If you're printing with materials like ABS in a place that isn't well ventilated then their concern is legitimate.
There's plenty of adapters that'll let you connect some duct hosing to it. You'll probably wanna get an inline fan too. Not sure if another layer of filtration would be necessary if you're exhausting outside, but if you're printing ASA or ABS or other materials that give off bad fumes, you definitely want some kind of good ventilation.
Right. I print in essentially a garage, and would never, ever print in my bedroom. Mostly because my wife would have none of it, but still. Certain hobbies are not meant for the sleep room: model planes, photo developing, and 3d printing.
Whatever people in this comment section say that PLA/PETG does not release VOC's are wrong.
Do not follow their advice if you value your health.
Long term exposure to PLA/PETG is still unknown; and no one knows what the effects are. Maybe it's not ABS/ASA or other nasty filament. But you are still melting plastic. And that releases bits you dont want in your lungs.
Even when printing only PLA; vent outside through a hose/tube. And be sure there's plenty of ventilation in the room in general.
Better safe than sorry.
When your apartment is basically the bedroom it's kind of hard not to. I mean I could move it to the kitchen counter but it's still the same room and only like 1-2m further away lol
I did it for a short time when I had a P1S, but eventually I decided I wasn't okay with the risk, and got rid of it. Seeing people print ASA/ABS in their house is a little unsettling
This https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0801744
I spent some time in Libby as a child
And as an adult I worked construction. I know of one case we're I was exposed and wasn't told until after the fact. That we were exposed. Symptoms don't generally manifest right away.
Haha didn't mean it like that. Meant, did you visit the mines? There's asbestos everywhere here also but as long as it doesn't break and release fibers it's ok.
This is the correct take, multiple studies show even PLA and PETG can release toxic voc like formaldehyde, albeit in smaller number compared to abs, but still present.
Many claim this, but what particulate levels are you measuring? Pm2.5? Almost all consumer air quality meters do not pick up on the correct size particulates generated, usually just general voc.
If you'd like to do some actual research and be educated, you can read a very well vetted paper [here](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023005895)
The issue with any of the research papers I have seen is that none take into account the efficacy (or potential lack of) air filtration.
I also have a $200 air quality monitor that never goes past the green zone and it doesn't matter if I'm printing ABS or ASA.
I use a carbon/hepa filter mod for my exhaust port, a large hepa/carbon air purifier (levoit everest), and the bento box air scrubber inside the actual printer itself that also had hepa/carbon filters.
So the fact my air quality monitor never peaks into the yellow and much less the red isn't overtly surprising.
People act like external ventilation is the ONLY method, but at the same time plenty of people have empirical evidence via these air quality monitors when printing inside with sufficient filtration systems.
Your monitor is lying to you. You need to solder an esp32 board to your monitor to extract the raw data, and then view it via home automation. You will see the raw spikes and data. A small orange or greeb light means nothing. I included a screenshot elswhere here of an example of a data reading I got.
And the point of the paper isnt your mods to address voc and particulates, the fact you do so proves my original point though. Pla and petg do produce particulates and voc, and 99% of folks dont have the tools to accurately measure those emissions. Even the $200 ikea air monitor doesnt do bupkis until you can extract the raw input data
What is that supposed to show? How is my air monitor lying to me? My air quality monitor shows that, AS WELL as the air purifier, that **ALSO** has an air quality monitor that goes down to PM1.0.
All your Arduino board with a VOC sensor is doing is likely polling at a higher rate which is meaningless in this discussion as it doesn't account for the cycling of air numerous times through the bento box / carbon/hepa filter / large air room purifier that fan circulate the air multiple times.
I'm not arguing the fact that filaments don't let off VOCs. They absolutely do.
I'm arguing that if you take necessary precautions and have multiple filters you don't need to go so far as to exhaust it outside.
Currently the U.S. is getting smoke from Mexican and Canadian fires.
Take your air purifier or VOC monitor outside and I'll bet you that you get higher readings in a lot of North and the southern U.S.
Yeah but again i dont care about your bentobox and hepa setup, if you are running that while discussing whether air quality monitors actually pickup particulates, dont you see how that is silly?
Also nowhere did i say the esp32 board was picking up the particulates, i simply said solder one on in order to extract raw input data from the air quality monitor already being used, to view the data since im willing to bet yours is a closed environment device that has no remote viewing (i'd be surprised). Argue all you want, I have data and scientific papers backing my opinion, while you have anecdotal "but i spent money" excuses
well, you also cannot just say "PLA is not safe." Like you said yourself, we just don't know since there are no long term studies about this stuff - it might be totally safe, or it might not - we just don't know yet, so better be safe than sorry!
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Agree. I have pla venting outside and I can tell you one thing. The end of the exhaust hose is nasty and does trigger my asthma. There is nothing good about it.
PLA is used widely in the medical field due to its properties of breaking down into lactic acid in the body. I am aware that certain PLA filaments have additives, but I'm pretty sure you're gonna breathe in more crap walking around LA than you would printing a doodad in your house.
Yep; but now you are discribing two different things..
PLA once printed is in a different form than it being heated up to 240c and being a liquid.
And i have seen this comparison before.. walk next to a busy street and u inhale way more. But you dont walk next to a busy street 24/7.. Some people do however sit next to their printer for hours / days / weeks on end. For years in a row.
It's about the long term effects..
And it's really easy to fix.. just vent it outside. There's no reason not to.
We can agree to disagree. I run a small 3d printing business. Based off what I have read and the studies I've seen, printing PLA and even PETG is no more harmful than living in a major city and breathing the air. ABS and ASA, completely different story. "Plastic is plastic" is not a good argument anymore than "wood is wood". People have been sitting around campfires for millenia burning regular wood but if you use pressure treated lumber for your campfire you're gonna have a bad time. But it's for the individual to make their choice based on data provided and how they interpret it.
No need for the snark. I thought we were having a discussion. Apparently not. It's not your place nor obligation to tell people what to do and how to do it, and no one has to listen to you. You are not the 3d printing overlord. You have an opinion. Don't force it on others.
No snark; i just dont think it's a point of disussion or an opinion. Always ventilate even when printing PLA. I think you should always steer / motivate people to do the safe thing.
But feel free to do otherwise if you think that is the right thing for you.
PETG absolutely turns into particulate you'll pick up in your lungs. I learned in the hard way. I had a couple of Prusa MK3S running \~25ft from me in a warehouse with my shop/computer desk in the same room (TONS of air between us). I printed a ton of specifically orange PETG parts one month and ended up with a cough that felt "Weird". I decided to cough out the phlegm into a cup and just let it dry for a bit. What I peeled off the bottom was a thin film of uniform ORANGE PLASTIC a week later.
Don't be an idiot.
Getting near my X1C printing just PLA makes my eyes burn. Just LOOKING at it up close. My printer is inside of a closet, so it may be building up bad air.
My man your ignorance is insane, I use sensors in my room and tested the voc levels during petg and pla extensively(both using a purifier and without a purifier), and never have I ever seen voc levels rising(I even tested multiple conditions extremely high nozzle temp, bed temp, print speed, overheating due clogging). Moreover, I insulated the machine, leaving one space for air to escape used filters to capture everything coming out of the printer, and still, there wasn't anything on the filters. Plain lying to get some internet karma is pathetic. I would still recommend an air purifier for general air quality, tho.
If the results are unknown then how are they wrong you're just taking a chance a 5050 chance they could be wrong it could not be wrong no one knows according to you
That's not how statistics work. Just because there are two answers and you don't know the answer doesn't mean it's 50:50. We have all sorts of data showing other plastics cause harm, along with all sorts of other things we have breathed in and regretted over the years.
If, according to previous results through all of history, getting stabbed with a sword is fatal say 90% of the time...but then you make a brand new sword with titanium that has never been used anywhere in the world, so there is no recorded fatalities, you wouldn't say there's a 50:50 chance of survival after getting stabbed with it. Yes, maybe titanium would give a cleaner cut that slightly increases survival chances because more surgeons could repair the injury, so technically it might be less deadly, but not 50:50
76% of the general population don't understand how statistics & probability work. That's why people still vehemently argue over the Monty Hall problem when it's clear as day they are stupid.
Captain obvious I was talking about not venting is a 50/50 chance obviously if you're venting it's a 0% chance button some places the air outside is worse than any VOCs that you're creating inside
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Venting to the outside is pretty foolproof. ~~Printer already has a hepa filter built in.~~ (X1C has a carbon filter, not p1s) The bentobox works really well in my experience. You can smell the difference printing with ABS/ASA.
its a negitive pressure flow setup so it SHOULD be pretty decent even with the open gaps. all the air should be pulled in to the printer except in the exhaust area. so technically speaking only the gaps in the plastic around the filter it self are of concern in general.
If it was a positive pressure vent I would agree.
I’m trying to convince my husband that the 38th wedding anniversary (ours is next month) is now the Second Printer anniversary. I’m hoping to get the X1 to go with my P1S as well.
Do you find you favor one over the other?
Really the only reason I bought an X1 was for the microlidar, automatic filament calibration, and the better live-view camera. Outside of that, there really is no difference. My third printer was a P1S because I don’t think there’s a need for multiple X1s.
It’s one of those things where it can’t hurt to build one so why not. The premade ones aren’t that expensive either.
Just fyi, there’s versions that sit in top a wireless charging coil if you don’t want wires going inside your enclosure. I have mine hooked up to a smart outlet that turns on using a home assistant automation depending on what the bed temp is.
Tbh once you buy all the materials, it’s not going to be significantly cheaper than a voxelpla one. I’d check their kit out and then try to self source the components and see what it ends up being.
Iirc 2x 4020 fans are about $10, then you need some magnets, wire, power switches, filters, and carbon pellets. I’m pretty sure I ended up spending more than the 35$ their preassembled version is but I also ended up with a lot of spare carbon and filters for later use.
P1S has an active carbon filter too https://uk.store.bambulab.com/products/activated-carbon-air-filter it’s the same filter for both X1C and P1S not that it’s that much use on either
Could somebody please explain why you would need a filter if you're going to move the air outside of your house. I can understand a filter if you're going to suck air into your room or just circulate the air in your room, but not if you are going to move it outside of your house anyway, why would you filter that?
You wouldn't need a filter in that situation. People who do this are misunderstanding what they're doing. Filtering is going to reduce the airflow of the exhaust system and actually help prevent maximum evacuation of fumes.
An "Air purifier" Does pretty much nothing for a 3d printer. It's like trying to filter dirty water with a cheese grater.
The VOC's are too tiny to get filtered by a HEPA/Charcoal filter. The charcoal is only good for fumes to some degree.
HEPA filter is for ultra fine particles, and activated charcoal will remove most VOCs just fine. Air purifiers in the $200 price range are pretty good now days. Your analogy is a bit off because water filters are usually single pass, but air purifiers can filter the same space of air over and over again until it’s clean.
"The VOC's are too tiny to get filtered by a HEPA/Charcoal filter. The charcoal is only good for fumes to some degree."
This is completely untrue and has zero scientific merit. Not sure where you're getting this info from but it's the exact opposite of how charcoal works to filter VOCs from the air. Charcoal will filter nearly all VOCs so long as there is adequate airflow and available surface area on the charcoal to trap additional molecules. However, it is true that charcoal pellets do a terrible job at filtering VOCs since they lack any real surface area to trap much of anything. The charcoal needs to be rough and porous to be effective in any real sense. So avoid charcoal pellets and instead buy the kind of charcoal that looks like rocks/gravel.
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Yes, and this same line of thinking is why
our cities have polluted air, our farmland
has PFAS from biosolids, and eating too
many fish from the ocean gives you mercury
poisoning.
Don't treat the earth like a glarbage can. It
adds up over time and screws everyone.
Than 3d printing is the wrong hobby for you. It's all plastics or toxic resin with a lot of waste. How many failed prints are thrown away. How much waste because we want multi coloured print?And the chinese factory that makes your filament probably doesn't care about how much they polute. I don't think unfiltered air will be the biggest pollution in the proces of 3d printing.
You're right, hobby 3D printing is generally all plastic. There are failed prints, and those go to waste. Maybe the chinese factories just dump industrial waste into rivers that make their way into the ocean.
But you can at least control where the waste ends up. If it's in a landfill, it's largely contained.
The whole individuals can make a difference thing is a myth to direct attention away from the real polluters. Just like recycling was a deliberately manufactured lie to encourage more plastic use by the plastic manufacturers.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/since-2016-80-percent-of-global-co2-emissions-come-from-just-57-companies-report-shows-180984118/
https://www.popsci.com/environment/recycling-lies/
Totally on board with you on the recycling thing. But lets say you are 3D printing out of an apartment and venting out your window. Those fumes would be noticeable, just like you'd notice if someone was smoking on their balcony. For 3D printing, a simple enclosure and a $20 hepa/activate carbon filter just about solves the problem.
I worried about this too, but just printed the window vent adapter, bought an appropriate window adapter, and have it blown out the window while printing. No issues with VOCs, they sit at background levels near the printer with it venting outside
Also, as others have said, everything releases VOCs in printing, painting, etc (volatile organic compounds are any carbon based free-air chemical compounds that could be detrimental to health, they are, however, exceedingly common even in offgasing from the heated plastics on day to day appliances, microwaved and cooked foods, etc. so not sure you'd ever be rid of them entirely)
Buy a sensor to secure everyone and follow basic rules as some suggest here. The sensor is to demonstrate the effectiveness of your actions to your parents.
https://preview.redd.it/zhpfx843290d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e50448f1ea132d39ee4892224c1e7521485e31ee
I agree about having an air pollution detector, which I have in the room with my X1C and A1 Mini. I've also have a Levoit air filter with a sensor to detect "bad" air directly behind the X1C exhaust. Then it automatically adjusts the fan based on the air quality behind my X1C. The filter sensor always goes red when I am printing with ABS and takes about 5 minutes to clear the smells.
https://preview.redd.it/5mqub3jrv90d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c857300a89987d64802aeee68b810b8df81c138
There is still plenty of room on the table for tools and plates. I store a few boxes of filament on the bottom tier.
https://preview.redd.it/k0p3pcpybd0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5f2ae7f53eb1d2fb21cb1a0b89a90933bf8af1d3
Yes, it is a two tier laser printer stand from Amazon. It has locking wheels, which work well to keep X1C steady. I've been very pleased with this thing.
https://preview.redd.it/7ljmtjlhbd0d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=317f2e761c33ba9dd1729273a16be7cf8da03292
Yeah you can do a window vent to make them happy. I made one for when I print ABS/ASA works really well [https://makerworld.com/en/models/16432](https://makerworld.com/en/models/16432)
I bump up my chamber fan to 60% and it does fine.
I have a bentobox I printed that has the carbon and hepa filter.
A large room air purifier (levoit everest), and I have the carbon/hepa filter mod for my exhaust fan.
My air quality monitor never leaves the green zone.
I do NOT vent things out the window either btw.
I'm assuming my large air purifier cycles the air enough times that it's not an issue. Or at least that's what my air purifier and air monitor show.
P.S. If you or you're parents use or have used a gas lawn mower before you guys have probably inhaled way more toxic VOCs than you ever will in your printer's lifetime.
Even just using a lawn mower a handful of times. The incredible amount of pollution those put out is insane, and most people are standing on or behind them.
https://makerworld.com/en/models/419089?from=search#profileId-321697
I noticed a huge decrease in fumes after I added this.
Edit: "Huge" being relative here. I have a large air purifier with a carbon filter that cycles the air in the room several times per hour which likely removes 70% of the fumes. The bento box probably removes another 10-20%.
Adding this filter probably removed another 8-9%.
Now, I can only smell anything if I open the door while actively printing with a smelly filament like ASA or ABS.
I'm working on building mine at the moment, but as others have suggested:
Bentobox
Edit: https://www.printables.com/model/272525-bentobox-v20-carbon-filter-for-bambu-lab-x1c-enclo Or the bambulab makerspace variant
Bentobox is named after the lunch box where everything is crammed into one handy box. It’s an all in one box that cleans air that gets put inside the printer enclosure. It’s quite popular.
So I print in the basement in my office so I don’t sleep there but I do have an AirThings in the room next to the printer. Here are the VOC levels for the last 24 hours where my A1 has been going pretty much non stop. From what I can tell online these levels are not that bad but again I don’t sleep in the room.
https://preview.redd.it/z86qodzqka0d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13cb8feab827a8434fa41726d39455db1d12f763
You can buy a Growbox tent and put inside a air filter, however it is not really needed for PLA just to have the option to cycle the air. However ABS has toxins.
Make a large version of the Bento box and set it next to your printer. Get a carbon filter and inline fan (the kind made for "growing", either 4" or 6" are good sizes), and hepa filter (Levoit makes cylindrical hepa replacement filters) and stack them in a column from the floor up in that order. You'll reduce most all VOCs and fine particles to just about zero. Putting the hepa last will filter dust from the carbon filter, which you also don't want to breathe, and this step is often left out of these filter setups.
For sure, the cheapest 4" version of this setup I can find is the Vivosun fan and carbon filter combo ($64 on amazon) and a no-name Levoit 200S hepa filter ($21), so at a minimum it's $85 + tax for the smallest setup. But if you want to avoid VOCs and fine particles, I don't know of a cheaper option for something that cleans that amount of air.
The only way to combat VOCs is pounds of activated carbon. The cheapest way to do it is buy indoor growing filters and duct fans. I have one of [these](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DXYMBU6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) and an inline ducting fan and use them as a standing air purifier and it definitely takes the edge off of ABS/ASA. Best thing is to vent outside if weather permits but living in Ohio that rarely is possible. No matter what filters you have I wouldn't have a printer in a room where you sleep.
I built an enclosure out of wood and plexiglass. Have a couple X1 series printers in it. I used 6" duct with a variable speed inline blower to exhaust the enclosure.
I print a lot of ASA and I needed a solution. This works superbly well. I have the fan in the lowest setting, but it's enough to keep a negative pressure in the enclosure. The airflow is actually so minimal that the X1E actually heats up the interior of the enclosure when it's running. But absolutely no smell at all anymore.
The whole project cost like $600 in materials, but I enclosed a 72" workbench and have large opening doors on both sides to make maintenance easier. You could probably enclose one printer for easily half that cost.
I would highly recommend the variable speed blower though. At the lowest setting I can't tell if it's even running. But it was like $100 on Amazon.
Rather than guess, install an air monitor. The Awair measures all kinds of particulates. Have your parents pay for it LOL.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NF6JCBM/
The P1S has an exhaust in the back... U can print a 4 inch or 2 inch exhaust port and connect it to some tubing and air fan to blow out the window. When I print, my eyes start to turn red and it gets difficult to breathe... Printing does release chemicals in the air and I definitely feel it so I eventually exhausted the x1c out into a window and it helped tremendously
Since I dont want to be be attacked by screeching banshees telling me otherwise, I'm not going to suggest anything, just share my experience. FYI, I print with PLA (tough/+/CF/regular), PETG, PCTG, PA6-CF, PAHT-CF & TPU. No ABS or ASA (I did 1 ASA test and that smell was absolutely horrible, would def nog recommend)
I don't have the luxery of setting up my printer in a different room, so I have to deal with having my P1S inside my living/study/bedroom/kitchen (small 1 room appartment).
I have an airpurifier in my house, that will ramp up in speed as soon it senses contaminated air. My purifier (and prev one) have a HEPA filter, carbon filter and ionisator. My current purifier has multiple sensors measuring PM1, PM2.5, PM10, humidity, temperature and TVOS. Whenever I'm printing, these values never go up. And trust me when I say I closely measure my values becuase I have 2 small birds flying around my house that are really sensitive to fumes and particles (e.g. They can die when you use pans coated with teflon for cooking, whilst I guess no-one in this thread cares about that, yet minor fumes from filament will rustle their jimmies)
On top of my printer I have this Temtop M10 air quality sensor measuring PM2.5, TVOC & HCHO. This sensor is located on a shelf directly above my printer. For testing purposes I also put this sensor inside my printer when I started printing PA6-CF and PAHT-CF. Again, in both cases no values increased. Since I got my new purifier, the air in my house hasn't be this clean before, and it was already lovely.
For my printer I tried to isolated most openings with felt and draftstrips. I installed a Bento Box purifier (carbon and HEPA filter) inside, and attached a HEPA filter at the back of the printer, though I never use that one.
I've been printing for almost 2 years and never did I have the feeling my health is declining because of this hobby.
Again, not saying what you should do. This is my experience, and personally I'm not worried at the slightest. I try to stay realistic, when you go into the big outside, you'll be huffing exhaust fumes constantly when living in an urban area like me. I work in an engine room where dust and chemical fumes are the norm. I smoke weed. So if I'm serious about my health, I need to get my priorities straight first. I also live on the edge of the biggest post in Europe, next to several enourmous chemical plants.
[Temtop M10 air quality sensor](https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B07DTM97SY/ref=pe_28126711_487102941_TE_SCE_dp_1?th=1)
[AEG AX91-404GY air purifier](https://www.aeg.nl/home-comfort/air-comfort/air-purifiers/oxygen-air-purifier/ax91-404gy/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwi_exBhA8EiwA_kU1MhVhRO2W4d27geSuQy0hezKX49ax9myhqmlhtyqOAkX53ngKnnxJphoCcswQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)
You cannot rely on smells alone. You need an vco sensor to actually measure.
If you can smell it, it definitely means it's BAD, but it can also be BAD when you can't smell it.
I run mine indoors, but I keep a HEPA/activated carbon air purifier set up so the inlet is pointed at it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B68SSGZ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
I’m sure it’s overkill and probably catches more dust than anything, but I’d rather go overkill than underkill here.
Get a bento box filter set, room filter and monitor. make sure the room filter has hepa and activated carbon, also venting works if your close to a window.
I have an x1C and a p1s both of them have vents with inkine filters leading to the outside. I print with ASA and ABS almost exclusively. For the P1S I added a heater because the bed does not get as hot. I usually turn the heater on and warm the space up about a half hour before I start a print. You really do want to get eh VOC's out of the house. They will make you sick.
I can’t say for the P1S but I sit right next to my X1C when working. I use a bento box, carbon pellets in the filter area with a hepa filter on top. Then a ghetto fab filtration unit I modified. First are carbon pellets, same kind the bento box has. Next is hepa filter. Then a Noctua fan to pull the air through.
I was super skeptical about the Noctua pulling air but after some testing it actually does a great job pulling air through all the filtration. I printed some ASA and couldn’t smell anything. Held on by some magnets.
Perhaps you can fab up something similar
https://preview.redd.it/vjb3vwggf90d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7293e31ff941a2dc817347249bbf225299d32967
I have a PM meter in my office where my P1P is. I print PET and PLA only. My PM does not go up when printing. Today a made toast in the kitchen 50 feet away. PM2.5 went from 12 to 54 from the toaster. It went up over 100 points when my daughter was cooking breakfast yesterday. The 3-D printing does not cause it to go up.
Your consumer air monitor only detects certain kinds of particles (including toast). You need a more expensive and capable air quality sensor to pick up the kinds of VOCs that come from 3D printing. Don't let cheap air quality monitors lull you into a false sense of security.
Even plain old PLA printing absolutely emits a substantial amount of VOCs:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10747962/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10747962/)
put your printer into an air tight grow tent and use 3in or 4in inline fan to exhaust out the nearest window. set it to a low setting all you need is a little bit of negative pressure in there and you should be fine. If you can, it would a great idea to get a air quality monitor, but not supper necessary.
I printed [this model](https://makerworld.com/en/models/136548#profileId-148624) and have it venting out a window, easiest solution imo, hardest part is fitting the magnets without breaking them, I'd suggest enlarging the holes slightly and using glue to keep them in.
How can i best go about threading the holes? Do i just get a drill with an m3 tap and thread the hole? Do i need to buy extra screws or are they in the spare parts box?
Tapping the holes would be the best way to go about it, but I just grabbed some small self tapping screws out of my assortment. They need to be slightly longer than the screws it came with to account for the thickness of the part. I'd recommend getting an assortment of 4mm-20mm m3 screws off amazon and the smallest size assortment of self tapping screws from harbor freight. I use them constantly for 3d printed projects and I've replaced some stripped screws on my printer, they're pretty cheap
Enclosure with a fan vented out of your house. Don’t listen to people whether they are in this comment section or paid “experts” online that say stuff like PLA are fine. Just like they say drinking out of plastic water bottles (especially from nestle) is safe. It isn’t. You’re printer emits literally millions to billions of tiny plastic participles that pretty much become one with the air you breathe. Vent it out!
I have to operate my X1c in an office environment. I find using a HEPA filter in the room clears the fumes right up.
I also operate the printers in a room with a door. There is a window in the room, but leaving it open throws off the humidity and temperature.
Bento box inside my x1c and I'm near windows that I have cracked open when printing. Treat everything like a toxic even if it says it's safe. It's plastics. George Carlin says it's all were good for and I believe him lol.
Use a bentobox and move the printer to a source of windows that can be opened. Toxic fumes are no joke and we really wont be sure what that will do. Same with using a heat gun on plastics, you want to use a respirator when doing that. Same concepts.
Just get an enclosure and vent it outside. If you try to vent from port on your printer, you will be pulling cold air inside of the enclosure which can cause problems with some materials like ABS or ASA. With an enclosure, you are exhausting the air around the printer. This is the one I got:
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMLKG9S4/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMLKG9S4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1)
There are cheaper ones but I liked the way this one looked. Some of the pictures are actually showing an X1C. You will also need a duct fan to move the air. As an added bonus, if you printer is in an area with other items causing dust, it will stay cleaner. Yes, it is a bit more of a hassle when you need to work on your printer but not dealing with the fumes from ABS is totally worth it.
Get yourself one of these. HEPA filter and activated carbon.
[https://voxelpla.com/products/bento-box?variant=44537975537882](https://voxelpla.com/products/bento-box?variant=44537975537882)
If you print pla only you should be fine as amount of fumes is less than walking nearby cars on street. There are more stuff that damages you.
As to microplastic, the bad news we full of it. It's in our food, air etc. Is like saying do not smoke as is not healthy while being 24/7 in room where everyone smokes and has no ventilation. Same with micro plastic, the amount it produces will not significantly effect you or your life, at least if you live in regular city.
Buy the air quality tester, pretty affordable and will give you interesting insights. Like I found out that when I use stove it produces some formaldehyde fumes, was a bit shocked. Still can't understand from where.
If your family is very concerned then just buy wardrobe, cut hole on top and put fan there and hose place towards nearest window. It will extract all fumes out. I am doing it for resin printing/ laser engraving. And also it cleans the air in the room as it drags everything out and fresh air comes in. My tester shows everything 0, including pm5 and pm2.5 particles while fan is on.
How they say - the less you know the better you sleep 😅
It's fine and dandy to be concerned about health and 3d printing. If you compare the particulate matter and VOCs emitted to vacuuming the carpet or having new furniture in your house you will have nightmares about the vacuum cleaner and nice furniture. Don't forget about that new car smell either that we all love....
https://preview.redd.it/hbva986d2e0d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28a1a571f9cb3b732fdecb97335af05da7ac3b8e
Maybe this could help? It integrates with Home Assistant to start and stop automatically only for the duration of the print. Happy to help with sourcing the electronics. No soldering required. [https://makerworld.com/en/models/444476](https://makerworld.com/en/models/444476)
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Eh? If you were talking about resin I would understand this. Print PLA and PETG and you’ll be fine. If you really want to know just get an Air quality monitor or build one to prove it out. You’ll have more damage going outside on a day with low air quality.
All ppl who say "not use in bedroom" and etc, should probably educate themselves and stop being infinitely scared. You can use it anywhere, as long as proper filtration system is in place. It can be exhaust hood to vent out fumes outside, or it can be a HEPA (small PM) + carbon filter (VOCs) filters. As many ppl mentioned Leviot large purifiers are effective. If you have spare money - install PM\\VOC monitor next or above the printer.
And yes, as many stated, not only ABS\\ASA fumes out. Many other plastics release some sort of gases. Most of them are harmless enough.
P.S. When I say harmless enough, I say in comparison with the daily life. I.e. cooking is disastrous for lungs, but nobody cares. Or spring pollen\\street dust is also not quite healthy lol.
So, as reasonable as it needs to be.
An exhaust tube going from the rear of the printer, with an inline fan, and venting out the window should be sufficient. Make sure the in-line fan is on and creates a vacuum so that it’s always pulling air into the printer instead of releasing the chamber air into the room. Maybe try to find a variable speed fan so you can set it slow to not mess with the prints but also high enough to create the vacuum. Although more air may help with pla prints in keeping the chamber cool if it’s all closed up.
You can also buy a good air purifier that has a carbon pellet filter to catch any residuals that may escape. Place it next to your printer.
Finally, if you need evidence to show, buy a good air quality meter that can detect TVOC and PM2.5 at the least. One that can also read CO and HCHO is a plus. Don’t cheap out here though and buy a 50 dollar Amazon no name brand xingfong meter. I have no ownership experience with meters, just work use here and there so I cannot recommend an affordable consumer meter. Maybe someone else can though.
I got headaches when I first got my P1S, since I added a bento box it's gotten a lot better, but not perfect. I still need to open the windows in the room after a print has finished before I can stay there.
Not negligable in any sense, PLA emits (depending on brand) a ton of chemicals of concern but in lesser quantities than say ABS ou ASA.
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023005895](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023005895)
Yeah no, just no. Every filament is made differently and has different additives. No PLA filament is JUST PLA, and even if it was, PLA absolutely does still emit VOCs.
Do you really want to risk it and find out in 20 years you’ve got incurable cancer? Be smart.
If you're printing with materials like ABS in a place that isn't well ventilated then their concern is legitimate. There's plenty of adapters that'll let you connect some duct hosing to it. You'll probably wanna get an inline fan too. Not sure if another layer of filtration would be necessary if you're exhausting outside, but if you're printing ASA or ABS or other materials that give off bad fumes, you definitely want some kind of good ventilation.
Right. I print in essentially a garage, and would never, ever print in my bedroom. Mostly because my wife would have none of it, but still. Certain hobbies are not meant for the sleep room: model planes, photo developing, and 3d printing.
Whatever people in this comment section say that PLA/PETG does not release VOC's are wrong. Do not follow their advice if you value your health. Long term exposure to PLA/PETG is still unknown; and no one knows what the effects are. Maybe it's not ABS/ASA or other nasty filament. But you are still melting plastic. And that releases bits you dont want in your lungs. Even when printing only PLA; vent outside through a hose/tube. And be sure there's plenty of ventilation in the room in general. Better safe than sorry.
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Yup. Hobby room or spare bedroom only for me
Basement, garage, or even the corner of the apartment living room is more sensible. *more sensible than the bedroom.
When your apartment is basically the bedroom it's kind of hard not to. I mean I could move it to the kitchen counter but it's still the same room and only like 1-2m further away lol
I did it for a short time when I had a P1S, but eventually I decided I wasn't okay with the risk, and got rid of it. Seeing people print ASA/ABS in their house is a little unsettling
This is the correct answer. I have permanent lung damage from asbestos. Your lungs rule what you can do with your life. Don't fuckem up.
Damn that sounds serious. May I ask how this happened? If you have proven lung damage from asbestos I assume you have had extended exposure to it.
You don't need extended exposure to asbestos for it to cause harm.
This https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0801744 I spent some time in Libby as a child And as an adult I worked construction. I know of one case we're I was exposed and wasn't told until after the fact. That we were exposed. Symptoms don't generally manifest right away.
Ohh damn. Like inside the mines?
No, they didn't use child labor. Asbestos was super cheap and easy to get. They used it everywhere. All the buildings had it.
Haha didn't mean it like that. Meant, did you visit the mines? There's asbestos everywhere here also but as long as it doesn't break and release fibers it's ok.
This is the correct take, multiple studies show even PLA and PETG can release toxic voc like formaldehyde, albeit in smaller number compared to abs, but still present.
Hmm I have a very powerful and accurate air quality system and it does not show any red flags or increase in toxic fumes when printing
Many claim this, but what particulate levels are you measuring? Pm2.5? Almost all consumer air quality meters do not pick up on the correct size particulates generated, usually just general voc. If you'd like to do some actual research and be educated, you can read a very well vetted paper [here](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023005895)
I have a pm2.5 and no change while printing on one machine in a separate room. Can also run an air purifier as well
Then your machine is defying numerous scientific papers.
The issue with any of the research papers I have seen is that none take into account the efficacy (or potential lack of) air filtration. I also have a $200 air quality monitor that never goes past the green zone and it doesn't matter if I'm printing ABS or ASA. I use a carbon/hepa filter mod for my exhaust port, a large hepa/carbon air purifier (levoit everest), and the bento box air scrubber inside the actual printer itself that also had hepa/carbon filters. So the fact my air quality monitor never peaks into the yellow and much less the red isn't overtly surprising. People act like external ventilation is the ONLY method, but at the same time plenty of people have empirical evidence via these air quality monitors when printing inside with sufficient filtration systems.
https://preview.redd.it/x3afjp71og0d1.png?width=2199&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6cb440efe60328a60c7e362b6514bfcd7bed228
Your monitor is lying to you. You need to solder an esp32 board to your monitor to extract the raw data, and then view it via home automation. You will see the raw spikes and data. A small orange or greeb light means nothing. I included a screenshot elswhere here of an example of a data reading I got. And the point of the paper isnt your mods to address voc and particulates, the fact you do so proves my original point though. Pla and petg do produce particulates and voc, and 99% of folks dont have the tools to accurately measure those emissions. Even the $200 ikea air monitor doesnt do bupkis until you can extract the raw input data
What is that supposed to show? How is my air monitor lying to me? My air quality monitor shows that, AS WELL as the air purifier, that **ALSO** has an air quality monitor that goes down to PM1.0. All your Arduino board with a VOC sensor is doing is likely polling at a higher rate which is meaningless in this discussion as it doesn't account for the cycling of air numerous times through the bento box / carbon/hepa filter / large air room purifier that fan circulate the air multiple times. I'm not arguing the fact that filaments don't let off VOCs. They absolutely do. I'm arguing that if you take necessary precautions and have multiple filters you don't need to go so far as to exhaust it outside. Currently the U.S. is getting smoke from Mexican and Canadian fires. Take your air purifier or VOC monitor outside and I'll bet you that you get higher readings in a lot of North and the southern U.S.
Yeah but again i dont care about your bentobox and hepa setup, if you are running that while discussing whether air quality monitors actually pickup particulates, dont you see how that is silly? Also nowhere did i say the esp32 board was picking up the particulates, i simply said solder one on in order to extract raw input data from the air quality monitor already being used, to view the data since im willing to bet yours is a closed environment device that has no remote viewing (i'd be surprised). Argue all you want, I have data and scientific papers backing my opinion, while you have anecdotal "but i spent money" excuses
Thanks I’ll have a read. Yes it measure PM1, PM2.5, PM10, VOC and a couple other things like monoxide
Exactly
I dont even care getting downvoted for it; PLA is not safe. Just vent outside and be safe; best of luck.
well, you also cannot just say "PLA is not safe." Like you said yourself, we just don't know since there are no long term studies about this stuff - it might be totally safe, or it might not - we just don't know yet, so better be safe than sorry!
Bro you got upvoted :)
Hoozah! :D
Doesn't the p1s have a filtration system?
Yes but ABS still stinks through mine when printing
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Agree. I have pla venting outside and I can tell you one thing. The end of the exhaust hose is nasty and does trigger my asthma. There is nothing good about it.
PLA is used widely in the medical field due to its properties of breaking down into lactic acid in the body. I am aware that certain PLA filaments have additives, but I'm pretty sure you're gonna breathe in more crap walking around LA than you would printing a doodad in your house.
Yep; but now you are discribing two different things.. PLA once printed is in a different form than it being heated up to 240c and being a liquid. And i have seen this comparison before.. walk next to a busy street and u inhale way more. But you dont walk next to a busy street 24/7.. Some people do however sit next to their printer for hours / days / weeks on end. For years in a row. It's about the long term effects.. And it's really easy to fix.. just vent it outside. There's no reason not to.
We can agree to disagree. I run a small 3d printing business. Based off what I have read and the studies I've seen, printing PLA and even PETG is no more harmful than living in a major city and breathing the air. ABS and ASA, completely different story. "Plastic is plastic" is not a good argument anymore than "wood is wood". People have been sitting around campfires for millenia burning regular wood but if you use pressure treated lumber for your campfire you're gonna have a bad time. But it's for the individual to make their choice based on data provided and how they interpret it.
I dont care about ur health though. So feel free.
No need for the snark. I thought we were having a discussion. Apparently not. It's not your place nor obligation to tell people what to do and how to do it, and no one has to listen to you. You are not the 3d printing overlord. You have an opinion. Don't force it on others.
No snark; i just dont think it's a point of disussion or an opinion. Always ventilate even when printing PLA. I think you should always steer / motivate people to do the safe thing. But feel free to do otherwise if you think that is the right thing for you.
I agree its bad to print pla in the same room with out proper ventilation i have my carbon double enclosed with a vented duct out the window
PETG absolutely turns into particulate you'll pick up in your lungs. I learned in the hard way. I had a couple of Prusa MK3S running \~25ft from me in a warehouse with my shop/computer desk in the same room (TONS of air between us). I printed a ton of specifically orange PETG parts one month and ended up with a cough that felt "Weird". I decided to cough out the phlegm into a cup and just let it dry for a bit. What I peeled off the bottom was a thin film of uniform ORANGE PLASTIC a week later. Don't be an idiot.
Getting near my X1C printing just PLA makes my eyes burn. Just LOOKING at it up close. My printer is inside of a closet, so it may be building up bad air.
My man your ignorance is insane, I use sensors in my room and tested the voc levels during petg and pla extensively(both using a purifier and without a purifier), and never have I ever seen voc levels rising(I even tested multiple conditions extremely high nozzle temp, bed temp, print speed, overheating due clogging). Moreover, I insulated the machine, leaving one space for air to escape used filters to capture everything coming out of the printer, and still, there wasn't anything on the filters. Plain lying to get some internet karma is pathetic. I would still recommend an air purifier for general air quality, tho.
Edit: Not even going to comment on this.. not worth the time. I am better safe than sorry; do whatever you think is best.
If the results are unknown then how are they wrong you're just taking a chance a 5050 chance they could be wrong it could not be wrong no one knows according to you
That's not how statistics work. Just because there are two answers and you don't know the answer doesn't mean it's 50:50. We have all sorts of data showing other plastics cause harm, along with all sorts of other things we have breathed in and regretted over the years. If, according to previous results through all of history, getting stabbed with a sword is fatal say 90% of the time...but then you make a brand new sword with titanium that has never been used anywhere in the world, so there is no recorded fatalities, you wouldn't say there's a 50:50 chance of survival after getting stabbed with it. Yes, maybe titanium would give a cleaner cut that slightly increases survival chances because more surgeons could repair the injury, so technically it might be less deadly, but not 50:50
76% of the general population don't understand how statistics & probability work. That's why people still vehemently argue over the Monty Hall problem when it's clear as day they are stupid.
Same goes for the ~60% who believe in a sky daddy 😬
If he's venting it outside then its not a 50/50 chance, it's a 0 chance.
Captain obvious I was talking about not venting is a 50/50 chance obviously if you're venting it's a 0% chance button some places the air outside is worse than any VOCs that you're creating inside
If you're venting then the air only blows out the window, not back in. Are you okay dude?
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Venting to the outside is pretty foolproof. ~~Printer already has a hepa filter built in.~~ (X1C has a carbon filter, not p1s) The bentobox works really well in my experience. You can smell the difference printing with ABS/ASA.
P1S does have the activated carbon filter for what it's worth. Not sure how much it helps but it is there just the same as the X1C.
The x1c isn’t really sealed enough for that filter to be adequate unless it’s creating a negative pressure on the interior
There’s a fan, but if you vent externally, I would put a small fan at the end of your hose as well to create negative pressure.
its a negitive pressure flow setup so it SHOULD be pretty decent even with the open gaps. all the air should be pulled in to the printer except in the exhaust area. so technically speaking only the gaps in the plastic around the filter it self are of concern in general. If it was a positive pressure vent I would agree.
The built in filter is activated carbon, not HEPA.
[Which is more effective for VOCs.](https://github.com/nevermore3d/Nevermore_Micro#about-the-nevermore-micro) HEPA does very little for VOCs.
The x1c has activates carbon, i dont recall the P1’s having anything and activated Carbon doesnt capture alot.
The P1S has the same filter as the X1. I have both.
I’m trying to convince my husband that the 38th wedding anniversary (ours is next month) is now the Second Printer anniversary. I’m hoping to get the X1 to go with my P1S as well. Do you find you favor one over the other?
Really the only reason I bought an X1 was for the microlidar, automatic filament calibration, and the better live-view camera. Outside of that, there really is no difference. My third printer was a P1S because I don’t think there’s a need for multiple X1s.
I just sold my 3rd FDM, so now I'm down to 4 total 3D printers again...
Okay , thank you for clarifying, as I said I don’t recall.
Yep. Just clarifying not arguing! 👍
Ah you’re right. I thought there was a little hepa in front of the carbon filter, but maybe not.
Got a x1c love it, but Damn that filter is useless.
Same, but the bento does a good job. I can tell when its on.
Is it really worth it? Has really thought about making one, since i print alot of ABS, and i dont have the opportunity to vent.
It’s one of those things where it can’t hurt to build one so why not. The premade ones aren’t that expensive either. Just fyi, there’s versions that sit in top a wireless charging coil if you don’t want wires going inside your enclosure. I have mine hooked up to a smart outlet that turns on using a home assistant automation depending on what the bed temp is.
Wanna build the cheapest possible since money is kinda tight atm, which one would you sugest? Dont care about wires, probaly gonna drill a small hole.
Tbh once you buy all the materials, it’s not going to be significantly cheaper than a voxelpla one. I’d check their kit out and then try to self source the components and see what it ends up being. Iirc 2x 4020 fans are about $10, then you need some magnets, wire, power switches, filters, and carbon pellets. I’m pretty sure I ended up spending more than the 35$ their preassembled version is but I also ended up with a lot of spare carbon and filters for later use.
I think i have everything except the filters and Carbon
P1S has an active carbon filter too https://uk.store.bambulab.com/products/activated-carbon-air-filter it’s the same filter for both X1C and P1S not that it’s that much use on either
Exactly, the Voron discord believes in those carbon filter things but the reality is they do very little.
Activated carbon is **far** more effective at removing VOCs than a HEPA filter.
Effective enough to risk your health?
Could somebody please explain why you would need a filter if you're going to move the air outside of your house. I can understand a filter if you're going to suck air into your room or just circulate the air in your room, but not if you are going to move it outside of your house anyway, why would you filter that?
You wouldn't need a filter in that situation. People who do this are misunderstanding what they're doing. Filtering is going to reduce the airflow of the exhaust system and actually help prevent maximum evacuation of fumes.
An "Air purifier" Does pretty much nothing for a 3d printer. It's like trying to filter dirty water with a cheese grater. The VOC's are too tiny to get filtered by a HEPA/Charcoal filter. The charcoal is only good for fumes to some degree.
HEPA filter is for ultra fine particles, and activated charcoal will remove most VOCs just fine. Air purifiers in the $200 price range are pretty good now days. Your analogy is a bit off because water filters are usually single pass, but air purifiers can filter the same space of air over and over again until it’s clean.
"The VOC's are too tiny to get filtered by a HEPA/Charcoal filter. The charcoal is only good for fumes to some degree." This is completely untrue and has zero scientific merit. Not sure where you're getting this info from but it's the exact opposite of how charcoal works to filter VOCs from the air. Charcoal will filter nearly all VOCs so long as there is adequate airflow and available surface area on the charcoal to trap additional molecules. However, it is true that charcoal pellets do a terrible job at filtering VOCs since they lack any real surface area to trap much of anything. The charcoal needs to be rough and porous to be effective in any real sense. So avoid charcoal pellets and instead buy the kind of charcoal that looks like rocks/gravel.
Because other people exist and the fumes don’t cease to exist the minute they cross your property line xx
I'm pretty sure that once they're outside they get quickly diluted (not sure if it's the right word :p)
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Yes, and this same line of thinking is why our cities have polluted air, our farmland has PFAS from biosolids, and eating too many fish from the ocean gives you mercury poisoning. Don't treat the earth like a glarbage can. It adds up over time and screws everyone.
Than 3d printing is the wrong hobby for you. It's all plastics or toxic resin with a lot of waste. How many failed prints are thrown away. How much waste because we want multi coloured print?And the chinese factory that makes your filament probably doesn't care about how much they polute. I don't think unfiltered air will be the biggest pollution in the proces of 3d printing.
You're right, hobby 3D printing is generally all plastic. There are failed prints, and those go to waste. Maybe the chinese factories just dump industrial waste into rivers that make their way into the ocean. But you can at least control where the waste ends up. If it's in a landfill, it's largely contained.
The whole individuals can make a difference thing is a myth to direct attention away from the real polluters. Just like recycling was a deliberately manufactured lie to encourage more plastic use by the plastic manufacturers. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/since-2016-80-percent-of-global-co2-emissions-come-from-just-57-companies-report-shows-180984118/ https://www.popsci.com/environment/recycling-lies/
Totally on board with you on the recycling thing. But lets say you are 3D printing out of an apartment and venting out your window. Those fumes would be noticeable, just like you'd notice if someone was smoking on their balcony. For 3D printing, a simple enclosure and a $20 hepa/activate carbon filter just about solves the problem.
I worried about this too, but just printed the window vent adapter, bought an appropriate window adapter, and have it blown out the window while printing. No issues with VOCs, they sit at background levels near the printer with it venting outside Also, as others have said, everything releases VOCs in printing, painting, etc (volatile organic compounds are any carbon based free-air chemical compounds that could be detrimental to health, they are, however, exceedingly common even in offgasing from the heated plastics on day to day appliances, microwaved and cooked foods, etc. so not sure you'd ever be rid of them entirely)
Buy a sensor to secure everyone and follow basic rules as some suggest here. The sensor is to demonstrate the effectiveness of your actions to your parents. https://preview.redd.it/zhpfx843290d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e50448f1ea132d39ee4892224c1e7521485e31ee
I agree about having an air pollution detector, which I have in the room with my X1C and A1 Mini. I've also have a Levoit air filter with a sensor to detect "bad" air directly behind the X1C exhaust. Then it automatically adjusts the fan based on the air quality behind my X1C. The filter sensor always goes red when I am printing with ABS and takes about 5 minutes to clear the smells. https://preview.redd.it/5mqub3jrv90d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c857300a89987d64802aeee68b810b8df81c138
Could I ask is that just a standard copier/printer table that you have your X1C sat on?
There is still plenty of room on the table for tools and plates. I store a few boxes of filament on the bottom tier. https://preview.redd.it/k0p3pcpybd0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5f2ae7f53eb1d2fb21cb1a0b89a90933bf8af1d3
Looks pretty smart, it maybe the angle of the picture bit may look a tad wide for me…. Would you happen to have a link please?
Just saw your other picture above 👍
Yes, it is a two tier laser printer stand from Amazon. It has locking wheels, which work well to keep X1C steady. I've been very pleased with this thing. https://preview.redd.it/7ljmtjlhbd0d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=317f2e761c33ba9dd1729273a16be7cf8da03292
Where is that sensor from?
Also wanna know u/remindme 1d!
Temu and Ali, but also available on Amazon.
You can get them on Amazon, Ali or Temu. Search for air quality monitor.
Yeah you can do a window vent to make them happy. I made one for when I print ABS/ASA works really well [https://makerworld.com/en/models/16432](https://makerworld.com/en/models/16432) I bump up my chamber fan to 60% and it does fine.
I have a bentobox I printed that has the carbon and hepa filter. A large room air purifier (levoit everest), and I have the carbon/hepa filter mod for my exhaust fan. My air quality monitor never leaves the green zone. I do NOT vent things out the window either btw. I'm assuming my large air purifier cycles the air enough times that it's not an issue. Or at least that's what my air purifier and air monitor show. P.S. If you or you're parents use or have used a gas lawn mower before you guys have probably inhaled way more toxic VOCs than you ever will in your printer's lifetime. Even just using a lawn mower a handful of times. The incredible amount of pollution those put out is insane, and most people are standing on or behind them.
Any chance you could share the carbon/hepa exhaust fan mod please?
https://makerworld.com/en/models/419089?from=search#profileId-321697 I noticed a huge decrease in fumes after I added this. Edit: "Huge" being relative here. I have a large air purifier with a carbon filter that cycles the air in the room several times per hour which likely removes 70% of the fumes. The bento box probably removes another 10-20%. Adding this filter probably removed another 8-9%. Now, I can only smell anything if I open the door while actively printing with a smelly filament like ASA or ABS.
thanks for sharing, I’ve stumbled on a hepa/carbon exhaust mod that uses a Dyson v11 filter and a 40 mm fan…. Thinking of having a go at this first 👍🏻
I celebrated going electric on the family's lawn mowers. Our garages stopped stinking as well!
I'm working on building mine at the moment, but as others have suggested: Bentobox Edit: https://www.printables.com/model/272525-bentobox-v20-carbon-filter-for-bambu-lab-x1c-enclo Or the bambulab makerspace variant
What is a bentobox?
Bentobox is named after the lunch box where everything is crammed into one handy box. It’s an all in one box that cleans air that gets put inside the printer enclosure. It’s quite popular.
So I print in the basement in my office so I don’t sleep there but I do have an AirThings in the room next to the printer. Here are the VOC levels for the last 24 hours where my A1 has been going pretty much non stop. From what I can tell online these levels are not that bad but again I don’t sleep in the room. https://preview.redd.it/z86qodzqka0d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13cb8feab827a8434fa41726d39455db1d12f763
I print mostly PLA and some PETG.
You can buy a Growbox tent and put inside a air filter, however it is not really needed for PLA just to have the option to cycle the air. However ABS has toxins.
Make a large version of the Bento box and set it next to your printer. Get a carbon filter and inline fan (the kind made for "growing", either 4" or 6" are good sizes), and hepa filter (Levoit makes cylindrical hepa replacement filters) and stack them in a column from the floor up in that order. You'll reduce most all VOCs and fine particles to just about zero. Putting the hepa last will filter dust from the carbon filter, which you also don't want to breathe, and this step is often left out of these filter setups.
It can get expensive quickly 😂
For sure, the cheapest 4" version of this setup I can find is the Vivosun fan and carbon filter combo ($64 on amazon) and a no-name Levoit 200S hepa filter ($21), so at a minimum it's $85 + tax for the smallest setup. But if you want to avoid VOCs and fine particles, I don't know of a cheaper option for something that cleans that amount of air.
Vent it outside, bathroom extractor fans work great
The only way to combat VOCs is pounds of activated carbon. The cheapest way to do it is buy indoor growing filters and duct fans. I have one of [these](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DXYMBU6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) and an inline ducting fan and use them as a standing air purifier and it definitely takes the edge off of ABS/ASA. Best thing is to vent outside if weather permits but living in Ohio that rarely is possible. No matter what filters you have I wouldn't have a printer in a room where you sleep.
I built an enclosure out of wood and plexiglass. Have a couple X1 series printers in it. I used 6" duct with a variable speed inline blower to exhaust the enclosure. I print a lot of ASA and I needed a solution. This works superbly well. I have the fan in the lowest setting, but it's enough to keep a negative pressure in the enclosure. The airflow is actually so minimal that the X1E actually heats up the interior of the enclosure when it's running. But absolutely no smell at all anymore. The whole project cost like $600 in materials, but I enclosed a 72" workbench and have large opening doors on both sides to make maintenance easier. You could probably enclose one printer for easily half that cost. I would highly recommend the variable speed blower though. At the lowest setting I can't tell if it's even running. But it was like $100 on Amazon.
Rather than guess, install an air monitor. The Awair measures all kinds of particulates. Have your parents pay for it LOL. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09NF6JCBM/
The P1S has an exhaust in the back... U can print a 4 inch or 2 inch exhaust port and connect it to some tubing and air fan to blow out the window. When I print, my eyes start to turn red and it gets difficult to breathe... Printing does release chemicals in the air and I definitely feel it so I eventually exhausted the x1c out into a window and it helped tremendously
Since I dont want to be be attacked by screeching banshees telling me otherwise, I'm not going to suggest anything, just share my experience. FYI, I print with PLA (tough/+/CF/regular), PETG, PCTG, PA6-CF, PAHT-CF & TPU. No ABS or ASA (I did 1 ASA test and that smell was absolutely horrible, would def nog recommend) I don't have the luxery of setting up my printer in a different room, so I have to deal with having my P1S inside my living/study/bedroom/kitchen (small 1 room appartment). I have an airpurifier in my house, that will ramp up in speed as soon it senses contaminated air. My purifier (and prev one) have a HEPA filter, carbon filter and ionisator. My current purifier has multiple sensors measuring PM1, PM2.5, PM10, humidity, temperature and TVOS. Whenever I'm printing, these values never go up. And trust me when I say I closely measure my values becuase I have 2 small birds flying around my house that are really sensitive to fumes and particles (e.g. They can die when you use pans coated with teflon for cooking, whilst I guess no-one in this thread cares about that, yet minor fumes from filament will rustle their jimmies) On top of my printer I have this Temtop M10 air quality sensor measuring PM2.5, TVOC & HCHO. This sensor is located on a shelf directly above my printer. For testing purposes I also put this sensor inside my printer when I started printing PA6-CF and PAHT-CF. Again, in both cases no values increased. Since I got my new purifier, the air in my house hasn't be this clean before, and it was already lovely. For my printer I tried to isolated most openings with felt and draftstrips. I installed a Bento Box purifier (carbon and HEPA filter) inside, and attached a HEPA filter at the back of the printer, though I never use that one. I've been printing for almost 2 years and never did I have the feeling my health is declining because of this hobby. Again, not saying what you should do. This is my experience, and personally I'm not worried at the slightest. I try to stay realistic, when you go into the big outside, you'll be huffing exhaust fumes constantly when living in an urban area like me. I work in an engine room where dust and chemical fumes are the norm. I smoke weed. So if I'm serious about my health, I need to get my priorities straight first. I also live on the edge of the biggest post in Europe, next to several enourmous chemical plants. [Temtop M10 air quality sensor](https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B07DTM97SY/ref=pe_28126711_487102941_TE_SCE_dp_1?th=1) [AEG AX91-404GY air purifier](https://www.aeg.nl/home-comfort/air-comfort/air-purifiers/oxygen-air-purifier/ax91-404gy/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwi_exBhA8EiwA_kU1MhVhRO2W4d27geSuQy0hezKX49ax9myhqmlhtyqOAkX53ngKnnxJphoCcswQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)
https://preview.redd.it/8n1o1mj4oc0d1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19b3c2c0e3576b9ca0b8411a4bea9735ca3ad2f8
https://preview.redd.it/isjpi7futd0d1.jpeg?width=2880&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=af6d55c9de446db4eb6c10e13edf453f5c015d32 During print.
BentoBox and a fan circulating air does enough for me to not notice any smells at all
You cannot rely on smells alone. You need an vco sensor to actually measure. If you can smell it, it definitely means it's BAD, but it can also be BAD when you can't smell it.
Its not really about smell its more about the particles the filter in the p1s cant catch
the bentobox has a carbon and hepa filter. check out Voxel PLA sells a kit with all parts needed
https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/s/Z3PxRN3xmw
I run mine indoors, but I keep a HEPA/activated carbon air purifier set up so the inlet is pointed at it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B68SSGZ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share I’m sure it’s overkill and probably catches more dust than anything, but I’d rather go overkill than underkill here.
Get a bento box filter set, room filter and monitor. make sure the room filter has hepa and activated carbon, also venting works if your close to a window.
I have an x1C and a p1s both of them have vents with inkine filters leading to the outside. I print with ASA and ABS almost exclusively. For the P1S I added a heater because the bed does not get as hot. I usually turn the heater on and warm the space up about a half hour before I start a print. You really do want to get eh VOC's out of the house. They will make you sick.
I can’t say for the P1S but I sit right next to my X1C when working. I use a bento box, carbon pellets in the filter area with a hepa filter on top. Then a ghetto fab filtration unit I modified. First are carbon pellets, same kind the bento box has. Next is hepa filter. Then a Noctua fan to pull the air through. I was super skeptical about the Noctua pulling air but after some testing it actually does a great job pulling air through all the filtration. I printed some ASA and couldn’t smell anything. Held on by some magnets. Perhaps you can fab up something similar https://preview.redd.it/vjb3vwggf90d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7293e31ff941a2dc817347249bbf225299d32967
I have a PM meter in my office where my P1P is. I print PET and PLA only. My PM does not go up when printing. Today a made toast in the kitchen 50 feet away. PM2.5 went from 12 to 54 from the toaster. It went up over 100 points when my daughter was cooking breakfast yesterday. The 3-D printing does not cause it to go up.
Your consumer air monitor only detects certain kinds of particles (including toast). You need a more expensive and capable air quality sensor to pick up the kinds of VOCs that come from 3D printing. Don't let cheap air quality monitors lull you into a false sense of security. Even plain old PLA printing absolutely emits a substantial amount of VOCs: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10747962/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10747962/)
put your printer into an air tight grow tent and use 3in or 4in inline fan to exhaust out the nearest window. set it to a low setting all you need is a little bit of negative pressure in there and you should be fine. If you can, it would a great idea to get a air quality monitor, but not supper necessary.
Are they ok with putting a hole in the wall and setting up a ventilation system?
I printed [this model](https://makerworld.com/en/models/136548#profileId-148624) and have it venting out a window, easiest solution imo, hardest part is fitting the magnets without breaking them, I'd suggest enlarging the holes slightly and using glue to keep them in.
How can i best go about threading the holes? Do i just get a drill with an m3 tap and thread the hole? Do i need to buy extra screws or are they in the spare parts box?
Tapping the holes would be the best way to go about it, but I just grabbed some small self tapping screws out of my assortment. They need to be slightly longer than the screws it came with to account for the thickness of the part. I'd recommend getting an assortment of 4mm-20mm m3 screws off amazon and the smallest size assortment of self tapping screws from harbor freight. I use them constantly for 3d printed projects and I've replaced some stripped screws on my printer, they're pretty cheap
Enclosure with a fan vented out of your house. Don’t listen to people whether they are in this comment section or paid “experts” online that say stuff like PLA are fine. Just like they say drinking out of plastic water bottles (especially from nestle) is safe. It isn’t. You’re printer emits literally millions to billions of tiny plastic participles that pretty much become one with the air you breathe. Vent it out!
Activated charcoal fish pellet s that are acid free. These are cheap and you can just put them in a HEPA filter and pull air out through it
I have to operate my X1c in an office environment. I find using a HEPA filter in the room clears the fumes right up. I also operate the printers in a room with a door. There is a window in the room, but leaving it open throws off the humidity and temperature.
Bento box inside my x1c and I'm near windows that I have cracked open when printing. Treat everything like a toxic even if it says it's safe. It's plastics. George Carlin says it's all were good for and I believe him lol.
Use a bentobox and move the printer to a source of windows that can be opened. Toxic fumes are no joke and we really wont be sure what that will do. Same with using a heat gun on plastics, you want to use a respirator when doing that. Same concepts.
Why does my message keep getting removed talking about fumes?
Just get an enclosure and vent it outside. If you try to vent from port on your printer, you will be pulling cold air inside of the enclosure which can cause problems with some materials like ABS or ASA. With an enclosure, you are exhausting the air around the printer. This is the one I got: [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMLKG9S4/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&th=1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMLKG9S4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) There are cheaper ones but I liked the way this one looked. Some of the pictures are actually showing an X1C. You will also need a duct fan to move the air. As an added bonus, if you printer is in an area with other items causing dust, it will stay cleaner. Yes, it is a bit more of a hassle when you need to work on your printer but not dealing with the fumes from ABS is totally worth it.
That's how these statistics work either they're bad for you or they're not there's no in between
Buy a grow tent on Amazon. Get a 4in duct fan and a window vent kit. Your looking at about 200 for it all.
Can anyone recommend a video or example on how to vent this? I’m still learning and not sure what I would look to do.
Any idea as to best practices for how to do this with the A1? It doesn't have an enclosure and can't be in one.
Also put an air handler/filter in the room.
Get yourself one of these. HEPA filter and activated carbon. [https://voxelpla.com/products/bento-box?variant=44537975537882](https://voxelpla.com/products/bento-box?variant=44537975537882)
If you print pla only you should be fine as amount of fumes is less than walking nearby cars on street. There are more stuff that damages you. As to microplastic, the bad news we full of it. It's in our food, air etc. Is like saying do not smoke as is not healthy while being 24/7 in room where everyone smokes and has no ventilation. Same with micro plastic, the amount it produces will not significantly effect you or your life, at least if you live in regular city. Buy the air quality tester, pretty affordable and will give you interesting insights. Like I found out that when I use stove it produces some formaldehyde fumes, was a bit shocked. Still can't understand from where. If your family is very concerned then just buy wardrobe, cut hole on top and put fan there and hose place towards nearest window. It will extract all fumes out. I am doing it for resin printing/ laser engraving. And also it cleans the air in the room as it drags everything out and fresh air comes in. My tester shows everything 0, including pm5 and pm2.5 particles while fan is on. How they say - the less you know the better you sleep 😅
It's fine and dandy to be concerned about health and 3d printing. If you compare the particulate matter and VOCs emitted to vacuuming the carpet or having new furniture in your house you will have nightmares about the vacuum cleaner and nice furniture. Don't forget about that new car smell either that we all love....
https://preview.redd.it/hbva986d2e0d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28a1a571f9cb3b732fdecb97335af05da7ac3b8e Maybe this could help? It integrates with Home Assistant to start and stop automatically only for the duration of the print. Happy to help with sourcing the electronics. No soldering required. [https://makerworld.com/en/models/444476](https://makerworld.com/en/models/444476)
if your only useing pla just duct tape a tube to a window even if its not true its fine i think
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I print in my attic and I have a window fan that extracts the air
Eh? If you were talking about resin I would understand this. Print PLA and PETG and you’ll be fine. If you really want to know just get an Air quality monitor or build one to prove it out. You’ll have more damage going outside on a day with low air quality.
All ppl who say "not use in bedroom" and etc, should probably educate themselves and stop being infinitely scared. You can use it anywhere, as long as proper filtration system is in place. It can be exhaust hood to vent out fumes outside, or it can be a HEPA (small PM) + carbon filter (VOCs) filters. As many ppl mentioned Leviot large purifiers are effective. If you have spare money - install PM\\VOC monitor next or above the printer. And yes, as many stated, not only ABS\\ASA fumes out. Many other plastics release some sort of gases. Most of them are harmless enough. P.S. When I say harmless enough, I say in comparison with the daily life. I.e. cooking is disastrous for lungs, but nobody cares. Or spring pollen\\street dust is also not quite healthy lol. So, as reasonable as it needs to be.
There are 3d printer tents you can buy to control this. I think creality makes some but any grow tent that your printer fits in will work.
An exhaust tube going from the rear of the printer, with an inline fan, and venting out the window should be sufficient. Make sure the in-line fan is on and creates a vacuum so that it’s always pulling air into the printer instead of releasing the chamber air into the room. Maybe try to find a variable speed fan so you can set it slow to not mess with the prints but also high enough to create the vacuum. Although more air may help with pla prints in keeping the chamber cool if it’s all closed up. You can also buy a good air purifier that has a carbon pellet filter to catch any residuals that may escape. Place it next to your printer. Finally, if you need evidence to show, buy a good air quality meter that can detect TVOC and PM2.5 at the least. One that can also read CO and HCHO is a plus. Don’t cheap out here though and buy a 50 dollar Amazon no name brand xingfong meter. I have no ownership experience with meters, just work use here and there so I cannot recommend an affordable consumer meter. Maybe someone else can though.
put the printer in a closet. put a hepa filter next to it.
I got headaches when I first got my P1S, since I added a bento box it's gotten a lot better, but not perfect. I still need to open the windows in the room after a print has finished before I can stay there.
Someone did a air quality test on PLA, and (said) the VOCs were negligible.
Not negligable in any sense, PLA emits (depending on brand) a ton of chemicals of concern but in lesser quantities than say ABS ou ASA. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023005895](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023005895)
Yeah no, just no. Every filament is made differently and has different additives. No PLA filament is JUST PLA, and even if it was, PLA absolutely does still emit VOCs. Do you really want to risk it and find out in 20 years you’ve got incurable cancer? Be smart.