I am buying the X1C in a few weeks and one of the first things I did was devise my plan for ventilation. I bought a fan for the window to pull the air outside, and will fill the empty space around the fan so no air will come into the room from that window. I am also going to print a hood to put above the X1C with a fan and pipe directing the air toward the window fan, so I catch the fumes if I need to have the top open.
The window fan is the most important, an open window by itself can sometimes make things worse. Wind can blow air in causing the fumes to spread to other parts of the house. If another window is open in the house, this can sometimes cause the air to flow in from one window and out from the other, which could be good or bad depending on direction of the flow. I prefer the fumes take the shortest route out of the house so I donāt breath any of it on its way out.
By having a fan in the window (or wall), you create negative pressure in the room, causing it to suck the air from any other openings into the room, preventing the fumes from escaping through doors.
People shouldnāt wait for warnings to protect themselves from unnatural fumes, the possibility of harm is too high to take a chance. It is better to find out your precautions were not needed, then find out your lack of precautions were damaging. Especially since sometimes precautions once considered useless are later found to be necessary.
My DIY window exhaust system :). Even though the printers are in their own room, If I print any materials other than PLA, I am more at easy to have the fans on pulling the air out. Itās a reversible window fan (not expensive). Anyone who has installed window AC before would know how to install. The fans are covered when not in use. The cover is a foam from Home Depot that was cut to size and put inside a plastic bag to prevent outside moisture from soaking it. The fastener are some big strong rubber bands (I had to split it in half lengthwise to make it less strong), also from Home Depot, that are anchored to some nails on the top and bottom of that window frame. The cover seals well. I donāt feel any draft from it. If there are foot traffics near the window, or small chilfren around, it would be wise to wrap them up in some protective stuff so they donāt snare and cut and cause injury.
My window Is a smaller basement window that can fit a single fan. In addition to filling the empty space with foam encased in a 3D printed part, I am going to make a cover like you did for the fan opening when it is not on. I plan to print the cover with foam inside that has some rubber weather stripping so I can push it against the fan and have the rubber seal prevent air from leaking.
Have you considered 3D printing some parts to cover the foam?
I havenāt printed anything for this DIY project. It was a quick and fast solution when I did it last winter to vent while stopping the cold from getting inside. The combination of the foam and rubber bands push and mould the foam onto the fan for a very good seal.
I print mostly PLA. So occasionaly taking off 3 rubber bands and putting them back on is not a big deal. The room is used by the printers only. I have no plan to work on this further at the moment.
It is easy to print and install. I used it in addition to a Bento Box inside the chamber. I printed about 800 hours in the X1C this way. At least 700 hours was polymaker ASA.
I sold my X1C recently, and I have the X1E coming in a few weeks and it is supposed to have built in filtration. Guess what, Iām installing my 4" vent adapter and going to vent it outside anyways.
If anyone is telling you not to worry about melting plastic and itās safeāI will tell you it only takes a little bit of effort to vent to outside through a window or something else for that peace of mind. It does not affect print quality to vent outside. Just do it.
Not sure this is fully accurate. Can you point me to a MSDS that suggests PA is carcinogenic? Not calling it outright wrong, just that I havenāt seen that. In Bambuās MSDS for PAHT (PA 12), it states it has a very low probability (less than .1%) of being flagged as carcinogenic.
That said, burning plastic canāt be good for anyone, so people should treat it appropriately.
Hey, I just got Bambu Labs Carbon x1 to print prototypes of my ventilation product. I have kept mine in the garage but what do you think about this product to ventilate vs the rig you have setup? - Check out getvyana website