Hey guys,
I’m getting an air assist setup with an air compressor. I see online you can buy nozzles with an air fitting attached for the hose. Does anyone have experience with one that works good? I thought about 3d printing one but wonder if there’s any downside to that or safety issues. I see some online are made of metal and some plastic. I also gather one is might be better than another for cutting or engraving
What’s your experiences? Thanks a lot
It depends on your machine and focal length… On my 100 watt Co2 I have a couple sizes of tip. I have one with a very small opening for my 4" lens and for my 1.5" lens I had to make a custom size by drilling one out. Shorter focal lengths have a wider convergence and require the aperture to be wider. From my experience I wouldnt use plastic for that… Likely it could melt. I had some experimanting to do before I got mine set up so the beam clears the tip with no interference… couple of times the tip got quite warm because a small portion of the beam was obscured and was hitting the tip. If it were 3d printed I would have started it on fire. Even a small beam alignment issue could cause problems…or flare up from deep cuts etc could heat the tip up. I spent only a few bucks on a selection of tips that came with the quick disconnect.
On another note I believe there is clear benefit for air assist. Primarily keeping the lens clean and cool. A fresh supply of air down the nozzle keeps everything clean. Also reducing flare ups and pushing debris and smoke down the cut line. Deeper and cleaner cuts and engraving results from pushing smoke and gasses away from the burn
Agree with @ednisley, I couldn’t live without air assist anymore… it cleans up cut edges well and keeps debris off the lens…
Good luck
I’m new at this -so excuse the basic questions please - can you recommend a website to order lenses and nozzles for my OmTech 80w? Can you search by machine make/model for the parts or do you measure something on the machine to see what nozzle will fit?
I found this website which seemed to have a couple options
Thanks!
Perhaps directly from OMTech?
While you’re “new at this”, don’t start by replacing critical parts of the machine. Get used to what you have, learn how it works, decide what you need to do something else, then spend the money.
By then, you’ll be knowledgeable enough to sort through the suppliers, perhaps even on Amazon, and get the right items.
Don’t underestimate @ednisley comments on learning to use what you have.
I’ve had my machines for a number of years… Although I started swapping parts out of the China Blue pretty soon after I received it. I only changed parts that I understood how they worked and heading towards what I wanted as an end machine.
I had a couple dpssl machine and the co2 upgrade was planned. Some of the issues you have is mirror adjustments. To make an alignment easy, you need to be able to adjust m2 along the Y axes and the head in the Z axes.
Y adjustment on m2 allows you to move the spot on m3 in the Y direction and the Z adjust on m3 adjusts how the beam goes down the lens tube to the table.
On most of these stock machines, there is very little ability to do this…
An alignment is quick and easy when you can adjust everything.
I’d recommend you measure the OD and ID of the tube to ensure what you have. Most of these are 18mm tube/lens combinations from the factory. The C series is 20mm.
You can find lenses, tubes, heads from Cloud Ray or OMTech.
We can make suggestions to you, but you have to have enough knowledge on how they work and what you want in particular. Also keep in mind that you can purchase the same machine from different vendors and parts may fit one, but not the over…
I had a conversation with Russ Sadler about how this stuff doesn’t fit in many occasions… He advised me that he’s had identical looking machine, where a part was 10mm (almost a 1/2") different between the two machines…
Take your time and learn about them… that in itself is a lifelong endevour 
Good luck
Thanks guys! I got it and I’ll get used to what came with the machine first and go from there. Have a nice holiday weekend!
I have had great luck with even the cheap lenses on Amazon. I just swapped my lens out that I bought on eBay about three years ago… It was just a cheap no name china lens and worked a treat. Hundreds of hours of run time before I toasted it. I just picked up a new set of lenses on Amazon that are working awesome.