Activated carbon filter for IKEA lack enclosure

Wanted to create a filter for reducing fumes and odors (VOCs) that come out of molten plastics when printing at home so activated carbon pellets was the way I wanted to go than a some airpurifier/vacuum cleaner/car fresh airfilter because its cheaper to buy bag of pellets than some filter that could not be available someday and you get more activated carbon granules than those little filters for better amount of absorbtion and longer lasting effect.

This is made IKEA lack enclosure in mind but works with any this type enclosure.

The filtering assembly consist few parts:

• fan mounting shroud (screws or anti-vibration mounts model)
• wind tunnel (optional for IKEA lack table. Other enclosure types not need this)
• socket for pellet box
• pellet box
• holed tray for activated carbon granules
• pellet box lid and hinges/latch (optional)

Assembly is quite straightforward and easy:

• Drill 140mm hole to enclosure top part left or right side of spool. Center of hole should be 120mm away from rear and side edge.
• Attach fan to fan shroud with screws or anti-vibration mounts. Then aling part to center of hole and screw shroud in place. Do electrical wiring as you see best considering your skill and knowledge. IKEA lack enclosure manual has picture of wiring in LED installation part if you are using 24V fan so you can use printers power supply.
• Place wind tunnel to hole in table top part. Aling one screw hole to rear and one to side.
• Aling screw holes with pellet box adapter and aling box with enclosure and screw in place thru screw holes.
• Place pellet box top of pellet box adapter. Here is no permanent attachment because box is removable. If you use lid now is good time to screw or glue hinges and latch in place.
• Place holed tray in box and fill with activated carbon pellets.
• Ready to print.

Pellet box is removable for easier emptying and printer maintenance and optional lid for box is preventing dust collecting to granules or if you have a pet that is curious to do things so you dont have small pellets all over your floor.

I used a 140 mm fan (Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC-24V-2000 Q100 IP67 PWM) for pushing air thru pellets but any fan will work. My fan is 24 V version because MK3S+ has 24 V power supply where I took power for fan but if using 12 V fan use a external power supply.

I think this fan is not making too much draft inside the box there is light breeze of warm air coming out of the pellet box. I have a lowered the speed of fan with resistor (Noctua NA-SRC7) to just make it quieter/less draft. Airflow depends what size are activated carbon pellets. I have about 4x6 mm round ones. Actually made little 10 mm raiser parts under the legs to get more air in case to lower inside temp a few degrees (optional part). I have a thermometer inside enclosure and lower part is about 24 C and upper about 34 C (room temp 21 C) when printing few hours PETG.

Everything can be printed with 0.2mm layer height and I recommend PETG because heat but PLA probably works too. No supports needed except parts latch ja fan shroud.

I dont have any scientific data does this actually work but activated carbon is used to filter gases in air. You can find more on this subject on internet using search word like “activated carbon in air purification” etc.