Laser Honeycomb Corner Bracket w Air Gap for Better Fume Extraction

And the winner for the longest title is... me!

Seriously though, I made a simple upgrade that greatly improves the function and efficiency of my laser engraver and fume extractor. I own a small business and cut a lot of leather. The smell is always an issue, even with a dedicated fume extractor and filter box with dust & pollen pre-filtering, two stages of HEPA filtration, an activated carbon flow-through cartridge and two stages of final dust & pollen foam filter media filtration and an exhaust fan venting into the outside air. Leather smoke is very stinky and very sticky. I couldn't determine why the odor was lingering so heavily until yesterday I cut leather for a small bracelet and I realized that a lot of leather smoke was trapped in the honeycomb cells, due to the aluminum wasteboard at the bottom. I designed a simple corner bracket with a 2.5mm gap to allow the air to pass under and through. I made the mounting surface taller than the bracket so I could install 3M two-sided tape to the top and bottom inside of the bracket. Mount the bottom two corner brackets, slide the aluminum wasteboard into place then mount the top two into place. Press firmly at the corners so the two-sided tape seats properly. A huge improvement in extraction, which means less leather odor lingering about.

NOTE: You will need to look at the height / thickness of your honeycomb frame. Mine is 23mm, so I added 3.5mm inner height to account for the height of the two-sided tape, for a total of 26.5mm. If you want a taller air gap, remix and extrude from the center between the two gaps to make the air gap taller. If you want more height, remix and extrude from the bottom - the side closest to the narrow gap - to add the amount of extra height you need.

Print with the flat side down as indicated in the image and you won't need to use supports.