosure. If I look on the purifier from Ikea "förnuftig", it has an filter of EPA12. Is this the same as Hepa or Merv 13?
Most people have built-in ventilation in their bathroom, and are only there intermittently. Put your printer(s) on a wheeled cabinet in your shower. Roll it out when bathing. Roll it back in, and print away. Problem fixed.
I will build an enclosure for my Resin Printer soon. I have a question though - do I need to consider creating a vent for air intake when the fan is running to prevent a vacuum? Or would there be no harm if it's a completely closed/sealed system?
Awesome video, great breakdown and solutions. I have a TPU gasket on my resin printer and moved the internal fan to circulate the air though a two stage carbon and hepa filter. It's a sealed system, wild to me that they would think a single pass though a filter would actually work and pump the air out. This is also in a walk in closet that i have my other FDM printers in which a put a rubber sweep seal at the bottom and foam tape seal around the sides. Not only does it keep the warmth in the closet very well but i also have another hepa filter always running any time you turn on any printer (main power strip is connected to a smart switch that i use to power everything on/off). Before i had the walk in closet sealed up i had it in my room printing ABS (this was over 10 years ago) and after two days i found the exhaust fan wasn't enough as it was vaguely smelly and i got a small headache from it. Had the idea to flip it around and create a positive pressure then place the printer near the other window. That worked FAR better, not even a hint of ABS smell. My suggestion is hard to do on hot or cold days, which is why everything was moved to a sealed closet. The closet has a smart camera that if detects the smoke alarm flips the smart switches off and i have automatic mechanical over stove kitchen extinguisher over the equipment just in case.
For sure you have put a great deal of thought into your setups, and it seems to be working out well for you. The HEPA filter in the closet is awesome because it will capture nearly all of the particle the printers are putting out. The carbon captures most of the VOCs, less so with resin - some VOCs like Formaldehyde are impervious to normal carbon. Out of curiosity, which exhaust fan were you using? The automatic fire extinguisher and switches are a nice touch in case anything goes south.
@@ArisAlder when it was open in my room a simple low profile window fan facing inward and a 120mm PC fan facing out to help out and some random aluminum coil ducting. And now that it's all in a closet there's no ventilation to the outside, just the filters
Yeah 120mm fans are generally not great at exhausting air, and the ones that are push 20+ Watts & are super loud. An inline or centrifugal fan that is at least ~50 Watts is recommended to get sufficient venting. Everything has to be nice and sealed as well.
This video deserves more views, i see everyday alot of people doing 3d printing, even having farms with alot of printers in one space without even thinking about ventilation. Its about the amount of contamination in the end that determines how dangerous it really is.
Very informatice video! I'll look into growing tents those seem to be a great solution for a dusty workshop area Its also good to know that even if you are just printing PLA the parts on your printer will heat up (especially the PTFE components) and will outgass. So its always a good idea to ventilate a printer and keep it away from your living-sleeping space ^^
Thank you for the support! The PTFE offgassing is very correct, especially when printing filaments like PETG or ABS above 230-250°C. Thankfully though, a large percentage of new printers are using all-metal hotends to achieve 300°C nozzle temperatures.
Any consumer air cleaner will be sufficient for PLA since the main concern are the UFPs, but there is less research on PETG and TPU. Generally, all 3 of those will be fine. If you start having any respiratory irritation then reevaluate.
I want to get a bambu lab a1 to print PLA only. However, it will be in my room very close to where I sleep and close to my other family members’ rooms as well. I can’t rly add ventilation as there is only a window in my room and I can’t drill through walls and the garage gets really humid. What should I do?
Ideally any 3D printers should be out of bedrooms, but printing PLA is the safest option there. What you can do is get any consumer air cleaner with MERV 13 or HEPA filters to capture the ultrafine particles. These particles are the main concern with PLA. PLA will still emit some VOCs (fumes), but they are not as hazardous as those from other filament like ABS.
I recently bought an elegoo mars 5 ultra that I keep in my garage that has one back window and I only run with garage open. The vocs get up to about 1000 when running the prints at full heat, then drops to about 400 or so when its off. I wear a ventilator but still am concerned about the vocs. How can I get rid of even more?
I also have small elegoo air filters for inside the case to the elegoo and have a small intake fan blowing out the window. I am just paranoid about the vocs.
What detector are you using and what are the units? The resin will off-gas more at higher temperatures, that is to be expected. Wearing a respirator while working with it is a substantial safeguard. One of the best things you can do is run fans in the garage to circulate the air. People often lean towards inline fans, but in an open garage a shop fan would be suitable.
The venting like that does work, but the small blocks of carbon do little to reduce VOCs, especially if you use IPA for cleaning. There is specialized media that can be used to breakdown the VOCs as they are vented, but that wouldn’t help you in the garage. That would be more for close contact housing like apartments or perhaps cookie cutter house developments with close neighbors.
So what do you think about the concepts of nevermore filters which push the air through a hepa filter and active carbon pellets. Is this sufficient from your point of view? Furthermore i would like to know if a continous running PC fan which sucks the air out of the chamber/box out to a window with a flexible hose will do the job in combination with a nevermore filter. I think the Potential risks of 3d printing is underestimated and discussed too less. Especially when kids are using them in school or in their child rooms.
The HEPA filter will be great at capturing the particulates, assuming the filters are legitimate. I believe that one and/or the bento box call for filters sourced off AliExpress. The amount of activated carbon in those is suitable for say PLA, but other filaments like ABS will be saturated much more quickly. The amount and type of carbon in these will do very little against resin fumes, especially specific compounds like Formaldehyde. A standard PC fan (120 mm) is not strong enough to exhaust the air. The static pressure of these are often 5-10% of a centrifugal or inline fan. Some higher wattage and specially designed 120mm fans, like the one in the video, can be used but it would still be susceptible to strong winds. They are also very loud.
I can't recommend using filtration for resin setups, especially with normal activated carbon in low amounts. The type of filtration needed for a resin setup to be safe is costly long-term, which makes ventilation the most feasible route for most people most of the time. If you're in a basement, it should be relatively straightforward to install a small duct hole (even through concrete). It's possible to even get away with a hole as small as 2 inches in diameter.
I've just started a job working with multiple resin printers in an unventilated room, I can open some doors to the outside but that's about it. Will a full face mask with 60927 3m organic vapor cartridges make this safe in the Long term? Can a respirator alone be enough?
Provided that the cartridges are changed regularly, the respirator would provide enough protection to meet safety standards, but relying on the respirator alone is not ideal. Ventilation and minimizing time in the room are effective solutions that should be explored in order to improve long-term safety. There are also other factors to consider, like what is the outlined cleaning process? Using IPA in a wash & cure will release more fumes than when sealed inside a bag or container in an ultrasonic cleaner tank filled with water. There are also resin detergents; although, I can't speak to their effectiveness.
Thank you for the answer, A mask being sufficient is great news. There are two large Ultrasonic cleaners filled with IPA, first one is used for 3 minutes then the second for 3 more. They are in a second more ventilated space, I think based on just the fire risk I will have to change the system to bags or jars, surely if this stuff is as flammable as it seems it just can't be safe to stand in front of pool of it? @@ArisAlder
You are right that there is a risk of fire when it is put directly in the tank. This is because the liquid IPA is becoming vapor that can be ignited with a small spark. I have an ultrasonic cleaner video that should what a fire in one would look like.
If I have a under stair space that I can vent out underneath my house and keep it closed while in operation with a fan+carbon filter, do you still recommend a grow tent or will the small space act as a grow tent naturally?
I live in an apartment and have my printer in a second room with the internal door shut and a balcony door and window open. Wondering if this is sufficient. I usually only enter the room with a mask with a 3M organic vapour filters. Also considering putting my printer on the balcony itself but wondering how i can protect it from wind and rain.
Having the balcony door + window open is good to bring in cleaner outdoor air, but the winds can push contaminated air throughout the rest of the apartment. If you were running a print farm then this could work if you sealed off (like an airlock) that entire room (vents + door). For your situation, the two best options are: 1) Having it on the balcony in a grow tent. 2) Having it indoors in a grow tent and sealing it up against the window like in the video (plus the fan). The balcony is the safest option as it nearly eliminates the entire indoor air quality issue. Wind can be mitigated by weighing the grow tent down, and rain can be mitigated (one option) by hanging a mesh screen (like for mosquitos). There are probably a few other good ideas floating around for mitigating the rain.
I not not have a printer yet but i want to install in my garage. I live in Houston , very humid. What is best in your experience with PLA, vent during or after the print? Thanks
PLA is comparably safe and is often used indoors with only filtration. However, it is certainly safer in the garage. You wouldn’t need to vent PLA actively unless the space is being used for other purposes (with people).
Anyone got any suggestions on how to best vent/filter a P1S? It's in a basement, exterior window available a room over. Haven't seen too many solutions, seems like most folks just deal with the fumes.
So for PLA/PETG you can use any consumer air cleaner that has MERV 13 or HEPA filters, since particulates are the main concern. Other filament like ABS introduces some nasty gaseous chemicals. The safest and cheapest thing to do would be to run duct hose to that window - some people drill through the wall in a basement, but that isn't always viable. Filtration of the fumes can be done but it has to be the right type and quantity - it will be more expensive.
@@ArisAlder would attaching the duct hose to the P1S be possible by utilizing the poop chute? with a high enough flow rate through the hose, I'd imagine with some clever design it could still "poop" while extracting
I'm not sure if it is possible - I don't have a Bambu. Something like that would work for PLA, but it could cause warping on the other filaments. For the filaments that need a heated chamber, the most efficient way to go about it is to place the printer in an enclosure like a grow tent. This allows you to control the airflow while not removing the heat from the chamber.
If you could go more in depth on filtration setups that would be geatly appreciated. I'd like to be able to run both my resin and fdm machines and at the moment ventilation is not an option
My UFP video touches on the particle side of things for FDM and resin, including filtration. It's on my to-do list to do a similar one for VOCs. Using filtration for FDM is easier than resin, and hopefully within the next month I can do some testing on filtration media for resin then push a video out.
I have my resin and fdm printers in a spare bedroom in the house. the resin printer is in a grow tent and when im printing i have the fan on venting the tent outside. is this safe enough to keep the printer inside if no ones using the spare bedroom? Feels like I should move it to the garage but not sure if im being overcautious at this point
If no one is using the room then it is generally fine. While it is more convenient to have inside, it’s technically safer in the garage. This is one of those situations where you the ability to use either - up to you. Two deciding factors could be small children or health conditions (you or family). It also never hurts to have air cleaners in other parts of the home. Personally, it’s just so nice not having to wakeup with even just the occasional seasonal allergy like pollen. Any consumer air cleaner will capture particles like these. The VOCs are a different story.
I have been using PLA-F which has ABS with my ender 3 in my room without enclosure. But it is right beside an open window is my siblings which is in the next room at risk?
Having the window open introduces cleaner outdoor air, which is good, but it can also push contaminated air into other parts of the house. Printing ABS is something I personally would not do in a bedroom or indoors unless it was being actively vented outdoors (sealed against the window).
Thank you for the heads up on ufps, I didn't know this was an issue and will be setting up an enclosure with a filter for my fdm printer and waiting to figure out a better spot for my friends resin printer
How long do these particles take to break down being outdoors? I don't want to expose my neighbours to my pollution Do they take thousands of years like common microplastics?
The particles, once outside, can take hours to weeks to completely disperse out of the air back into the ground (lots of variables at play). The main concern with the plastic particles (filament will also have other particles like metal oxides) from 3D printing is that the nanoplastics can re-enter the food chain. An extreme hypothetical example is let's say a large print farm or other source of plastic pollution is near a large chicken farm. A percentage of the plastic particles can settle on the ground where the chickens graze and eat. These nanoplastics will be in the chickens' bodies or eggs then be eaten by us. To really gauge the impact of such a scenario, there would have to be a really focused study (some like this probably exist). It is ideal for people to filter out the particles leaving a 3D print[er] to prevent nanoplastics from entering the food chain. This topic gains little notoriety since there are larger concerns in society such as brake dust (one interesting example). Brake dust makes up 20-60% of all traffic particle emissions and thus up to ~10% of particle emissions in the US. In the recent years, organizations like NASA and the EPA have identified and pushed for the mitigation of materials that will harm us and wildlife (e.g. antimony, cadmium, copper, lead, and mercury). Brake dust is an interesting one because all of us with a car are a contributor, and there has not been a great solution as of yet.
Thank you for all your videos! I have a question: I'm using my resin printer in my basement (unfortunately no window but i'm working with a gas-filter-mask). Do the fumes evaporate by time or do they accumulate by time and it's getting worse worse? Because there are our washing machines for laundry, does my girlfriend have to worry going in while nothing is printing/curing?
This is a common concern and it is valid - it's actually both. Without any ventilation (or proper filtration), the fumes will continue to increase in concentration, but they will not infinitely increase due to factors like natural leakage out of the house. One way to look at it is sources and sinks. The sources will be slow off-gassing while it's in the vat, printing, and post-processing - each has a different chemical profile and emission rate. The sinks (or elimination routes) will be ventilation, filtration, natural leaks in the house, natural degradation of the chemicals, adsorption into clothing etc, or adsorption into our lungs (to name a few). I would highly recommend looking into drilling a 2 to 4 inch hole through the wall for ventilation. Without a way to exhaust the fumes, they will remain in the basement after printing. Cleaning everything out and putting the resin up after a print can help, but the fumes (and odor) can remain for days to weeks. Usually, a garage is the best location for most people, but it's also understandable that everyone's situation is different.
@@ArisAlder We rent this apparment so no drilling is possible..... What do you think about air purifier with active charcoal? Thank you for your feedback!
At this time, I still can't recommend relying on filtration. Even large amounts (2-5 lbs +) of specialized carbon/media will not be as effective as ventilation nor as cheap.
This 3D printing concept just got next-level! Forget pushing plastic through a nozzle, what if we built objects from the inside out, layer by layer, with a two part container? Imagine a two-part vat that spins while a fancy nozzle sprays a special resin, building the object layer by layer. But here's the twist: a UV light zaps each layer to harden it, and tiny magnets outside the vat can manipulate the resin for even crazier designs! Think dissolvable layers hidden within the object, or even tiny components placed precisely using magnetic fields. This "Morphing Matrix" could be a game-changer, letting us print objects with hidden compartments or even self-assembling parts! #FuturePrinting #MindBlown What do you guys think? Could this be the future of 3D printing?
Amazing video, exactly what I was looking for. I'd been wondering about air quality with indoor 3d printing, especially FDM for a while. I have a rather large CR box next to my printer, so sounds like I'm reasonably safe. I eventually want to get a VOC sensor to see whether I should get a activated charcoal filter, too, but hopefully I won't need it.
The CR box, assuming it is using MERV 11-13 filters will capture most of the ultrafine particles, so you're definitely good there. As for the VOCs, if you are printing mainly PLA/PETG then you'll be okay. As far as the sensors go, what I generally tell people is that if they had only $100, it would be better to spend it on filtration than the TVOC meters. The meters, at their best, can tell you the comparison between outdoor and indoor air (this requires calibrating every time you use it). The TVOC metric doesn't provide any distinction between chemicals, so it's impossible to know what is actually present. The formaldehyde sensors also trigger on other chemicals like alcohols and esters (e.g. IPA). A practical example is that with ABS, the TVOC reading can actually stay relatively low, but that small bump is all that is needed to create unhealthy levels of Styrene. Styrene is an assumed carcinogen (based on animal studies), and it is a component of the burnt rubber smell of ABS, ASA, and HIPS.
@@ArisAlder Thanks so much! Really appreciate you taking the time to answer in detail. The CR box uses 20x25x4in MERV 13 filters indeed, the fan might be slightly undersized but I can keep it running all day. Getting a sensor would be mostly out of curiosity, I wouldn't expect much actionable insights from them - and indeed the only actionable insight would be to get better filters, in which case you rightly point out I might as well get filters from the get go. Then again, I thought similarly about a CO2 sensor - my apartment has very high ceilings, so a fairly large air volume, and is rather drafty. Yet, to my surprise without lots and lots of ventilation, I would easily sit at >1.3k ppm. I basically went from ventilating once or twice a day to constantly having 1-2 windows ajar. For CO2, I got a sensirion reference USB one that seems to be very high quality (though I haven't calibrated it) yet was only $55. For TVOC and PM2.5/10, I am a bit more sceptical whether there's anything that's affordable yet reasonably good.
1.3k ppm indoors is definitely on the high end of things - looking into a few plants might be a good idea too, good for the air & ambiance. As far as CO2 and the VOCs are concerned, that sensor can actually signal when chemicals are being broken down when using carbon or zeolite that is impregnated. From my testing with resin printers, the CO2 level rises about 20% due to the more complex chemicals being broken down.
@@ArisAlder And that was purely from people breathing, no printers running. Nowadays with plenty of ventilation, it's around 800 and if it gets to 1k, I'll open more windows. Was very surprising to me how much ventilation is needed and I'd never have realised without a sensor, so that's why I'm curious to get a PM/VOC sensor, too. I couldn't imagine doing resin printing indoors without having at the very least a dedicated room, but ideally a garage or shed. Which is a shame, because resin printing looks super cool. Also if you want to hear a horrifying anecdote: My local library has a maker space (cool!) with 3 resin printers and a dozen FDM printers (very cool!) running in a 40sqm room with standard commercial ventilation and half a dozen people inside at any given time, none of which wear PPE.
This was an awesome starter! Thank you! I actually do have a question. I've always eyed resin printers but haven't delved into it because I life in a colder climate and I live in an apartment without a garage. I might be able to secretly (I'm sure the landlords won't approve) print in the shared attic from my little compartment as I do have access to a tiny window up there. I was intrigued by your suggestion of airing out the printer non-continuously after the print has ended. How bad of an idea is it to put the resin printer in a grow tent in my flat and purge the air after the print has finished?
Thank you for the support! Do you have a balcony, patio, or private yard space? Plenty of people use resin printers in an apartment (in a separate room or common area) while venting out a window, and you are right that a colder climate does make this trickier/more expensive. Indoors, the printer needs to be vented continuously. It is while in a garage that you can wait to vent, since this is isolated from indoors. The exception would be if the garage is also being used simultaneously; then it should also be actively vented. Using the printer in a shared attic space would be a bad idea. This would fall under the same situation as a college dorm, where it could be exposing other people inadvertently.
@@ArisAlder Hi, thanks for the repsonse, that already helps. yeah I do have a balcony but unfortunately it's pretty open (without a roof). I live in a two room apartment, so I have a work/office room (where I spend a lot of time) and a bedroom. I could vent it out from my work room but it's not really ideal if I spend a lot of time in it. I probably have to build some crazy heated shed-enclosure combo on the balcony by the looks of it but that seems dumb because of the UV-exposure outside. In the attic space I could vent it continuously though.
What's the average outdoor temperature in your area? If the printer is in a grow tent, a heat band or small ceramic air heater can be under the acrylic lid and make the heating a bit more efficient. Whenever you're done printing, if all the resin is cleaned up the whole thing can even be brought back inside. Keep in mind that venting while inside would also use extra electricity because cold outdoor air will force its way in due to the negative pressure.
So I have a fdm printer in my office inside of a small grow tent with it being extracted out the window. I have a similar setup in my garage for my resin printer where it has a extraction fan that is pulling air out from the printer through a carbon filter out the garage. Will this be fine? I also have a fan that is pushing air out of the garage as well from the back to make sure nothing comes into the house.
These both sound like perfectly fine setups. You certainly have the right idea by creating negative pressure in the entire garage, but one thing I'd be worried about using two fans in the garage is that they would be working against each other unless there was sizeable gaps/inlets for the air. For example, if the garage is very well sealed (minus the two exhausts) and one fan was twice the power of the smaller fan, the more powerful fan could be trying to draw air backwards through the smaller fan. I'm not saying that this will 100% happen because there's variables in play, but it's something to watch for if you decide to use two fans.
@@ArisAlder I meant that I have floor fan in my garage. The printer and tent setup is sitting next to the entrance of my garage and I usually put my garage door up about 50% to make sure I still have good ventilation, probably overboard.
Thank You. I may have missed it in the video though with resin 3D printers what CFM would you recommend? And do you have any suggestions or recommendations for 3D printer enclosures i.e. what I should look for or keep an eye on?
A smaller indoor room can get away with a 100-200 CFM centrifugal or inline fan, and the simplest enclosure will be a grow tent. Custom insulated enclosure can be really nice in terms of efficiency (for trapping heat if not venting), but they also require a bit of upfront work.
Vinyl is actually one of the cheapest materials that won’t degrade as easily over time. More expensive options would be like: Fiberglass, silicone-coated materials, aluminum, rubbers, or flexible plastics A good comparison site is McMaster
Sources 22-23 are some examples of data 4dfiltration.com/resources/3d/3d-printing-air-quality-roundup There are actually a few dozen studies that measure UFP capture via MERV or HEPA, and for this article I used what was most relevant to 3D printing.
@@ArisAlder I said modern. Not first implementation they started with 40 years ago. Air in and out vents in every room, or at least in rooms you would suggest to use the printer in.
@@1kreature There is no way of preventing someone from partially inhaling some particles while they reach the ventilation system, that’s the reason why a controlled environment such as the ones described in the video is required, even with a house with “modern ventilation” systems.
⏱ Timeline:
00:00 - Introduction
00:15 - Outdoor Ventilation
00:59 - Indoor Ventilation
01:13 - Fan Selection
01:55 - Using Duct
02:08 - Window Adapters
02:32 - Enclosures
03:03 - Ultrafine Particles & VOCs
04:03 - Filtration
04:26 - Filter Options
04:50 - Conclusion
I'm glad more people are talking about this. I see it genuinely worrying number of makers filming themselves disregarding a substantial amount of well known health and human safety hazards from various types of printers and I worry that this cavalier attitude is going to lead to amateurs taking unnecessary uninformed risks.
I wholeheartedly agree, and that's why I decided to push out safety videos first before doing more casual projects. I already have my video on UFPs out - the one on VOCs is slated, but it takes weeks for proper research.
Over the past few years it does appear that people (at least on reddit) are starting to sway towards being cautious rather than care-free.
How many people run gas stoves without ventilation? Ignorance is relative.
I made the decision to completely reupload three of my latest videos to fix the audio and add in a few more snippets. I have unlisted my previous Ventilation video, so if you would like to still watch that one or read the comments, this is the link: ruclips.net/video/QCeygGBwTgI/видео.html
Thank you for the overwhelming support in the comments and encouragement to keep on making more videos and improving along the way!
Really well done and informative video! If anyone comes to me about wanting to resin or fdm print in the future I'll probably send this to them
Thank you for the support! Hopefully I can cover more topics like I did this one :)
So I bought an elegoo Neptune 3 max so it’s giant. Do I need to buy or make a tent to run a ventilator to exhaust the air and run an air purifier on the desk big enough for the whole room? I planned on having the ducting close to the print area and run it out a window..
Appreciate these videos. I bought an Anycubic on impulse after getting into crafting and learning Blender. Hit the brakes before doing anything with it after finding out how much needs to go into a proper workspace. Now I’m looking forward to making a workshop
Thanks for the support!
Yeah the setups around the printers are often more in time and cost to get started, at least compared against the smaller resin printers.
Ok what if i place the resin printer to the corner of my balcony and cover it with completely black curtain or box while its printing and just open the cover for get rid of toxic fumes when its done?
Would it be safe for me and the nature, animals, neigbours sitting on their balcony? Would it be harmful for them if they inhale even if the toxic fumes on the open air?
and i wonder that whats happening to these toxic fumes after vent out? Are these dissappearing or stays on air?
Thank you
Placing the resin printers in an enclosure on the balcony is common and a great way to solve the ventilation issue. However, if the balcony is more of a courtyard and there are not strong winds, then it could create an issue with neighbors.
What happens to the fumes depends on the exact chemical makeup. Formaldehyde is one byproduct that when exposed to sunlight degrades in minutes. Other byproducts can settle in the soil and be broken down in days. A primary concern on this front would be plastic particle pollution (from primarily fdm printers) that can settle in soil and water, eventually reentering in our food supply.
Filtering particles is very straightforward, but dealing with the chemical fumes is trickier and more costly.
@@ArisAlder Thank you so much for detailed answer. ^^ Im trying to decide between FDM and Resin for one week but its so difficult to choose. FDM has too much noise and Resin is toxic. There is a wind outside but also its living room's balcony and i can cause all the fumes inside to house :D Man its soooo hard to decide. Im feeling like im playing Oxygen Not Included in real life :D
I think i need to ask to my neighbors which negative effect they want, Noise or Fumes.
Thank you again. ^^
People often end up getting both, but FDM is usually the best place to start with most people. The FDM printers are often pretty silent when not printing fast and when inside an enclosure.
@@ArisAlder Thank you so much. I didn't know that. Yea im ok with printing with 50mm for silence. My mind is clear now and im gonna buy FDM. Thank you for your guide ^^
FYI you should also contain and vent any filament dryers
Thank you for mentioning this - I don't think I have ever seen those in one of the emissions studies so far. I will add this to my to-do list for when I do testing. Cheers
30 years from now we'll see generic lawsuit commercials for this. "If you or a loved one has been affected..."
Ive only been printing with PLA and for not very long, but i got a resin printer recently to make miniatures. I was going to just throw it in my shed because i had heard the vapors were bad. Upon doing more research I'm going with a full fume containment and extraction setup like this
Just having it outside the house is the best thing, because it entirely prevents loved ones from being exposed to the emissions. Everything else like you mentioned, the setup around + the respirator is all for you.
It's always good to see people taking precautions :)
Thank you for this insightful video. Would I be able to ask advice for my situation. A small, 2nd floor bedroom apartment with a balcony. Putting a table next to & behind the openside of the door at the end.
I would have the resin printer in a grow tent. It gets really cold in the winters. I would make a small frame with a curtain around the table fot additional UV protection. It seems venting after printing is complete is ideal as well as an heater on the inside of the printer lid.
Now would it be best to have a ventilation fan/filter outside or inside the grow tent, and should and a duct as far from the doors as possible?
And the filters should be activate carbon + hepa?
Balcony is only 6 feet wide, covered with a roof.
Thank you.
I would keep the fan inside the enclosure to help protect it from the elements, and some duct can be helpful for directing the air away.
Since it would be outside (and it’s resin) filters aren’t really necessary unless the fumes can become a nuisance for neighbors.
MERV or HEPA filters for the particles would be more for filament rather than resin, because the nanoplastics can end up in the air and eventually deposit into our food/water supply.
Resin is more problematic on the VOC side of things. If the smell/fumes become a nuisance to neighbors then the best thing to do is run the exhaust fan and duct through specialized media to breakdown the fumes. Generally, this isn’t necessary since most of the VOCs break down relatively quickly in sunlight (half-life of formaldehyde is 30 minutes).
Can I use a grow tent with a merv 13 filter system in a closet? Thank you in advance. I have limited space.
Yep MERV 13 and HEPA filters are both perfect for this situation. You may find one cheaper than the other, but the main difference is that the MERV 13 filters perform best in recirculation setups like a closet. A HEPA filter would also work for this, but since their efficiency is higher and flow rate is lower, they are typically used for extraction.
Happy Printing!
I only have 1 window, if I put my ventilation duct in that window the room will be left completely un ventilated for any remaining fumes, what can I do in this case?
Having only 1 window is fine because the negative pressure created by the fan will pull air from the rest of the house.
Would taking a small FDM printer, like the Tina2s, outside be enough ventilation when working with PLA?
So I just got a Bambu Lab A1 mini and I only print with PLA. Mostly Matte PLA. I have this large air purifier that sits next to it that has a hepa filter and carbon filter on it. Just the smell has been bothering me recently. So much so i enclosed it in my little bathroom and turned on the exhaust and had the air purifier in there. It still bothers me if I smell the PLA smell. Any Idea what I should look at adding to my set up to help?
So for most people, the ultrafine particles from PLA or PETG is what can cause problems, but those will be captured by the HEPA filter and they will not have a smell to them.
PLA will still emit VOCs, even if the levels are drastically lower compared to say ABS or PC. The way to combat these VOCs from PLA without using ventilation is to utilize activated carbon in a canister. Canisters that are designed correctly can have several inches of carbon, whereas traditional air filter panels will use very small amounts of carbon that often have air gaps, making them useless from a safety perspective.
So the things to look for are carbon canisters, coconut shell activated carbon (traps the VOCs), and/or specialized media like FumeFusion Zeolite that can breakdown the VOCs or act as an indicator for when to replace carbon.
@@ArisAlder thanks for the info. No one has specifically mentioned canisters when looking this stuff up. I saw them on the grow tent site I was looking at but didn’t think they were any different than my air filter I got. I just looked for the best budget air purifier and came away with the winix 5500-2. Thanks for all the info.
I print with PLA, and is searching for an air purifier to have beside my printer or maybe have the printer and purifier inside an enclosure. If I look on the purifier from Ikea "förnuftig", it has an filter of EPA12. Is this the same as Hepa or Merv 13?
Most people have built-in ventilation in their bathroom, and are only there intermittently.
Put your printer(s) on a wheeled cabinet in your shower.
Roll it out when bathing. Roll it back in, and print away.
Problem fixed.
I will build an enclosure for my Resin Printer soon. I have a question though - do I need to consider creating a vent for air intake when the fan is running to prevent a vacuum? Or would there be no harm if it's a completely closed/sealed system?
do you have a chart where tpu is compared as well vs pla's and petg's?
Unfortunately there’s little to no data on TPU, which is why I didn’t add it. I’ll have to keep checking new studies for more data.
Great no-fluff video!
That’s the goal! Thanks for the support!
Awesome video, great breakdown and solutions.
I have a TPU gasket on my resin printer and moved the internal fan to circulate the air though a two stage carbon and hepa filter. It's a sealed system, wild to me that they would think a single pass though a filter would actually work and pump the air out. This is also in a walk in closet that i have my other FDM printers in which a put a rubber sweep seal at the bottom and foam tape seal around the sides. Not only does it keep the warmth in the closet very well but i also have another hepa filter always running any time you turn on any printer (main power strip is connected to a smart switch that i use to power everything on/off).
Before i had the walk in closet sealed up i had it in my room printing ABS (this was over 10 years ago) and after two days i found the exhaust fan wasn't enough as it was vaguely smelly and i got a small headache from it. Had the idea to flip it around and create a positive pressure then place the printer near the other window. That worked FAR better, not even a hint of ABS smell. My suggestion is hard to do on hot or cold days, which is why everything was moved to a sealed closet.
The closet has a smart camera that if detects the smoke alarm flips the smart switches off and i have automatic mechanical over stove kitchen extinguisher over the equipment just in case.
For sure you have put a great deal of thought into your setups, and it seems to be working out well for you.
The HEPA filter in the closet is awesome because it will capture nearly all of the particle the printers are putting out. The carbon captures most of the VOCs, less so with resin - some VOCs like Formaldehyde are impervious to normal carbon.
Out of curiosity, which exhaust fan were you using?
The automatic fire extinguisher and switches are a nice touch in case anything goes south.
@@ArisAlder when it was open in my room a simple low profile window fan facing inward and a 120mm PC fan facing out to help out and some random aluminum coil ducting.
And now that it's all in a closet there's no ventilation to the outside, just the filters
Yeah 120mm fans are generally not great at exhausting air, and the ones that are push 20+ Watts & are super loud. An inline or centrifugal fan that is at least ~50 Watts is recommended to get sufficient venting. Everything has to be nice and sealed as well.
This video deserves more views, i see everyday alot of people doing 3d printing, even having farms with alot of printers in one space without even thinking about ventilation. Its about the amount of contamination in the end that determines how dangerous it really is.
Thank you for the support! Taking the safety precautions is especially important in businesses, schools, and when loved ones could be exposed.
Well done. Very informative, well researched, and to the point.
Thank you for the support!
Very informatice video! I'll look into growing tents those seem to be a great solution for a dusty workshop area
Its also good to know that even if you are just printing PLA the parts on your printer will heat up (especially the PTFE components) and will outgass. So its always a good idea to ventilate a printer and keep it away from your living-sleeping space ^^
Thank you for the support! The PTFE offgassing is very correct, especially when printing filaments like PETG or ABS above 230-250°C. Thankfully though, a large percentage of new printers are using all-metal hotends to achieve 300°C nozzle temperatures.
I want to place an open FDM printer on the desk in my room. I only want to print with PLA, PTEG, PTU. Is an air purifier enough to make the room safe?
Any consumer air cleaner will be sufficient for PLA since the main concern are the UFPs, but there is less research on PETG and TPU.
Generally, all 3 of those will be fine. If you start having any respiratory irritation then reevaluate.
I want to get a bambu lab a1 to print PLA only. However, it will be in my room very close to where I sleep and close to my other family members’ rooms as well. I can’t rly add ventilation as there is only a window in my room and I can’t drill through walls and the garage gets really humid. What should I do?
Ideally any 3D printers should be out of bedrooms, but printing PLA is the safest option there. What you can do is get any consumer air cleaner with MERV 13 or HEPA filters to capture the ultrafine particles. These particles are the main concern with PLA. PLA will still emit some VOCs (fumes), but they are not as hazardous as those from other filament like ABS.
I recently bought an elegoo mars 5 ultra that I keep in my garage that has one back window and I only run with garage open. The vocs get up to about 1000 when running the prints at full heat, then drops to about 400 or so when its off. I wear a ventilator but still am concerned about the vocs. How can I get rid of even more?
I also have small elegoo air filters for inside the case to the elegoo and have a small intake fan blowing out the window. I am just paranoid about the vocs.
What detector are you using and what are the units?
The resin will off-gas more at higher temperatures, that is to be expected. Wearing a respirator while working with it is a substantial safeguard.
One of the best things you can do is run fans in the garage to circulate the air. People often lean towards inline fans, but in an open garage a shop fan would be suitable.
The venting like that does work, but the small blocks of carbon do little to reduce VOCs, especially if you use IPA for cleaning. There is specialized media that can be used to breakdown the VOCs as they are vented, but that wouldn’t help you in the garage. That would be more for close contact housing like apartments or perhaps cookie cutter house developments with close neighbors.
I dont use ipa, I use green machine to keep vocs down. So if I add in shop fan will that help lower the vocs? @@ArisAlder
Even though you’re already venting, yes if you add a shop fan while the door is open then it will improve circulation with cleaner outdoor air
So what do you think about the concepts of nevermore filters which push the air through a hepa filter and active carbon pellets. Is this sufficient from your point of view? Furthermore i would like to know if a continous running PC fan which sucks the air out of the chamber/box out to a window with a flexible hose will do the job in combination with a nevermore filter.
I think the Potential risks of 3d printing is underestimated and discussed too less. Especially when kids are using them in school or in their child rooms.
The HEPA filter will be great at capturing the particulates, assuming the filters are legitimate. I believe that one and/or the bento box call for filters sourced off AliExpress.
The amount of activated carbon in those is suitable for say PLA, but other filaments like ABS will be saturated much more quickly.
The amount and type of carbon in these will do very little against resin fumes, especially specific compounds like Formaldehyde.
A standard PC fan (120 mm) is not strong enough to exhaust the air. The static pressure of these are often 5-10% of a centrifugal or inline fan. Some higher wattage and specially designed 120mm fans, like the one in the video, can be used but it would still be susceptible to strong winds. They are also very loud.
Hi do you think a Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra with the Mars Mate Air Purifier is enough to protect me or I need an exhaust.? My setup is in my basement
I can't recommend using filtration for resin setups, especially with normal activated carbon in low amounts. The type of filtration needed for a resin setup to be safe is costly long-term, which makes ventilation the most feasible route for most people most of the time.
If you're in a basement, it should be relatively straightforward to install a small duct hole (even through concrete). It's possible to even get away with a hole as small as 2 inches in diameter.
I've just started a job working with multiple resin printers in an unventilated room, I can open some doors to the outside but that's about it. Will a full face mask with 60927 3m organic vapor cartridges make this safe in the Long term? Can a respirator alone be enough?
Provided that the cartridges are changed regularly, the respirator would provide enough protection to meet safety standards, but relying on the respirator alone is not ideal. Ventilation and minimizing time in the room are effective solutions that should be explored in order to improve long-term safety.
There are also other factors to consider, like what is the outlined cleaning process? Using IPA in a wash & cure will release more fumes than when sealed inside a bag or container in an ultrasonic cleaner tank filled with water. There are also resin detergents; although, I can't speak to their effectiveness.
Thank you for the answer, A mask being sufficient is great news.
There are two large Ultrasonic cleaners filled with IPA, first one is used for 3 minutes then the second for 3 more. They are in a second more ventilated space, I think based on just the fire risk I will have to change the system to bags or jars, surely if this stuff is as flammable as it seems it just can't be safe to stand in front of pool of it?
@@ArisAlder
You are right that there is a risk of fire when it is put directly in the tank. This is because the liquid IPA is becoming vapor that can be ignited with a small spark. I have an ultrasonic cleaner video that should what a fire in one would look like.
If I have a under stair space that I can vent out underneath my house and keep it closed while in operation with a fan+carbon filter, do you still recommend a grow tent or will the small space act as a grow tent naturally?
This space would be fine to act as a grow tent.
I live in an apartment and have my printer in a second room with the internal door shut and a balcony door and window open. Wondering if this is sufficient. I usually only enter the room with a mask with a 3M organic vapour filters.
Also considering putting my printer on the balcony itself but wondering how i can protect it from wind and rain.
Having the balcony door + window open is good to bring in cleaner outdoor air, but the winds can push contaminated air throughout the rest of the apartment. If you were running a print farm then this could work if you sealed off (like an airlock) that entire room (vents + door).
For your situation, the two best options are:
1) Having it on the balcony in a grow tent.
2) Having it indoors in a grow tent and sealing it up against the window like in the video (plus the fan).
The balcony is the safest option as it nearly eliminates the entire indoor air quality issue. Wind can be mitigated by weighing the grow tent down, and rain can be mitigated (one option) by hanging a mesh screen (like for mosquitos). There are probably a few other good ideas floating around for mitigating the rain.
I not not have a printer yet but i want to install in my garage. I live in Houston , very humid. What is best in your experience with PLA, vent during or after the print? Thanks
PLA is comparably safe and is often used indoors with only filtration. However, it is certainly safer in the garage. You wouldn’t need to vent PLA actively unless the space is being used for other purposes (with people).
@@ArisAlder ok many thanks!!
Did you end up getting a printer and puttig it in the garage? I'm in Houston, too, and thinking about moving mine into the garage.
Anyone got any suggestions on how to best vent/filter a P1S? It's in a basement, exterior window available a room over. Haven't seen too many solutions, seems like most folks just deal with the fumes.
What filaments are you printing?
@@ArisAlder right now PETG/PLA, but I'd like to start printing in nylons, ASA, ABS etc
So for PLA/PETG you can use any consumer air cleaner that has MERV 13 or HEPA filters, since particulates are the main concern. Other filament like ABS introduces some nasty gaseous chemicals.
The safest and cheapest thing to do would be to run duct hose to that window - some people drill through the wall in a basement, but that isn't always viable. Filtration of the fumes can be done but it has to be the right type and quantity - it will be more expensive.
@@ArisAlder would attaching the duct hose to the P1S be possible by utilizing the poop chute? with a high enough flow rate through the hose, I'd imagine with some clever design it could still "poop" while extracting
I'm not sure if it is possible - I don't have a Bambu. Something like that would work for PLA, but it could cause warping on the other filaments.
For the filaments that need a heated chamber, the most efficient way to go about it is to place the printer in an enclosure like a grow tent. This allows you to control the airflow while not removing the heat from the chamber.
If you could go more in depth on filtration setups that would be geatly appreciated. I'd like to be able to run both my resin and fdm machines and at the moment ventilation is not an option
My UFP video touches on the particle side of things for FDM and resin, including filtration. It's on my to-do list to do a similar one for VOCs.
Using filtration for FDM is easier than resin, and hopefully within the next month I can do some testing on filtration media for resin then push a video out.
I have my resin and fdm printers in a spare bedroom in the house. the resin printer is in a grow tent and when im printing i have the fan on venting the tent outside. is this safe enough to keep the printer inside if no ones using the spare bedroom? Feels like I should move it to the garage but not sure if im being overcautious at this point
If no one is using the room then it is generally fine.
While it is more convenient to have inside, it’s technically safer in the garage.
This is one of those situations where you the ability to use either - up to you. Two deciding factors could be small children or health conditions (you or family).
It also never hurts to have air cleaners in other parts of the home. Personally, it’s just so nice not having to wakeup with even just the occasional seasonal allergy like pollen. Any consumer air cleaner will capture particles like these. The VOCs are a different story.
I have been using PLA-F which has ABS with my ender 3 in my room without enclosure. But it is right beside an open window is my siblings which is in the next room at risk?
Having the window open introduces cleaner outdoor air, which is good, but it can also push contaminated air into other parts of the house. Printing ABS is something I personally would not do in a bedroom or indoors unless it was being actively vented outdoors (sealed against the window).
@@ArisAlder this means I have endangered my family. Ill make sure to make ventilation.
Thank you for the heads up on ufps, I didn't know this was an issue and will be setting up an enclosure with a filter for my fdm printer and waiting to figure out a better spot for my friends resin printer
Of course! There’s also a dedicated video on the UFPs plus an article.
Thankfully it’s an issue that’s easily solved with any MERV 13 or HEPA filter.
@@ArisAlderhey it’s a wonderful video but do you think I should do this if I just print pla
If you are just printing with PLA then any consumer air cleaner with a HEPA filter is appropriate (or MERV 13 panels on say a box fan).
@@ArisAlder ok thanks so much
How long do these particles take to break down being outdoors? I don't want to expose my neighbours to my pollution
Do they take thousands of years like common microplastics?
The particles, once outside, can take hours to weeks to completely disperse out of the air back into the ground (lots of variables at play). The main concern with the plastic particles (filament will also have other particles like metal oxides) from 3D printing is that the nanoplastics can re-enter the food chain.
An extreme hypothetical example is let's say a large print farm or other source of plastic pollution is near a large chicken farm. A percentage of the plastic particles can settle on the ground where the chickens graze and eat. These nanoplastics will be in the chickens' bodies or eggs then be eaten by us. To really gauge the impact of such a scenario, there would have to be a really focused study (some like this probably exist).
It is ideal for people to filter out the particles leaving a 3D print[er] to prevent nanoplastics from entering the food chain. This topic gains little notoriety since there are larger concerns in society such as brake dust (one interesting example). Brake dust makes up 20-60% of all traffic particle emissions and thus up to ~10% of particle emissions in the US. In the recent years, organizations like NASA and the EPA have identified and pushed for the mitigation of materials that will harm us and wildlife (e.g. antimony, cadmium, copper, lead, and mercury). Brake dust is an interesting one because all of us with a car are a contributor, and there has not been a great solution as of yet.
Hybrid or fully electric cars would help a lot with brake dust 😊@@ArisAlder
First thing I bought when i bought a printer is buy vents and filter
Good to hear that safety was a priority!
Thank you for all your videos! I have a question: I'm using my resin printer in my basement (unfortunately no window but i'm working with a gas-filter-mask). Do the fumes evaporate by time or do they accumulate by time and it's getting worse worse? Because there are our washing machines for laundry, does my girlfriend have to worry going in while nothing is printing/curing?
This is a common concern and it is valid - it's actually both.
Without any ventilation (or proper filtration), the fumes will continue to increase in concentration, but they will not infinitely increase due to factors like natural leakage out of the house.
One way to look at it is sources and sinks.
The sources will be slow off-gassing while it's in the vat, printing, and post-processing - each has a different chemical profile and emission rate.
The sinks (or elimination routes) will be ventilation, filtration, natural leaks in the house, natural degradation of the chemicals, adsorption into clothing etc, or adsorption into our lungs (to name a few).
I would highly recommend looking into drilling a 2 to 4 inch hole through the wall for ventilation. Without a way to exhaust the fumes, they will remain in the basement after printing. Cleaning everything out and putting the resin up after a print can help, but the fumes (and odor) can remain for days to weeks.
Usually, a garage is the best location for most people, but it's also understandable that everyone's situation is different.
@@ArisAlder We rent this apparment so no drilling is possible..... What do you think about air purifier with active charcoal?
Thank you for your feedback!
At this time, I still can't recommend relying on filtration. Even large amounts (2-5 lbs +) of specialized carbon/media will not be as effective as ventilation nor as cheap.
This 3D printing concept just got next-level! Forget pushing plastic through a nozzle, what if we built objects from the inside out, layer by layer, with a two part container?
Imagine a two-part vat that spins while a fancy nozzle sprays a special resin, building the object layer by layer. But here's the twist: a UV light zaps each layer to harden it, and tiny magnets outside the vat can manipulate the resin for even crazier designs!
Think dissolvable layers hidden within the object, or even tiny components placed precisely using magnetic fields. This "Morphing Matrix" could be a game-changer, letting us print objects with hidden compartments or even self-assembling parts! #FuturePrinting #MindBlown
What do you guys think? Could this be the future of 3D printing?
Sounds expensive! :p
@@ArisAlder build objects with a spinning vat build inside out have many uses like layer resins soil ECT build inside out
basically inkjet, already exists, just cant do anything non planar obvs
Amazing video, exactly what I was looking for. I'd been wondering about air quality with indoor 3d printing, especially FDM for a while. I have a rather large CR box next to my printer, so sounds like I'm reasonably safe. I eventually want to get a VOC sensor to see whether I should get a activated charcoal filter, too, but hopefully I won't need it.
The CR box, assuming it is using MERV 11-13 filters will capture most of the ultrafine particles, so you're definitely good there. As for the VOCs, if you are printing mainly PLA/PETG then you'll be okay.
As far as the sensors go, what I generally tell people is that if they had only $100, it would be better to spend it on filtration than the TVOC meters. The meters, at their best, can tell you the comparison between outdoor and indoor air (this requires calibrating every time you use it). The TVOC metric doesn't provide any distinction between chemicals, so it's impossible to know what is actually present. The formaldehyde sensors also trigger on other chemicals like alcohols and esters (e.g. IPA).
A practical example is that with ABS, the TVOC reading can actually stay relatively low, but that small bump is all that is needed to create unhealthy levels of Styrene. Styrene is an assumed carcinogen (based on animal studies), and it is a component of the burnt rubber smell of ABS, ASA, and HIPS.
@@ArisAlder Thanks so much! Really appreciate you taking the time to answer in detail. The CR box uses 20x25x4in MERV 13 filters indeed, the fan might be slightly undersized but I can keep it running all day.
Getting a sensor would be mostly out of curiosity, I wouldn't expect much actionable insights from them - and indeed the only actionable insight would be to get better filters, in which case you rightly point out I might as well get filters from the get go.
Then again, I thought similarly about a CO2 sensor - my apartment has very high ceilings, so a fairly large air volume, and is rather drafty. Yet, to my surprise without lots and lots of ventilation, I would easily sit at >1.3k ppm. I basically went from ventilating once or twice a day to constantly having 1-2 windows ajar.
For CO2, I got a sensirion reference USB one that seems to be very high quality (though I haven't calibrated it) yet was only $55. For TVOC and PM2.5/10, I am a bit more sceptical whether there's anything that's affordable yet reasonably good.
1.3k ppm indoors is definitely on the high end of things - looking into a few plants might be a good idea too, good for the air & ambiance.
As far as CO2 and the VOCs are concerned, that sensor can actually signal when chemicals are being broken down when using carbon or zeolite that is impregnated. From my testing with resin printers, the CO2 level rises about 20% due to the more complex chemicals being broken down.
@@ArisAlder And that was purely from people breathing, no printers running. Nowadays with plenty of ventilation, it's around 800 and if it gets to 1k, I'll open more windows.
Was very surprising to me how much ventilation is needed and I'd never have realised without a sensor, so that's why I'm curious to get a PM/VOC sensor, too.
I couldn't imagine doing resin printing indoors without having at the very least a dedicated room, but ideally a garage or shed. Which is a shame, because resin printing looks super cool.
Also if you want to hear a horrifying anecdote: My local library has a maker space (cool!) with 3 resin printers and a dozen FDM printers (very cool!) running in a 40sqm room with standard commercial ventilation and half a dozen people inside at any given time, none of which wear PPE.
This was an awesome starter! Thank you!
I actually do have a question.
I've always eyed resin printers but haven't delved into it because I life in a colder climate and I live in an apartment without a garage.
I might be able to secretly (I'm sure the landlords won't approve) print in the shared attic from my little compartment as I do have access to a tiny window up there.
I was intrigued by your suggestion of airing out the printer non-continuously after the print has ended.
How bad of an idea is it to put the resin printer in a grow tent in my flat and purge the air after the print has finished?
Thank you for the support!
Do you have a balcony, patio, or private yard space?
Plenty of people use resin printers in an apartment (in a separate room or common area) while venting out a window, and you are right that a colder climate does make this trickier/more expensive. Indoors, the printer needs to be vented continuously. It is while in a garage that you can wait to vent, since this is isolated from indoors. The exception would be if the garage is also being used simultaneously; then it should also be actively vented.
Using the printer in a shared attic space would be a bad idea. This would fall under the same situation as a college dorm, where it could be exposing other people inadvertently.
@@ArisAlder Hi, thanks for the repsonse, that already helps.
yeah I do have a balcony but unfortunately it's pretty open (without a roof).
I live in a two room apartment, so I have a work/office room (where I spend a lot of time) and a bedroom.
I could vent it out from my work room but it's not really ideal if I spend a lot of time in it. I probably have to build some crazy heated shed-enclosure combo on the balcony by the looks of it but that seems dumb because of the UV-exposure outside.
In the attic space I could vent it continuously though.
What's the average outdoor temperature in your area?
If the printer is in a grow tent, a heat band or small ceramic air heater can be under the acrylic lid and make the heating a bit more efficient. Whenever you're done printing, if all the resin is cleaned up the whole thing can even be brought back inside.
Keep in mind that venting while inside would also use extra electricity because cold outdoor air will force its way in due to the negative pressure.
I appreciate the data collection required for this. Thanks
Of course, thanks for the support!
So I have a fdm printer in my office inside of a small grow tent with it being extracted out the window. I have a similar setup in my garage for my resin printer where it has a extraction fan that is pulling air out from the printer through a carbon filter out the garage. Will this be fine? I also have a fan that is pushing air out of the garage as well from the back to make sure nothing comes into the house.
These both sound like perfectly fine setups.
You certainly have the right idea by creating negative pressure in the entire garage, but one thing I'd be worried about using two fans in the garage is that they would be working against each other unless there was sizeable gaps/inlets for the air.
For example, if the garage is very well sealed (minus the two exhausts) and one fan was twice the power of the smaller fan, the more powerful fan could be trying to draw air backwards through the smaller fan. I'm not saying that this will 100% happen because there's variables in play, but it's something to watch for if you decide to use two fans.
@@ArisAlder I meant that I have floor fan in my garage. The printer and tent setup is sitting next to the entrance of my garage and I usually put my garage door up about 50% to make sure I still have good ventilation, probably overboard.
Oh yeah that's perfectly fine then - it will be recirculating with the outdoor air.
@@ArisAlderthanks!
Thank You. I may have missed it in the video though with resin 3D printers what CFM would you recommend? And do you have any suggestions or recommendations for 3D printer enclosures i.e. what I should look for or keep an eye on?
A smaller indoor room can get away with a 100-200 CFM centrifugal or inline fan, and the simplest enclosure will be a grow tent. Custom insulated enclosure can be really nice in terms of efficiency (for trapping heat if not venting), but they also require a bit of upfront work.
Nice video and well explained! 👍
Thank you for the support!
Why vinyl duct and not cheaper material ?
Vinyl is actually one of the cheapest materials that won’t degrade as easily over time.
More expensive options would be like: Fiberglass, silicone-coated materials, aluminum, rubbers, or flexible plastics
A good comparison site is McMaster
@@ArisAlder thank you for your video i was really concern about VOCs
There is actually not much data on HEPA filters being able to capture ultrafine particles
Sources 22-23 are some examples of data 4dfiltration.com/resources/3d/3d-printing-air-quality-roundup
There are actually a few dozen studies that measure UFP capture via MERV or HEPA, and for this article I used what was most relevant to 3D printing.
Excellent no BS video.
Thank you for the support!
good info
I appreciate the feedback, thanks for the support!
Or, if you live in a modern house with balanced ventilation, just leave it alone.
The issue is that it would spread everything around the house as well, exposing loved ones.
@@ArisAlder I said modern. Not first implementation they started with 40 years ago.
Air in and out vents in every room, or at least in rooms you would suggest to use the printer in.
@@1kreature There is no way of preventing someone from partially inhaling some particles while they reach the ventilation system, that’s the reason why a controlled environment such as the ones described in the video is required, even with a house with “modern ventilation” systems.