Air blower for cnc milling

K

kiinstructor

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Currently I am using an old paint compressor for blowing the dust and chips from my cutting bit when milling pockets. Darn thing is awful loud but does the job sufficiently. I tried to use the compressor which is about a 40 gallon sears model but the thing continues to kick in pretty regularly. Also I hadn't drained it for sometime and found a little moisture being blown out. Got that fixed with a filter and draining the compressor but Im almost thinking I may need a larger one and they are a hefty price. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I dont think there are to many options here but maybe someone does it more efficiently. Thanks again and happiness.

Mark
 
You only need about 10-15 psi to blow the dust out. You do need a small nozzle to direct the air so both the volume and pressure are low. You are best off to attach it to the head so the nozzly moves with the tool.
A small ball valve a piece of 1/8 soft copper and the needed fittings works great.

John
 
RocketQ said:
You only need about 10-15 psi to blow the dust out. You do need a small nozzle to direct the air so both the volume and pressure are low. You are best off to attach it to the head so the nozzly moves with the tool.
A small ball valve a piece of 1/8 soft copper and the needed fittings works great.

John
Click to expand...

I agree, and you don't need a separate compressor either. Just attach a flexible hose to the fitting John described and hook it to your regular air line.
 
Less air, not a bigger compressor

John's right. You don't need that much air to blow the chips away if you use a small nozzle. I started with 1/4" copper tubing and I had the same problem. It belched out so much air that my compressor would kick on pretty regularly. I changed to the setup shown below. The left side is 1/4" loc-line with a 1/16" nozzle. I use a small in-line valve to adjust the air flow, but you could use the regulator on your compressor to cut flow way down. The amount of air used is negligable and my compressor hardly kicks on now. The right side is 3/4" loc-line hooked to a relatively quiet Shop Vac.

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I use an aquarium aerator pump. I started with a regular one first but switched to one sold as a salt water model to get more flow. I recommend a house over your machine to prevent breathing this stuff.
 
Great pics Bill, thanks for sharing. Mark, what aerator are you using?
 
DanO my pump is a Coralife SL. I found it online, don't remember where but I just done a quick search and found it on a site called Orange County Aquarium Supplies. Mark
 
Thanks for the link Mark. With it on sale, that's even cheaper than Amazon. This may sound stupid but how loud is this thing? Since it's for a fish tank I'm assuming they're pretty quite. The last thing I want to hear is a mini machine gun compressor kicking on like someone is roofing my house.
 
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DanO it is plenty quiet. When I cut inlay parts I run a vacuum pump to hold the inlay slabs, the vac pump is pretty quiet but it drowns out the aerator. By the way just today I added a coolant mist line to take the place of my home made nozzle (for directing air onto the tool / tool path). It is a nice piece that i think is going to do a better job and be flexible enough that I will not have to remove it from the machine when I swap end mills. I am hoping that it has enough movement that I will be able to leave it off even while I am turn cutting with the big 6 flute keyway cutter. Mark
 
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