Air Assist Compressor Recommendations

[Ed Maloney]

Time for a new compressor. I did a search here and most of the air compressor posts are many years old and some of the
recommended ones are no longer available. Would like to get one that has a gauge and a regulator.
Recommendations for one that will do the job and not be an overkill?

The saga that started all of this is here:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...50#post2583150

[Scott Marquez]

I think you need to step back and search just how much air people are using in their lasers.
I have a Rabbit laser with a 60 watt tube and it has a a little fish pond pump that creates enough air to keep the nozzle clear.
Your last post talked about using air in the 30 psi range through your nozzle, that seems like a lot to me.
I would be curious as to what others are using and how they came to that conclusion.
Scott

[Dave Sheldrake]

On wood I run 35psi at the nozzle with a 2.5mm exit hole.

Made the decision based on normal laser cutting principles used on the bigger machines, Carbon reduces laser efficiency by a huge factor if it is not cleared efficiently.

http://www.boconline.co.uk/internet....9553.pdf?v=2.0

Have a look at the basics on page 10 of the above

[Keith Downing]

Time for a new compressor. I did a search here and most of the air compressor posts are many years old and some of the
recommended ones are no longer available. Would like to get one that has a gauge and a regulator.
Recommendations for one that will do the job and not be an overkill?

The saga that started all of this is here:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...50#post2583150

There are a LOT of factors you haven't given us any information on that will greatly influence what advice to give. Budget, space, location, and how often you use your laser just to name a few.

What I can tell you is that I went through the same search last year and settled on the Ingersoll Rand 60 gallon 3 hp. I spent about $750 to my door and another ~$500 (and a couple days of part time work) to get it plumbed in around my shop and install 2 regulators and basic water filter/separator. I do like having it for a lot of reasons, but it's definitely a tradeoff in and of itself running air assist from a compressor.

First, I had no idea how much even the 60 gallon compressor would have to run to keep up even at only 15-20psi. Probably on about 60% of the time now. That means if you're running the laser for 6 hours a day, that compressor is running almost 4 hours each day. Second, these things can be pretty loud. Part of that is probably my fault for not planning for the noise but still, it will be loud unless you have it in another room. I can't attest to how much the larger HP units run or how loud they are. But now you're getting into solutions that are at least a few thousand dollars I would guess.

Anyways, that's my experience. Hope it helps.

Also, they probably won't appreciate questions specifically about lasers. But there are several recent and informative threads over in the General Woodworking and power tools forum here about compressors and plumbing them in that will give you a lot more of the information you'll probably need to make an informed decision about the purchase and setup.