What do you use to supply air for air assist

[Nancy Laird]

We have a 60-gallon in a separate bump-out for the workshop that hubby runs his air tools from, and he ran a line between the two buildings for air for my 40W - it just has a valve to open and close and I have immediate air. The compressor stays on just about all the time, so I have air whenever I need it....and no noise to add to the noise of two lasers and a blower fan!!

[Shawn Conklin]

Didnt want to start a new thread just for a random 'good buy' so I dug up this post from a bit ago.

Just picked up a GAST compressor off ebay. They have more. I offered $64 and with shipping the total was $75.

They are rated up to 100psi but mine was shimmed to put out ~40psi. I put on a $15 regulator from the hardware store and set it to 30psi.

Works well. It is just a bit louder then the helix I have but actually a more plesant sound then the epilog fans :-) .... both are quieter than my filtration unit though so I don't notice either when engraving.


Anyhow. I am not clear on the link posting policy for stuff for sale so Ill say its on the bay and 290457905373 will find it in search. ... or "

Gast Compressor/Vacuum Pump LOA-115A-HB"

[Robert Walters]

This is what I use, it is an oil-less, aquarium, piston pump

Hey Paul,

I saw those in the hydroponics store the other day.

1) The connectors seemed smaller than typical, how did you connect a regulator and dryer to it?

2) How noisy is it?

[Gary Bernat]

Also check this link.. http://www.harborfreight.com/1-5-hp-...kit-95630.html

[James E Baker]

All this talk about using fish tank air pumps for air assist has me just a bit confused.

Maybe it's a bit different for the Epilogs, but the section in the ULS User Guide covering "Manual Air Assist" states:

If you choose to provide your own source, it must be capable of supplying 50 PSI (pounds per square inch) (4.1 bar) at a constant rate of 2.5 CFM (cubic feet per minute) (4.25 cubic meters/hour).

I can't see a a small aquarium pump maintaining that kind of flow rate.

When my 3 cu ft/min compressor failed and was out of service until I could get it replaced under warranty, I hooked a small 1.0 cu ft/min pancake style oil-less compressor up to my VLS4.60 as a test. With the regulator on the compressor set to 40 psi, and the VersaLASER's regulator for the cone path set to 10 psi, once the charge in the storage tank had run down, the best the pump on the 1.0 cu ft/min compressor could maintain was about 6 psi on the VersaLASER's cone path gauge.

The Gast Compressor/Vacuum Pump LOA-115A-HB mentioned earlier is rated at only 0.83 cu ft/min open flow.

Am I missing something obvious here? What sort of pressure are you guys running?

[Shawn Conklin]

Unless its in some random back corner of the documents/web Epilog doesn't specify flow rates just PSI. Which is stated as 30PSI MAX.

There is a blurb comparing the 2 lasers in this post. Looks like the ULS requires more beef for more features?

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=67576

[paul mott]

Hey Paul,

I saw those in the hydroponics store the other day.

1) The connectors seemed smaller than typical, how did you connect a regulator and dryer to it?

2) How noisy is it?

Hi Robert,

These pumps are usually supplied with the low end laser machines from China and as my twin cylinder Roc-R is really quite noisy I wondered just how much air assist is really necessary so I decided to try out one of these Koi pond / aquarium pumps.
It is mounted on AV feet and the noise of the air escaping from my nozzle is greater than the sound of the pump motor running. I have not found any necessity to dry the air but I do adjust the flowrate using another simple and cheap aquarium product designed for regulating the flow through pond air diffusers etc.


Sounds like James could blast through without the laser just using the air (sorry James - just my warped sense of humor).

Paul.

[James E Baker]

Unless its in some random back corner of the documents/web Epilog doesn't specify flow rates just PSI. Which is stated as 30PSI MAX.

There is a blurb comparing the 2 lasers in this post. Looks like the ULS requires more beef for more features?

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=67576

Thanks for that link. It answered a lot of questions.

[James E Baker]

Sounds like James could blast through without the laser just using the air (sorry James - just my warped sense of humor).

Reading this post seems to indicate that the ULS needs most of its extra airflow for the air curtains on the optics protection path.

The airflow requirements didn't worry me when I had the 3 cfm compressor hooked up, but the little 1 cfm unit just couldn't cut the mustard. I plan to fit a 220V 20 cfm compressor into the workshop (primarily to run a sand blasting system) and I'll run an air line feed from that.

Currently I leave the compressor switched on all the time and control the air to the VLS with an inline 7 cfm rated solenoid air valve which operates from the same remote control switch that my extraction blower is fed from.