Simple CNC fume extractor for LASER cutting

This is a simple design I came up with to extract smoke and fumes on my cheap Chinese CNC machine when laser cutting. Basically it consists of a small collector to fit under the z-carriage (with a holder to glue onto the collector) and a couple of parts to adapt a PC fan to fit standard plastic hoses.

The collector, once glued onto the holder, should fit the bottom of the z-carriage as shown in the photo. It's designed to be removable for when the CNC is used for routing. The z-carriage on my CNC seems a common design, so hopefully this should work on many CNC machines. However, the OpenSCAD file is included here, so the design can be modified if you need to.

I've included a photo of the fan and the label on it, so you can see what type is needed for this project. The inlet and outlet parts I glued onto the fan. From the outlet I attached a 32mm plastic aquarium hose, the end of which goes out of a nearby window. Between the inlet and the collector I used a bit of 20mm rubbery plastic plumbing hose.

Despite the design not being optimised for aerodynamic properties, it does remove most of the smell of smoke away through the window. It's not perfect though as draughts can result in smoke not getting sucked away. Probably I'll get around that by making a shield to go around the front and sides of the laser to help make sure smoke and fumes get into the collector.

Also if you're interested you can read my blog-post about this project at the link below.

https://cncmakerzone.co.uk/a-simple-laser-extractor-project

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