WANTED: Laser cutter air assist head & Water chiller (for cheap)

[mowcius]

I'm looking for an air assist head for my laser cutter - came up with nothing on eBay - not really wanting to spend lots of money on it but anyone got any suggestions of where to look?

Also looking for a water chiller for around £50 or so - I know that's a tall order for that price but anyone got any suggestions.
Anyone had any experience with whacking a lot of pipe in a mini fridge and running through that? Mini fridge likely to die an early death?

Cheers,

Mowcius

[Armis]

regarding the chiller, I think I read a post about someone who used an auto radiator with coolant/antifreeze to keep their laser regulated properly -- it might have been a request, suggest, or just a working idea so you might want to look that up. Oh, and I'm not sure if it was this site or the other discussion site about CNC machines.

[TLHarrell]

Take a look over at Buildlog. Bart sells the air assist hardware. As for cooling, a radiator setup for computer cooling should be sufficient. You don't need or want condensation, so you don't want water chilled to refrigerator/freezer levels. Condensation + electronics = very bad. Cheaper method would be to simply increase the volume of your water tank and monitor it's temperature.

[mowcius]

I'll take a look on the buildlog site - been a while since I poked my head in.

Regarding the cooling, yeah you can get away with cooling to room temp but you lose power the warmer it is. Ideally I want it about 7C or so. Condensation can be controlled.

[skip20]

I'll take a look on the buildlog site - been a while since I poked my head in.

Regarding the cooling, yeah you can get away with cooling to room temp but you lose power the warmer it is. Ideally I want it about 7C or so. Condensation can be controlled.

Try a drinking water cooler & use distilled water.

[mowcius]

I hadn't thought of a small drinking water chiller. I'll have to have an ask around - cheers!

[skip20]

I hadn't thought of a small drinking water chiller. I'll have to have an ask around - cheers!

Back in the '80's had a Universal 1750 50watt laser & the cooler was a water cooler w a tank for the water.

[Smiffy6885]

Hi, Im in the prossesing of modding my own k40 and have found the following very effective.

Air assist head from lightobject.com - fits perfectly and works great. I've used a coiled hose to link it to the outside of the machines case, then another one to the compressor. I also picked up a digi readout, but I think I might stick with the analoge one.

As for the cooling. I'm currently using a 9ltr Ali catering container as a resivoir. Currently this contains only filtered water at the moment, but I will soon be adding some anti freeze to stop/slow any unwanted matter growth. The res is cooled by a few case fans and seems to be pretty effective, but I have just received in the mail today, a 130x150mm ish Ali rad which I will be cooling with two artic case fans. I'll also be installing a flow scout and inline temp gauge.

At the moment, with just the air assist and 9ltr resivoir I can cut through a complex A4 design on 2mm mdf in one pass using 80-90% power and 8mm/s with out it going too far above start temp. Once its all sorted and installed properly I'll report back as to it's effectiveness. Still though, It would be nice to actually chill the water, not just cool it. There are some cheap mini fridges available on eBay, I was thinking of just putting the resivoir container in there, should do the job nicely without compromising the fridge too much. Plus some extra space to keep a few cheeky beers.