Nozzle Setup tips

Questions, Suggestions, Tips, Etc

Nozzle Setup tips

Postby bdring » Sun Apr 03, 2011 2:10 pm

If you get the beam through the nozzle in some positions, but not others, that usually indicates a less than perfect alignment.

Make sure you are in the center so slight variations will not cause it to hit the sides. If you hit slightly, the reflecting beam might show up as bad cut quality.

Make sure the final mirror (in lens holder) is not rotated slightly. This will cause the beam to go down at an angle. This happened to me once and it took a long time to figure out. I was getting angled cuts.

Consider drilling out the nozzle. I made the hole as small as I though anybody would ever want with the idea that people would drill to suit their requirement. While everything was fine, I drilled mine about 25% over as an experiment to see how it affected flow. I didn't notice much difference, but left it anyway.
Bart
"If you didn't build it, you will never own it."
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Re: Nozzle air pressure

Postby LeonS » Sun Apr 03, 2011 2:37 pm

I am using a Harbor Freight air brush pump for air assist. It manages to keep positive pressure within the nozzle., but just barely. It kind of "puffs" out but the air is always going out of the nozzle; as compared to in and out.

I tried another small air compressor with small tanks but it did a poorer job than the airbrush compressor.

Is maintaining a low positive pressure in the nozzle adequate?

- Leon
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Re: Nozzle Setup tips

Postby bdring » Sun Apr 03, 2011 3:09 pm

I don't know how much pressure I have at the nozzle.

The puffing should be minimized. It can cause vibration at the lens. The easiest way to to fix this is to create the pneumatic equivalent of an RC filter. The R (resistance) could be a ball valve and the C (capacitance) would be some amount of volume in front of the valve. I have about 6 feet of hose in front of my valve (C) and I turn the valve to about half (R). It works great and quiets the pump down too. Consider a filter too. The last thing you want is too pump dust right at the lens.
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