Do you stay in the room with your printer while running?

[AU_Doc]

Seems like an odd question, but I'm curious as to who leaves their printer running while they're in the room with it. I'm guessing the majority of the people on this forum have a hobbyist level printer, and it would likely be in their home somewhere. Though I'm sure that's not the case for everyone.

I know ABS is supposed to be pretty bad stuff, but PLA is generally considered "safe" if Google is to be believed. Any thoughts?

[Ender5r]

I do stay in the room ATM, but that's because I'm still in the stage of calibrating my Ender 5 Pro, and also because it's got a major Y axis issue that I'm trying to troubleshoot. I'm printing PLA right now. I don't think I would want to be in the room, or even have the printer inside the house when printing ABS. I know how ABS smells when it's melting/burning and I don't think that's something I want to breath any more than absolutely necessary. At some point I'm going to have to consider what steps I will take to protect me and my family when printing toxic materials, but I'm not their yet.

[irvshapiro]

I stay in the room but I also have an exhaust fan that exhausts directly outside.

[Ender5r]

That's an option I'm considering: something like the vent for a clothes dryer I thinking. Have you documented your setup? It might be nice to see how you have it arranged, so we can "learn something together"

[Country_Bubba]

At the present time, I have both of my printers in my living room, but only print PLA at this time. Long range plans might include an enclosure and outside venting especially if I attempt other filaments.

[bspill]

I just purchased an air purifier for my man cave and it makes a big difference in removing the smell of melting pla.

[Maximo101]

I have my printer in a spare room, so only go in to check on prints. From what I understand it's safe to be in the same room with most filament types (pla, tpu) but not abs, that needs an enclosure for higher temp and is bad to breathe in. You don't want to be near abs when it's printing. But pla is fine.

[Geit]

I have Raspberry PIs with cameras connected to all my printers and the room I setup my printers is my little non silent server room, so usually I am leaving the room and closing the door while they are printing.

An old laptop on my desk works as viewer, so I can always see if a print got loose. This is handy with ABS printing, where I avoid being around as much as possible. PLA is not an issue as I usually finish/polish the last print using a small workbench, while the first layer of the next print gets printed.

[Alan]

I just purchased an air purifier for my man cave and it makes a big difference in removing the smell of melting pla.

Nice! I just came across this idea. I've read that a good carbon filter is a must. Which one did you get?

Thanks!

[Ender5r]

I just bought a 3M Odor Reducing furnace filter. I plan to connect it to a cardboard box and attach a fan to the other side, so it can pull air from the room through the filter and blow it back into the room. We'll see how well it works, but I can certainly see the carbon inside the filter. I just have to dig out a spare computer case fan and connect it up. Of course, the box will be completely sealed using packing tape, so air can only enter the box through the filter.

[bspill]

Honeywell 300 series. About $250 at Home Depot.

[Ender5r]

Honeywell 300 series. About $250 at Home Depot.

That's an electrostatic unit, right?

[Alan]

Honeywell 300 series. About $250 at Home Depot.

Thanks for the information!

[Alan]

That's an electrostatic unit, right?

HEPA+carbon from what I saw on Amazon.

[bspill]

Its not electrostatic, its a HEPA system.

[Ender5r]

HEPA+carbon from what I saw on Amazon.

That makes sense. 'Course, the filters for that type of unit are normally pretty expensive.