Wacky Air Powered Advance Ball Setup

[smithadamm]

I was talking to a friend of mine who has been cutting since the 40's. We were talking shop about variable depth cutting systems and he mentioned that he was sure that someone, maybe westrex, had developed or was developing a kind of advance ball system using compressed air instead of anything physically touching the disc surface. He was talking way back, maybe pre stereo cutting, Anyway, the consensus was that maybe it never happened or maybe whoever was developing it abandoned it, or maybe it went into limited production and never caught on, but has anyone else ever heard tale of a compressed air advance ball?

[EmAtChapterV]

I'm sure I've read about this too - I could have sworn it was in Larry Boden's Disc Cutting book, but leafing through it now, I can't find it. The key term you're looking for is "Bernoulli", like Bernoulli Advance Ball. It must have made chip pickup by the suction system a challenge.

[smithadamm]

It must have made chip pickup by the suction system a challenge.

No doubt, I was also thinking if there was any humidity in your compressed air system at all you would spray water all over your blank. It only takes one drop forming in there. You would at least need a really robust moisture removal system. I suppose you could do it with nitrogen if you were a maniac with money to burn.