LCEM

LASER CUTTER ENABLED MODULE or LVL1 versus The Smoke Monster

The LVL1 Hackerspace has had the great fortune of receiving a grant to purchase, among other things, a large format laser cutter.

But with a laser cutter comes the responsibility of handling the fumes (The Smoke Monster). A simple examination of the cutting bed shows its ilk.

The first method of attack was to vent the beast.

But fumes vented to the outside, still smell funny. And even though LVL1 is located near a place that turns pigs into wonderful breakfast meats, there were a few complaints. LVL1 dutifully upgraded the system with a larger capacity filter and all went well.

But filters are a fussy lot and when they clog, the smoke monster escapes. After much coughing, a new element is added that monitors the air flow through the filter and when reduced or clogged, the laser firing circuit is disabled.