Dedicated to each machine. Mainly due to noise, belt drives aren't any good to me here but the Clarke has a gross noise just under normal speech levels.
I use just an oil-less vacuum pump without a tank. It was supplied with my LaserPro 100W by its distributor. I believe it's the same pump that most $100 airbrush compressors come with.
It is more than enough to supply 20L/M of air at 40PSI.
Last edited by ozstockman; 01-15-2013 at 10:32 PM.
For now I just use the Hailea aquarium air pump supplied with the laser. Don't have money for a proper compressor. The Hailea does a good enough job on the 3mm MDF and 1.5mm ply I normally cut. Not enough air flow for 4mm ply though. Since noise is not an issue where I work I will be buying a belt drive compressor when I can afford it.
Make sure whatever you get has a duty cycle to match your requirements. Many compressors don't like running continuously. Avoid the direct drive piston compressors as they are very loud and don't last long if running all the time.
I am running a 14 cfm belt drive compressor. My machine came with
A hailea pump that pumps at 200 litres per minute. My thinking is
Will a hailea awurium pump that pumps out 420 litres per minute
Be ok and suitable for the thicker stuff since its pumping out more
Air. Not sure if my theory is correct though.
The Hailea pumps give off a decent volume of air but at low pressure. If you use a small diameter nozzle to get a good blast they are just not up to the job.
I use a HF pancake compressor that I've had for a while. It's not 100% duty cycle, but when it's fully loaded it takes about 8 minutes to drain with a quality regulator set to 10 PSI. The regulator that came with the compressor cannot hold a steady low pressure. If the print takes longer than ~8 minutes, I just turn it back on and let it run. Most of my jobs are less than 20 minutes continuous laser time, so this method will work until the compressor eventually dies.
FYI, the oil-less compressor is insanely loud and I have it in a closet to help muffle the noise when the compressor is running.
It's the nature of compressed gas of any type that expansion causes a sudden drop in temperature, that drop causes condensation that can condense onto the underside of the lens (and works like a lens scattering the beam)
The inline expansion filters are ok, but literally OK and not much else.A cheap one or two silica gel cartridges work really well just be sure to replace them when they get gummed up.
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Which Compressor Do You Use for Laser Cutting?
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