Home made air assist

[Jim Dornon]

These are some pictures of a home made air assist I made for my Rabbit 3040. It is just a Super Luft pump (for a fish tank) rated at 2.3 cfm from an aquarium store and air line tubing from a fish tank. A tee on the end with a small nozzle. It works great. No more massive amounts of smoke, paint bubbling and then catching fire on acrylic and the lens stay cleaner. Hope this helps any one else needing an air assist. Cost about $55 total. Jim

[Jim Watkins]

I know not everybody has access, but for those of you who do, check out Harbor Freight for their Airbrush Compressor. It is an inexpensive alternative for the epilog units. The rep who sold me my unit suggested it due to the cost of the unit from epilog.

I don't know if it will work with other manufacturers, but hope it will be helpful.

ITEM 92403-9VGA

[James Jaragosky]

These are some pictures of a home made air assist I made for my Rabbit 3040. It is just a Super Luft pump (for a fish tank) rated at 2.3 cfm from an aquarium store and air line tubing from a fish tank. A tee on the end with a small nozzle. It works great. No more massive amounts of smoke, paint bubbling and then catching fire on acrylic and the lens stay cleaner. Hope this helps any one else needing an air assist. Cost about $55 total. Jim
Could you add more photos if it is not to much trouble, and make them a little bigger. My old eyes don't do small well.:(
I have been kicking this idea around for some time, and would be interested in how you solved the drag problem on the head. Do you leave it attached for rastering?
More info please.
thanks
jm j.

[Micheal Donnellan]

Jim

Your pump looks like the one I got from Wklaser, mines gold though. No documentation, have an idea of how much cfm it doing now.

[Jim Watkins]

I am not sure, but I believe it is about 2 CFM at 30 PSI.

[Bob Cole]

I started out with the Harbor Freight air compressor and got the british style threads so had a heck of a time finding the correct adapters to go to NPT for my ULS. The other issue I had is that it didn't produce enough air pressure. It is very quiet so no problem in the same room.

I finally setup the shop air compressor (in the garage) and piped it through the wall (so the noise is hardly noticable) and piped it through the two filters (mosture/air). This works a lot better.

I'm wondering if you have any issues with the air hose getting caught on anything? I would think that would be the difficult part of installing a home grown air-assist.

[Jim Dornon]

Here are more pics James, hope these help. The tubing just lays across the table. It does not get caught on anything, just goes back and forth with the head. My engraver engraves from left to right, top to bottom so it works good for me. Just an Idea to share.:)

[Jim Dornon]

Have to put in additional post to make the pics bigger.

[James Jaragosky]

Have to put in additional post to make the pics bigger.
how did you mount the air hose to the flying head.
Tape? drill and tap? glue?

[Jim Dornon]

The hose is secured by the screw already in place in the head. Use a cable clamp, you can get at lowes.

[Eric Allen]

I know not everybody has access, but for those of you who do, check out Harbor Freight for their Airbrush Compressor. It is an inexpensive alternative for the epilog units. The rep who sold me my unit suggested it due to the cost of the unit from epilog.

I don't know if it will work with other manufacturers, but hope it will be helpful.

ITEM 92403-9VGA

If you get a Harbor Freight compressor and use it much, I'd make two recommendations. Blow a fan across it, they aren't good at dispersing heat, and get the two year extended warranty. I have a model 93647 I was happy with until I spent an afternoon airbrushing. It worked great, had to stop and clean a clog, two sprays later and I had to play taps for it. At $80, I was VERY thankful I got the extended warranty. I never buy those, but something told me......