How Easy/Hard is it to fit Honeycomb cells in the K40?

Lasers
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21

I couldn’t make a coil hose fit. I tried 2" cable chain too, and there’s just no place to put it.
Space is tighter than you think in there, none of the conventional stuff seems to fit. Maybe you’ll figure out how to make use of the coilhose, but you might want to have some straight hose on hand just in case.

Short of removing the lid and running the feedhose down from a boom, I can’t figure out a way to use a coil.
The air assist works so well, it’s worth a little hose minding if that’s what you have to do.

I haven’t tried one of the air pumps myself, I’m lucky to have a commercial compressor in an outbuilding from my shop, so you can’t hear it. and it’s large enough that it only comes on once an hour or so feeding 12lpm to the head.

There’s a lot of people using pumps, I can’t imagine they’re real quiet either and getting the right size is important because you can’t just turn it up if turns out to be too small. I’d get advice on make and model from someone actually successfully using a pump on the same head.

Beware of advice on internet boards, (yes, even mine) there are a lot of “instruction manual experts” mixed in with some very knowledgeable ones, and it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference. Always check out things through multiple sources.
That’s being said, this IS the place for hobby laser experimenters, and there’s an incredible wealth of knowledge here. We’re in the process of working to make the answers to common questions into a reference section.
Pump specs and sources would be a good line item.

Anyway, I can tell you that 12 - 20 lpm (measured with a Dwyer Rotameter) is usually adequate for plywood etc. With Acrylic, I turn it way down to where the ball is just rattling. If engraving, the lower end of the range is usually OK especially if you tape the workpiece to prevent smoke stains. That’s all with the Saite head, and the high end is usually when I have a longer focal length lens in, which requires more distance between the head and workpiece, thus more air. The longer lenses cut thicker materials well, but are less precise, especially for fine engraving.
With the stock lens, you may get away with less flow, but if it’s something like wood, you’ll get flames if you turn it down too far. Beware laser fires…

Scott

22

Sorry, Missed your question way back, found it doing some computer houskeeping,
The ID on the Saite head is 20mm. 21max.

23

Thanks Scott, I tried to hunt down the smallest coiled air line I could, as my first choose was a cable chain (is I have a few here left over from 3D printing projects, but as you say there is no way of that working) will certainly get some straight 1/4" tubing in, just in case!

Regards the pump, I kept coming across K40 posts and blogs with that model in various powers from from 30-60L/min…so thought I would get the one up and can always use a tap to reduce the air as needed…just hope its quieter then my compressor!.

24

Hard to say on a lot of that stuff, especially the Chinese stuff. It’s generally exaggerated severely. If you want a laugh run your water pump into a milk jug for 1 minute and see how it’s flow compares with the box…

If the noise bothers you, but it in the basement, or outdoors. An old garden hose can be made into a low restriction pipeline…

So, Bigger is better, if you get half what they claim, I’d be surprised.
That said, You can always turn it down…