Quick Question on Laser Setup Location

[Stephen Musial]

Can a laser go in a shop setting with ambient sawdust, etc. or does it need to be in a "clean room"?

I have dust collector hooked up to planer and jointer but lathe, tablesaw, drill press etc are cleaned up afterwards. Also have ceiling hung air cleaner.

[Walt Langhans]

Sawdust won't bother a laser, but like any tool you'll want to keep it clean(sih)

[Mike Null]

i would prefer to have my laser in a clean environment. It is adjacent to my wood shop but in a separate room. I'm not doing a lot of wood working but I would rather not have it next to dust producing equipment.

I agree that dust won't harm the machine but it can and will contaminate your rails and bearings making for less than perfect engraving.

[Bert Kemp]

I agree with Mike. The laser gets dirty enough just doing the work it does. It doesn't need the added dust and particles created by all the woodworking tools, if you can't put it in a separate room maybe you could hang some plastic sheeting from the ceiling around it to protect it from all that dust. Just a thought.

[John Noell]

If you get dust on the mirrors, the laser beam will not be reflected at those places and the energy that is absorbed will become heat. You really don't want hot spots on your mirrors.

[Gary Hair]

I think it's a very bad idea as is, but you can make it work. When you run the exhaust on the laser it's going to draw in the air from the shop that has the "ambient sawdust" that you mention. If, instead, you either filter the air going into the laser or bring it in from outside (still filtered) then you should avoid most of the dust problems inside the laser. Then all you have to worry about is dust outside the laser and that's easily done with plastic, tarps, etc. I'm fortunate that I have my entire garage for woodworking and have my lasers and UV printer inside the house where they are climate controlled and in a pretty clean environment - not everyone has that luxury though.

[Neil Pabia]

My laser has been located in a wood shop for most of its life and hasn't had any problems. I clean it every time I use it and keep it covered when its not in use.

[Dan Hintz]

My laser shares the same shop as my wood lathe, metal lathe, CNC machine, bandsaw, and drill press (among other tools). That said, the bandsaw is surrounded by plastic sheeting hanging from the ceiling, creating a mini room... when the DC is running, it creates a partial vacuum in the area, which means only clean air can come in and all dust MUST pass through the DC. The laser is also covered by a plastic sheet, and I do not run the laser while woodworking (for obvious safety reasons) or within a certain time frame after woodworking to give my ambient air cleaner time to do its job.

It's quite doable, you simply need to be cognizant of what else is going on around it.

[Mitchell Tutty]

Similar to Dan, my laser used to share a room with a CNC router, belt sander, and many other high dust machines.
If I didn't use an air compressor twice daily to clean it, I would of almost lost it under all the dust.
I have since moved it into the front office, which is noisy, and quite annoying when I'm doing bookwork or speaking with customers etc.

However, I do prefer that option over constantly cleaning the dust from it.
For those of you who have seen the new movie Interstellar, compare my shed to the state of the world at that point. Constant flow of dust.