[kb0nly]

Looks like you have done some great mods. I also have the spotting laser. Did you wire it to the laser's electrical and if so, where did you tie it in? or did you use a separate power source? Also, I am adding air assist but have been trying to find out how much air is optimal? I have several large compressors but they are way too loud. I want to switch to a commercial aquarium pump. When searching, I have found posts that recommend everywhere from 9lph to 3200lph. That is just too big a difference for me to figure out what is needed. I want to have enough without overkill. I know 5-6 psi is plenty but cannot convert that to lph or gph which is how aqua pumps are measured. Trying to keep the budget to a minimum so don't want to buy a $150 pump if the $35 one will be sufficient.
Thank you for any info you give me on this, Jeff

I bought a cheap $40 aquarium air pump, not sure what it's actually rating is without crawling under the bench again to check but it certainly wasn't that much, just a steady stream of air out the nozzle that keeps wood and paper from flaring up and poof the smoke away from the mirrors. You don't need much to really make a difference. I want to say mine was something like 150lph it's pretty small but quietly hums along and does a great job.

As for the pointer power it's a 5v laser module from eBay and connected to the 5v output on the stock power supply, nothing fancy just works!


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[kb0nly]

I just bought one of these 40 Watt units as well. My results haven't been as rosy as the rest of you. I've been experiencing some fluctuation in the laser power and general strangeness. Yesterday I cut some thick paper with no problems. Today I tried a different design and the laser was having trouble cutting the paper unless I took multiple passes... If I fiddle with the current control knob I can sometimes get it to cut properly if I find the 'sweet' spot where the power supply seems to get a bit quieter and sounds more like white noise than a whine. Is my power supply supposed to be making any noise at all other than fan noise? When pushing the test button it seems like it would cut better for just a moment before dropping significantly in power.

My power supply is completely quiet, I would say either you have a bad power supply, bad connections to the laser tube and arcing, or badly aligned mirrors. I tweaked my mirrors and got much more even cutting vs power level set. Spend some time aligning and go from there.

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