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After doubling our power, and quadrupling our cooling we were excited to test-drive our new laser and push the limits… and it wasn’t that far beyond our old laser cutter. Which seems wrong – it should be twice as good!

So we started tinkering with the other variables, and we discovered that the volume of introduced air plays a huge part in how efficient the cut is. Too little air – like our current airbrush compressor – and we wouldn’t clear the soot from our cut. Then we tried too much air, and learned it would burn massive gashes through our material. But between 15-30psi the laser cuts so well it feels like cheating. We should have done this literally years ago.

*Technically, it’s Free

Air is free. We unplugged the cheap air-brush compressor that came with our laser, and connected the air line straight into our shop air compressor. While an air-compressor isn’t free, every shop should have one, they unlock so many options. If you have a laser cutter and no air compressor, forget about upgrading your laser, buy an air compressor. It is a supremely versatile tool, enabling all sorts of pneumatic tools, cleaning, cooling, and (surprisingly) laser upgrades.

Anyways… we shoved a blow-gun into the air port, and just like that we went from struggling through 1/4″ plywood to cutting 3/4″ plywood. I think it took six passes, but it’s still mind blowing. But I’m lazy and would rather not get a hand-cramp for every cut, so how do we make this more professional?

The $50 solution:

We started by brainstorming our ideal setup:
1) It still has to work without the air compressor,
2) If we add the compressor, it should only use the high-pressure air while lasing,
3) It needs to be idiot-proof

Then, we designed to the spec:
1) “It has to work without the air compressor”
We begin with two check valves. One to prevent air from from the air-brush compressor from escaping out the high-pressure port when the big compressor is detached, and one to prevent the high pressure air from damaging the weaker air-brush compressor.

2) “Without wasting pressure”
Next, we added an air solenoid. Every laser controller will provide a GPIO (General-Purpose-Input-Output) that indicates when the laser is firing. For us, it was called “Wind,” and it was a 24v tolerant port that connected to ground when the laser fired. So by wiring that to a 24v air solenoid we can limit airflow to when the laser is firing.

2b) Bonus light:
Because we have a 24v signal available, we decided we would use this to power a warning light to make sure everyone knew the laser was firing. And what better thing to light than the cut itself! So we added some LEDs to the enclosure to light the cut-in-progress. You could run these on the same 24v, but we fell down a rabbit hole and built a box to switch 120v using a solid-state relay.

3) “Idiot Proof”
Since we’re running a communal shop, we want this to be super easy to use. Which means we need to regulate our airflow independent of the compressor settings – because hooking up 120psi will pop the hoses off of the fittings and potentially start fires. In a solo-shop, you could just write a note by the port and manually adjust pressure. But for our communal and semi-production environment, we wanted the assurance provided by a secondary regulator. We stole ours from a dead air-compressor we found in a dumpster, but you can (of course), order one on amazon for $16: Please click one of the affiliate links**. This gives us a super-convenient “saved” setpoint for the laser – we set it to 20 psi for the best all-around performance, but it can be easily tweaked during a cut.

(Note: You want the solenoid valve before the regulator – that way your pressure isn’t limited by the narrow internal passages of the solenoid). And just like that, we’re now routinely cutting thicker wood, faster, and keeping our lens cleaner at the same time!

_{**Full disclosure: we link only products we actually use, and we have not tried this regulator}
*** I had to spend to spend forever photoshopping this AI diagram. Trying to get gpt to get all the arrows correct ended up with this: