Leaf Blower Laser Smoke Extractor

thingiverse

I added a laser to my Mostly Printed CNC Machine (MPCNC) and realized that I would need to do something about the smoke. I wandered around Menards looking for a solution and stumbled across this ultra cheap electric leaf blower. Of course, this is not one of the recommended uses for a leaf blower, and neither the manufacturer nor I are responsible if it burns down your house or eats your children. I used the cheapest one I could find. The Iworks, model WG506 was about 15 US Dollars on sale at the time. I've designed 3 3D printed parts to make this work. If you have another leaf blower, some tweaking may be needed. I cut out the grill on the bottom of the blower so that I could install the intake adapter. The adapter fits snug and sits on a ridge of the case just above the fan blades. The parts are designed for a 3.5-inch intake hole in the laser cabinet-- use a 3.5-inch hole saw. It might be useful to run a flexible hose from the intake to near the laser (like a dust shoe), but I haven't tried that Yet. Of course, if you're in the US, you will need 4-inch dryer exhaust pipe of choice, an exterior dryer vent assembly, and a 4.25-inch hole saw to cut the hole through the wall. I also used some silicone adhesive to seal between the intake and the cabinet and to seal between the output adapter and the blower and of course at the exterior wall (some expanding foam would be helpful here too). It seems like the friction fit between the blower and the intake is sufficient. You will probably need some of the aluminum dryer vent tape too, to seal the connections.