Compressor: connect to air assist inlet

[Hurricos]

The compressor used for air-assist is inside the unit; it looks like this.

It must be connected to the inlet within the machine.

TODOs

• Measure piping size
• Find piping

[heaventwig]

Jake might have one to use in the interim.

[heaventwig]

This is noncritical for initial test-firing of laser. It becomes critical for any extended run, as the compressor provides the coolant (stream of air) for the working piece at the point being burned by the laser, and helps prevent FIRES.

[DaBlender]

These are what I have. The California one isn’t turning on recently might be a fuse. It’s pretty new. The other has been working but hard to tell as I’m cutting thin.

[DaBlender]

We attempted this today and discovered it was most likely hooked up to shop wide air, a mounted pressure regulator is outside looks very retrofitted. Perhaps the compressor included hasn’t been used much, and Venn is working on a solution to quick fit the mismatch of tubing and adapters.

[heaventwig]

Today I acquired another internally threaded 1/4" NPT to quick-connect adapter.

I've ordered a part at FW Webb (SAE 1/8" hose insert to 1/4" NPT) that should handle connecting the existing internal hose to a quick-connect on the exterior of the box (salvaged from the bolt-on pressure regulator). Should arrive Monday.

I've got one more place to look for a nipple converter that runs from 5/16 SAE to 1/4" NPT. FW Webb suggested I try Sid Harvey's. That should complete the quick connect loop by offering QC termination at the compressor.

[heaventwig]

Ordered a 5/16" SAE x 1/4" NPT adapter from Sid Harvey's; expected arrival Monday or Tuesday, 9/23 or 9/24.

[heaventwig]

The SAE 5/16 does not fit.

The threads on the existing fitting — a threaded pipe to hose-barb nipple that takes outlet air from the compressor and feeds it into the air assist tubes — are straight-threaded, with

• 0.5mm pitch (2 threads per mm, measured as 5 threads in 2.50mm peak to peak)
• major diameter of 5.93mm (fits M6 tolerances, and sits between # 12 and 1/4" standard),
• pitch diameter of 5.70mm (matching no metric standard, sitting between 1/4 and 5/16 coarse and between # 12 and 1/4" fine),
• minor diameter of 5.62mm (fits M7 tolerances in class 6g for 1mm thread pitch, but not for 0.5mm thread pitch; sits between 1/4 and 5/16 coarse, or between # 12 and 1/4" fine)

So for a long-term fix-it dream, I'm tempted to take off the plate of the compressor that holds the threaded part and bring it to a metal shop.

For the short term, I'm inclined to give up on replacing the existing part (and give up on the quick-connect concept), go buy some hose from the store, and set this thing up with a lasting (and not as easily disconnected) short-run attachment. Maybe also run some of that same hose from the compressor's air-inlet port to the air assist port on the exterior of the laser box, so it feeds from room air.

[heaventwig]

I've bought myself a pair of pitch gauges, metric and fractional, and identified the pitch on those threads as 1.0 (which is strange, since my notes and memory say there's two per mm, but whatever).

And I've acquired some vinyl hose of appropriate scale, along with a couple of tiny hose clamps, and rigged up an outlet adapter so the air compressor can feed a quick-connect. So once we have it working, we can more easily connect it to the air assist inlet.