3D Upfitters Carbon Air Filter User manual

Air Filter & Vents
Installation Manual 4.0
July, 2022
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Carbon Air Filter
Locate Mounting Point
If you’ve purchased an enclosure kit from 3DUpfitters the mounting point will be on the
back panel when viewed from the back, as shown below.!
If you’re already got an enclosure or are creating one for yourself, you’ll need to cut a
hole for air flow, and four holes to mount the filter and fan. The hole should be 78mm
in diameter, and the holes are 70mm apart in a square pattern. There is a DXF file you
can download from the product page on the website if you want to laser or CNC your
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DIY enclosure. Be sure to delete the dotted construction lines when configuring
the laser or CNC control file.
Notice Air Flow Direction
The fan is powered by a 5V USB power supply built into the filter. Plug in the fan and notice in
which direction the air flows. You’ll want to connect the fan to the filter so that the air is pulled
out of the enclosure and through the filter.!
Attach the Filter to the Panel
There are two sizes of holes with 3DUPfitters enclosures for 60mm and 80mm fans.
With the larger 80mm-sized holes the screws are inserted from inside the enclosure
and through the nuts slotted into the filter itself as shown below. The filter is mounted
on the outside of the enclosure.!
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This view is from inside the enclosure looking at the filter attached to the outside. Insert
the long 40mm M4 cap head screws from inside the enclosure into the holes in the
filter on the outside of the enclosure. Insert the screws only part way into the filter to
make sure the screw ends have caught into the nuts before starting to tighten. !
Smaller enclosures such as the Prusa have 60mm holes, and thus need an adapter. To
prepare the 80mm to 60mm adapter insert an M4 square nut in each corner as shown
below:!
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When inserting the hex nuts be sure to center the nuts in the middle of the holes so that they
will align with the screws. You can use a needle nose pliers or even a pen tip to adjust the
location.!
The adapter is then connected to the fan/filter combination using 40mm M4 screws.
Insert all 4 screws only a small way in before attempting to tighten.!
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Aligned
Correctly
Aligned
Correctly
OffCenter
OffCenter

The holes on the 60mm side will now align with the 60mm holes on your Prusa, Ender 3, or
other small enclosure, and the filter can be attached with 12mm M4 screws."
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Vent Adapters
Many people find the smell of plastic from a 3D printer to be particularly noxious, but there
hasn't been that much research on the long or short term health effects of exposure to 3D
printer fumes. Because the differing nature of the particles and compounds put into the air by
different filaments, there's no standard way of filtering everything, especially since the smallest
particles can't be completely caught by even the best HEPA filter.!
If you only print occasionally the risk is low, but if you are going to be printing a lot (and
especially for multiple printers), what the CDC recommends is to vent the 3D printer gasses to
the outside, such as with one of our vents paired with a standard dryer hose. They can also
hook to any DIY enclosure by simply creating the right size hole. !
Inline Fan
Our latest venting kit features an inline fan that is both very powerful and adjustable. The general layout
is shown below:!
Ideally, you’ll want to place the inline fan as close as possible to where it exits your workspace. !
The idea is to keep as much as possible of the system pulling with negative pressure rather than pushing
the air. The reason is with negative pressure if there are any air leaks that just means more air is drawn
into the hose. With a positive pressure configuration, any air leaks would mean the contaminated air is
being pushed out, defeating the purpose.!
Note that the included 8 feet long hose will need to be cut in half. Four clamps are included to
“splice” the vent into the hose as shown above.!
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DIY/Miscellaneous Vent Adapters
3DUPfitters has a wide variety of vents designed to meet your custom venting needs. They are
designed to work with standard 3” or 4” clothes dryer hose available in any hardware store. !
Adjust the hose clamp to be right next to the ridge for the best fit.!
The adapters are intended to be flexible so you can design a configuration that’s best for your
situation. Here’s an example setup with the CR-10/Taz6/Ender 5 Plus vent kit. For this you'd
need to order a hose, clamps, and dryer window vent from your hardware store.!
!
The Prusa/Ender setup is a bit more complicated since window inserts are all 4", while the
hose we recommend is 3". This setup adds an 3"->4" hose adapter, and the 3" hose is small
and doesn't overwhelm the small enclosure. Note that with this setup you need 2 3" clamps
and 1 4" clamp. !
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The latest addition to the vent lineup is the 120mm fan/vent combo. In this setup the fan is
positioned at the window side of the hose.!
To complete venting to the outside with parts that aren’t included in the kits you can find
flexible 4" dryer duct hoses or flexible 3" hoses online or at most hardware stores. This can be
connected to the outside using the same techniques you'd use for a clothes dryer, or you can
purchase one of the many compatible window-venting kits. These items are not included and
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must be purchased separately. We don't bother to stock them since they're readily available at
local hardware stores. !
The fan can either be plugged into a USB power supply (not included) or the wires stripped and
connected directly into some models of 3D printer.!
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Mind the Flap
"
Note that the 60mm and 80mm fans are not powerful enough to blow open most flaps
and ducts. The window venting kid mentioned in the previous paragraph either needs to
have the flap taped up or removed.
Air Vent with default Flag
Air Flag Taped Out of the Way
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