Joe Hillmann
03-02-2012, 3:45 PM
I finally got around to building an air assist for my laser, a Universal X660. I looked into buying one but couldn't justify the cost, about $1,300, so I built this which cost less then $10.
It is just a few feet of clear vinyl tubing with a quick connect one one end and a needle for blowing up basketballs on the other end mounted in a bracket that mounts to the head of the laser. The needle is aimed to blow the air directly into the cut and allows me to cut about 75% faster then without and it also prevents the area around the cut from getting stained.
Now for the bad.
I don't plan to use it for rastoring because I think the extra weight on the head would become an issue at 100% speed.
I do not think I can use the lower 5 or 6 inches of the Y-axis, I think the air hose will get tangled if I go down to far.
I also need to build a water separator before summer when the humidity gets high.
Here are the pics.
The attachment isn't bolted to the head. To mount it I take out the lower screw, slide it on then put the screw back in but the hole in the attachment is larger then the head of the screw so the screw is more for alignment then to hold it on. The reason I did it that was is because the screws have tapered heads to align the mirrors with the beam and I figured if I used those screws to hold it the mirrors may come out of alignment.
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This photo shows the front of the cut, notice how clean it is, usually I would have to tape the front or do lots of sanding to clean up the smoke that sticks to it.
225991
And this is the backside, it is a little stained (the dark spot is where the laser ran the same cuts 2 times) I think I could reduce the staining by no having it on the grid but the piece of wood was bowed so I put it in there to force the bow out of it.
225992
It is just a few feet of clear vinyl tubing with a quick connect one one end and a needle for blowing up basketballs on the other end mounted in a bracket that mounts to the head of the laser. The needle is aimed to blow the air directly into the cut and allows me to cut about 75% faster then without and it also prevents the area around the cut from getting stained.
Now for the bad.
I don't plan to use it for rastoring because I think the extra weight on the head would become an issue at 100% speed.
I do not think I can use the lower 5 or 6 inches of the Y-axis, I think the air hose will get tangled if I go down to far.
I also need to build a water separator before summer when the humidity gets high.
Here are the pics.
The attachment isn't bolted to the head. To mount it I take out the lower screw, slide it on then put the screw back in but the hole in the attachment is larger then the head of the screw so the screw is more for alignment then to hold it on. The reason I did it that was is because the screws have tapered heads to align the mirrors with the beam and I figured if I used those screws to hold it the mirrors may come out of alignment.
225988225989225990
This photo shows the front of the cut, notice how clean it is, usually I would have to tape the front or do lots of sanding to clean up the smoke that sticks to it.
225991
And this is the backside, it is a little stained (the dark spot is where the laser ran the same cuts 2 times) I think I could reduce the staining by no having it on the grid but the piece of wood was bowed so I put it in there to force the bow out of it.
225992