Question about cutting PVC

[Brent Ramsay-Boyd]

Hi All

I have been to the doctors and done a breathe test and the doctor has assured me that i am in the clear.

Thanks to everyone for there advise, an important if not somewhat terrifying lesson has been learnt and I will be making some significant changes wrt filter and extraction before I continue working with the laser cutter. I will also make sure I ask before I do anything I am unsure of.

Thanks Again

[Scott Shepherd]

That's great to hear Brent. I'm sure the last day or two have been quite stressful for you. Hopefully you can relax now and get the things put in place to make sure you are safe in the future. Thanks for the update, that's great news.

[Keith Winter]

Brent that sounds pretty problematic. The way your describing it a lot of the fumes will be blowing back in even if you cannot smell it they may be hurting you doing stuff like pvc. Not worth it, especially in a setup like you're describing. You may be harming your health. Get a proper setup with a blower venting to an outside wall asap is my suggestion.

[Kev Williams]

another word on blowers and venting- if at all possible you want the blower outside. If it's inside, you have positive pressure from the blower to the outdoors. if there's any leaks in the venting or the blower itself, the blower just pushes smoke & fumes thru them.

With the blower outdoors, the entire ventilation system indoors will be in a negative pressure/vacuum condition.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

I thought that the off gas produced from lsasering pvc was cyanide i would not do any PVC job unless i could do it on my CNC router. Just not worth the risk no matter how much it would pay and I have an air extraction system that would peel the paint off the laser IF trotec didn't do such a nice job painting it. It is either a 3HP or 5HP 3 phase motor which extracts at about 2000 CFM. which sadly makes the AC air disappear quickly. Blast gates help control it though.