My Enclosure exhaust system - fits under garage door

I have my Snapmaker A350 set up in my garage which serves as a workshop and gym. I bit the bullet and got the enclosure primarily for laser projects.

I wanted to make an exhaust for my laser module and enclosure that didn’t require me to cut a 4"+ hole in my wall.

I designed this flattened exhaust that can be attached to standard 4" ventilation ducting and then it can be placed under my garage door. I calculated the area of a 4" circle and made it into a 1 1/2" x 12" rectangle so it would not obstruct airflow appreciably. I’m no engineer and I’d bet it could be made considerably smaller and still not affect airflow much, but it made sense to me to try and match cross sectional area.

In addition, I do realize the Snapmaker enclosure has just a 3" hole, but I sized this for 4" for more universal application as the 4" ducting and fans are standardized.

This made for an exhaust that can be placed under my garage door, with 2x4’s laid flat to both fill the full width of the garage door to seal the width, prevent backflow of exhaust fumes and bugs, etc coming in, and to prevent the garage door from crushing the plastic you just printed! I also made a screen for it so bugs or rodents don’t decide to climb up the duct into my printer enclosure.

For the Snapmaker A350 enclosure I made an adapter to fit standard 4" ventilation ducting to the existing fan output, then I added an inline ventilation fan.

Snapmaker 4 inch vent hole.stl (159.0 KB)

This large model needed the full size bed of the Snapmaker A350 - and honestly was a pain to print (multiple failed prints which was time consuming and wasted lots of filament due to size and some challenged with PETG filament itself – most of the issues were likely a leveling problem over the big build plate, but it worked after several tries).

It’s built into 2 main parts with a lip for easier alignment. I tried doing a full one piece print but it used a ton of support material and it was impossible to remove. I’m totally a noob with Fusion 360 but it seems to have worked out well.
Exhaust Top.stl (77.6 KB) Exhaust Bottom.stl (30.4 KB)

For the bug screen, I didn’t know how to make a mesh so I made a frame and a solid rectangle. In Simplify3D I printed the frame as a full 20% infilled solid, and set a different printing profile for the solid rectangle specifying no top or bottom layers and a 25% rectilinear infill. These 2 pieces were aligned overlapping each other and then printed as a single piece.
Mesh frame.stl (1.6 KB) Solid rectangle.stl (684 Bytes)

I used PETG (in case of summer heat blasting the garage door, but it might not be needed). To assemble, I used Gorilla Super Glue.

Although it may not be needed I also taped up the assembly with 2" wide Gorilla tape running along the back edge, folded over the top, to ensure it wouldn’t leak much air and not fall apart if dropped (I wasn’t sure how well PETG would stay glued).

Fan I used: a nice DC controlled ventilation exhaust fan - it’s quiet and moves a lot of air) https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07JB292JC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Ducting: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B071LHCFZ8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I then cut 2x4’s to fill the rest of the width, painted them black to blend better, then closed the garage door onto the setup - I did have to be quick to pull the release cable on the garage door so it wouldn’t reverse back up after it sensed the 1 1/2" obstruction on the floor, and it seals up nicely.

Hooking all of this up worked perfectly: no more burnt odor inside the garage, and this is all removable when not doing a laser project!

This is all also posted at thingiverse:

I hope this helps anyone else in need of an under-garage door vent system!

2 Likes

Looks good. I was going to do this with mine but as soon as I opened my garage door just a couple inches I realized that the way my door opens/rolls up there was a 6-8" gap at the top. I ended up punching a hole in the wall and using a dryer vent.
For rodent protection the vent has louvers and for smaller critters I just took a piece of extra window screen material and placed it over the the pipe and held it in place with the hose and clamp.

-S

Great idea!!! I have a question, seeing that you have your printer in your garage. Is your garage temp control? If not how does the heat or cold affect the printer? I do not have much room in my house, but plenty of room in the back porch. Right now it is in the house and in the way. Thanks

My garage is not heated. I am in Vancouer, Canada so we’re more temperate than some parts of the country (we’re like Seattle).

That said a cold environment would be an issue for some filaments (ABS is already dicey on the A350 because the heated bed isn’t really suited above 80C). I do think the enclosure helps considerably - I noticed it was nice and toasty inside the enclosure when printing PETG for this exhaust (bed set to 80c).

Right now I’m doing a second 64 hour laser burn on a 12” round wood (2 passes 100% power) in the ingested garage and it’s working perfectly. Our local temperature is as low as 5C (41 F) although a bit warmer inside the garage.

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Thanks, I live n Tennessee and even though we live in the mid Atlantic, our temps can get down to the 20’s in the Winter, and high in the 90’s in the Summer.So before I set the printer outside I as curious as to the temp tolerances of the machine.

Thank you so much for posting your creation. I rent a house with a large garage. Installing a large dryer-like vent receptical would be the best solution, but not available to the home owner. This is exactly what I have scoured the internet for.

I will be modifying your concept to accept a 6-inch vent hose and using 1/8" ply, but will basically follow your design. I will use mine to exhaust laser smoke and fumes.

Thanks again,

Cool! Please send pictures and share the STL.