I was shopping around for a new woodworking dust collector when I came across this Grizzly fume extractor, model G0953.
It’s described as a fume extractor for laser engravers, 3D printers, and as a “general air purifier.”
There are 8 filtration stages. It has a smallish footprint. There’s a pressure gauge that clues you in as to when it’s time to replace the filter. Grizzly has replacements for all of the filters.
Advertisement
There’s a 6″ inlet, or you can use one or two 4″ inlets via an adapter. There are 4 ports on top that you can open up for drawing in the air.
Here’s what I’m thinking. A few readers asked me to consider posting about laser engraving tools. Lasers create fumes, and those fumes need to be controlled. It’s best to exhaust them to the environment outside, but that’s not always possible. There are filters for indoors use, and the good ones are not any less expensive than this one.
I have a separate fume extractor for my soldering station. It’ll be good to be able to do soldering in the garage too.
I’ve been hesitant to get started with other 3D printer filaments, such as ASA. A fume extractor would allow me to test more filaments without having to figure out a window ventilation setup.
I keep dragging my feet on a benchtop airbrush paint booth because I don’t yet have room by the window for a workbench. This could be good for that too.
When looking for more info, I noticed Grizzly said:
Advertisement
It can also be used to filter harmful odors from welding booths and chemical hoods.
There are limitations. Grizzly says it can’t be used with liquids (someone asked them about machining coolant mist), or flammable materials (which means no solvent glues or similar).
I looked at fume hoods before, both the kind that exhausts air outside and the kind that filters it and exhausts the clear air back inside.
This Grizzly product looks pretty good.
I don’t need it. But I am also frustrated by the lack of reviews or commentary, and that’s making another good argument as to why I should buy it.
I have some hesitations about the price, Grizzly quality, and the ability to find replacement filters in the future.
Grizzly doesn’t mention the filter size. It’d be great if it fit 20″ filters.
Grizzly also doesn’t specify when any of the filters need to be replaced, which is also frustrating. It’s hard to take them seriously.
Potential project applications aside, I’ve never seen a product quite like this. I’ve shopped for fume hoods before, extractors, and also 3D printer fume extractors. This one’s different.
I don’t have any contacts at Grizzly. I also can’t find any other products like this – it could be exclusive to Grizzly. Thus, if I want to check it even if just for ToolGuyd purposes, that’s what my sample budget is for.
It is pricey at $2400 including shipping. I’ve seen a lot of hoods and fume extractors cost more. There are also some smaller ones that are more affordable, but there seems to be a very small list of reputable brands that are accessible to consumers.
For me, it looks like an answer to several needs albeit at higher pricing than I’d like. For testing any laser engravers or moving to engineering filaments like ASA, it – or something like this – will be necessary.
Is there any reason not to buy this? Is there anything similar I should look into ordering for review instead?
My biggest hesitation is that it’s officially described as a HEPA FUME EXTRACTOR FOR LASERS, but the design looks versatile for broader applications than that.
Jeremy
Stuart
“someone asked them about machining **must**”
And possibly
“There are filters **outside**, and the good ones are not any less pricy than this one.”
Stuart
Thanks. *fixed*!
Matt F
Grizzly’s quality has stepped up in the past few years, I wouldn’t have any hesitation about it from that perspective. You get what it says on the tin in my experience, they make pretty solid value-oriented stuff. ~Everyone uses the same overseas contracted manufacturing business model these days and they’ve been doing it longer than most.
This probably isn’t the right filter for an airbrush station (at least on its own, it can help with fumes but you wouldn’t want to suck up paint spray with it directly). They also mention that it isn’t for metal dust/shavings. Woodworking dust looks like the main secondary use from what I can tell.
Stuart
This is for fumes, not woodworking dust or metal dust or shavings.
They did say somewhere it was suitable for paint vapors, but not varnish spraying.
For airbrush use, I’m thinking other fillers can be used and this as final exhaust, if it’s something I will already have on hand. Or it can be inspiration for a as smaller DIY plan. I have also been considering a water trap.
3D printing and vapor fumes is the top consideration.
Nathan
Is it one filter or multiple. I’d see a minimum of 3. First particles second hepa and third some chemical trap like treated charcoal something
Because to clean fumes you have to have some form of a chemical trap. Treated paper or those woven plastics with catalyst. So without that I d hesitate to think fume clean. Especially with abs or other plastics. Wood and even common metals would be less toxic. But plastics especially from non epa counties could contain nearly anything.
Laser is probably the most common thing it would be used for and most think their 3d printer is already safe.
The shipping thing is crazy though is it crazy heavy? Or bigger than a table saw? Is there a grizzly near you to pick one up? 2400 buys a lot of gas and effort
Stuart
8 filters including 3 types of carbon, plus HEPA at the bottom.
Freight is $200, which isn’t unreasonable for a palleted machine.
Matt_T
Laser fume extractors do look to be available. Fumex website is worth a look. Their laser fume extractors appear to use HEPA plus activated carbon filtration similar to what’s in the Grizzly unit.
Regards the size of the Grizzly filters buying their T33153 pre filter for $40 would be one way to find the filter size. It looks like a $5 HVAC filter……………. And it looks like replacing the entire filter stack would run north of $800 if none of it can be sourced elsewhere!!
Air brush paint booth is probably a flammable application.
Stuart
Yes, laser fume extractors are available, such as from Bofa.
In a quick search, I found Fumex models for $2000 and $3500. The Grizzly has more features, such as the 4 ports for room air purifying.
With water based acrylics, not much makes it past a good filter, and by the time it’s exhausted you mainly have extremely fine particulates.
The Grizzly’s first filter box holds what looks exactly like a spray booth pocket filter.
Jon F
I went to the webpage for the extractor. It appears to have multiple filters. I then went to the individual pages for the filters that they linked to as accessories. Pre filter, bag filter, Aluminum and Potassium permanganate filter weirdly built in with carbon filters. That one raised an eyebrow. I’m not familiar with using KMnO4 for filtration but it is a powerful oxidizer. They’re breaking something down with it. Probably 20″ filters. Grizzly always uses industry standard stuff like that since they are using off the shelf parts all the time.
I was just at Grizzly in Springfield and didn’t see this filter. Their stuff isn’t bad but be wary of the specs. Especially look at the flow rate and pressure rating curves. Their documentation is online and they’ll tell you exactly what you’re getting but the “pump curve” vs service conditions are important to look at closely. Their regular dust extractors typically move a lot of air without load but quickly drop off as you load their filters or have a lot of ductwork.
Stuart
This isn’t a dust collector, it’s a fume extractor, and they make it clear it’ll clog if used inappropriately.
Ken
Grizzly does list the filter sizes in the spec sheet on the product page. looks like they are all 15×15″ of different types and thicknesses.
Stuart
I didn’t see that, thanks!
I saw one question for the spare filters, and Grizzly’s answer was that they won’t provide this since it only fits their machine.