I'm looking at adding an air blast / coolant mister to my CNC router for use when cutting aluminum. The biggest issue I've had when cutting AL is chip evacuation, and sitting there spraying the thing with WD-40 (or whatever) constantly is tiresome. I'd rather not have a noisy air compressor in here. The machine is already loud enough. I've seen mentions of using an aquarium air pump for air blasts. Has anyone here tried that? Any results / opinions? Failing that, I'd love any recommendations on small, on-demand compressors or pumps that may work. Cheers
I've just remembered that I have a nearly-silent air brush compressor in a box somewhere. Guess I'll give that a shot.
Just using the airbrush (while holding it) mostly works, but it's borderline. I'd prefer something with a little more oomph. I may have an old aquarium pump around here somewhere. If I can find it, I'll give that a shot. I have a good sized air compressor that I use for air tools, but it's pretty loud. I'm trying to keep the noise down.
Looking at something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Aquaculture-Hydroponics-Aquarium-Compressor/dp/B01DN8CZ7G/ But it's a little more expensive than I'd like. (Also doesn't come with an AC power supply, so you'd have to run it off of your machine's supply or get another one.) In this video: the description says that he's using a 125l/min pump. Most of the aquarium pumps seem to be in the 3-15 l/min range. It might be possible to open one of those up and do some magic to increase the output. I'm considering getting one of the $20 jobs and opening it up.
