3D printer health alert
5You might want to be careful where/how you use your 3d printers. Apparently they put a lot of nano plastic in the air and that can end up deep in your lungs. They are currently doing research to look more closely at this problem.
https://www.labmanager.com/news/3d-printers-may-be-toxic-for-humans-24664?
- 3 comments, 13 replies
- Comment
Yeah. ABS bad. Use enclosure and ventilation.
@RiotDemon Before I was doing any actual printing, I was ignorant of the different types of filament. I bought a bunch of different colors.
One was ABS. It’s still in the box, unopened. Not gonna use, but too late to return.
@lisaviolet abs is great for items that need to withstand high heat. You could just put your printer in a room where you close the door while it’s printing.
@lisaviolet @RiotDemon I feel like doing that is an invitation for some fire to come visit. I hate leaving the room when the 3D printer is on.
I like my lungs more than I don’t like leaving the printer unwatched, so if I ever need to use ABS for something, I’d probably leave the room as you suggest, but I’d also set up a camera and watch the print like a hawk. And maybe have a remote emergency power-off for the printer. But I’ve avoided needing ABS so far.
@lisaviolet @RiotDemon @yeppers
That’s what ventilation sysyems are for, aka “fume hoods”.
@lisaviolet @RiotDemon @yeppers I don’t worry too much about the fire thing, but even then, I still use a raspberry pi with a camera to monitor it. helps to be able to check how the print’s going and see if it’s messed up without having to go all the way down to the basement where we have it
@RiotDemon @yeppers What do you do when the print takes twenty plus hours?
@RiotDemon @yeppers I do have a camera that when I first started I used. That’s when I learned that I need to learn how to do supports.
I saw lots of glow in the dark pink filament looking like angel hair on the print bed and no print. lol
@lisaviolet @yeppers I let the machine run and go to bed. I have a camera and a smoke alarm right next to my machine. You can buy these fire extinguisher balls that you hang above it that will explode when they get too hot if you are really worried.
/youtube fire extinguisher ball
@lisaviolet @RiotDemon @yeppers Works on dumpster fires! Is this how we’ll end 2020?
On a more serious note, while this is pretty amazing in an enclosure, I’m not sure I’d use this on a grease or gasoline fire…
@lisaviolet @mehcuda67 @RiotDemon @yeppers
It’s an ABC extinguisher, so it works on those too.
There are American-made ones too for less. The ones in the video (really a youtube ad) are $120. The AFO ones are $30. There are also decorated ones that don’t look obvious and can sit on a shelf blending in with your home decor.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07WSS7CN9
@lisaviolet @mehcuda67 @mike808 @yeppers brookstone sells this lovely abomination:
Maybe if you had it disguised in between plants it would look ok but to be it looks like something is growing on it.
@lisaviolet @mike808 @RiotDemon @yeppers I’d be more tempted to put eyes with goofy eyebrows, nose and grin on it.
You know you came here thinking this was about health risks using 3D printers to make personalized attachments for those percussion massagers being sold the other day…
I have an excess HEPA air filter near mine, it hopefully takes care of the particles as well as those from our nearby laser printer. If I was really serious I’d use an enclosure and vent it outside or to a HEPA filter. For mishap detection on large or tricky prints I usually use a remote camera. (Just an old WiFi action cam and an old dedicated tablet.) I don’t even bother with a camera for short, easy prints in PLA or PLA+ as most of my fails show symptoms in the first few layers. I probably would for ABS or PETG though. (Incidentally, since the advent of the upgraded PLA’s I’ve found very little reason to use ABS.) Again, if I was more serious, I’d do Octoprint, but I haven’t had much time for upgrading or doing prints, so it’s hard to justify the effort. When I changed out my old smoke detectors to the new code-mandated ones, one of the old ones was re-dedicated to the printer.
So yes, my setup is basically just repurposed
junkitems.@mehcuda67 The absolute best kind of setup!