Laser Engraver Air Compressor Line Dryer Installation

If you already read DIY Laser Engraver Filtration Table, then you know how to build an awesome air filtration unit for your laser engraver / laser cutter. Once I started using my laser engraver on my new filtration table I found I had another issue to deal with. That was water dripping on my laser engraving work.

Air Assist

First up, let's cover what this issue is and why it happens. Some of the higher end laser machines have some sort of an "air assist" feature. In the case of my Epilog Mini 18, it has this feature and it's used when vector cutting anything.

It's basically a secondary air pump that is not part of the main exhaust system. This second pump is basically an air brush style air compressor that pumps out around 30 PSI through a flexible hose and into the laser machine. From there it runs to the XY arm and blows compressed air right where the laser beam is cutting.

The idea is that by blowing this focused stream of compressed air right where the laser beam is focused, the chance of fire is greatly reduced. This is because it's removing the combustible gasses that would otherwise potentially catch fire. This doesn't mean you ever engrave or vector cut without being by the machine though!

Air Assist Drips Water - Solved!

While the air assist is a great safety feature, it has one flaw which is that it tends to drip and spit drops of water on your work. If you live in a high humidity environment like I do the problem is even worse. This is because air has moisture in it, in some places more than others. When it rains, that moisture (humidity) level is even higher.

When you compress air, the moisture tends to come out of the air because water doesn't compress. That in turn leads to water in your compressor line. If you use air tools this can lead to rust and other issues so having a good air dryer is important. But on a laser machine it's still important as water can make a mess of things, even ruining some materials like papers, cardboards, chipboard, etc. In other cases, the laser engraves or cuts differently when it hits a drop of water on your work which can screw things up on detailed / sensitive work pieces.

Fortunately, the solution is simple and relatively cheap. Start by purchase an inline air dryer. I chose the PointZero Pro Airbrush Air Compressor Regulator with Water-Trap Filter. It's intended for an airbrush setup and has an easy release spout to drain the collect the water.

It comes with fittings but I had plastic tubing (from Epilog) that I needed to connect to it via a "press fit" style so I also purchased a couple of these 6mm Tube 1/4"BSP Thread Quick Connector Pneumatic Air Fittings (affiliate link). Well, I got a pack of 20 because that's what Amazon had.

You'll also need a Spool of Teflon Thread Seal Tape (affiliate link) since that gets used when you're threading metal to metal. I wrapped each fitting with 5-6 layers of the Teflon tape and threaded them in. Did the same with the pressure monitor and that's all there was to it.

Teflon Tape Top Tip: When wrapping tape, wrap the tape in a clockwise direction when looking at the threads of the fitting. Now when you thread the fitting in (righty-tighty!) the tape won't try to unwind from the fitting.

I then push fit the tubing into the fittings. The compressor output goes to the "in" on the dryer. The "out" from the dryer then goes to the "in" on my laser machine. It's all pretty simple and took about 10 minutes to install.

There you go, an easy solution to water spitting out of your laser engraving and cutting machine!