Compressor help

Discussion in 'Foundry tools and flasks' started by Zapins, May 16, 2018.

  1. Have you poked a wire through the passageway to see if there's a piece of foam or something else plugging it? They are incredibly simple.

    You can use more than your compressor's rating. Just not for long. So if you need 24 CFM the tank will slowly draw down while you're pulling out of it. At some point the pressure gets too low and you have to "let it rise".

    If you're not using much air you won't be making much water. It all may be staying in the compressor tank. Do you get much condensate when you drain the tank?

    Also, that filter looks funny to me. It may be plugged.
     
  2. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    I haven't used the compressor much since I set it up. Maybe 35 minutes or so of run time while I was testing for air tight seals and briefly blasting the eagle feet. I'll check the tank for water tomorrow. It was emptied when I bought it.

    The filter looks a bit brown. I'll dismantle it tomorrow and see how it looks inside. If the filter is plugged does it need replacing? Or is it washable?

    I assume the container on the right side is for oil to lubricate pneumatic tools? There isn't any oil in it at the moment so I think it should be ok for sand blasting.
     
  3. Jason

    Jason Gold

    You won't really see much moisture until you run it for half an hour on a humid day. Ya open the bleeder screw on the bottom of the dryer to let a healthy stream of air out. First that air will look foggy and if you put your hand there, it will get wet. After a short time, it will go dry. Do the same thing to the pitcock drain on the bottom of your tank. You'll want to crack that open from time to time to rid the tank of water. Put a tupperware container under it, you will get some nasty muck out that hole. (usually rusty water) Why they don't paint or coat the inside of tanks is beyond me.
     
  4. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    Filter parts are pretty standard. They'll probably carry them at Ace hardware. The petcock on the bottom of the tank is kind of counterintuitive. Turn it counterclockwise and it goes inward. Turn it in all the way in case there's crud inside the tank and have some psi in the tank when you open it. It will definitely leave a rust stain on your floor. I bought an Ingersol Rand hot dog compressor and the petcock had been painted, threads and all! I just removed the whole petcock and replaced it. I got that at Ace for a few bucks. No sense having to fight the thing every time I use it and it was simple enough to change out.
    There's plenty of YouTube vids about moisture filters/oilers. They all function pretty much the same.

    Pete
     
  5. If you haven't, do yourself a favor and put a street ell in the compressor drain, then a stub of pipe, then a ball valve so it is easy to reach and you will drain it more often. The pipe also gives the water a place to sit instead of in your tank, you'll have a lot less rust in the tank. Instead of a pipe I use a short hydraulic hose for my extension so it would never crack from vibration. Keeping water out of the tank makes for a long life for the tank and you.
     
    Jason likes this.
  6. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    +1 to that.

    Best,
    Kelly
     
  7. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Best tip ever!
     
  8. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

  9. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Yeah I think it would Zap... I can't see how you have a volume issue even with 1/4".... I don't. Does anyone sell a dryer with a 3/8" outlet?

    The unit above shows 40cfm... I bet my left nut your compressor cannot put out 40cfm.
     
  10. His compressor may not, but his tank could for a while.

    The 1/4" outlet will be some restrictions, but not as much as a full 1/4" hose. Bu tit looks to me like they're lying. The regulator looks to be 3/8" inlet and outlet with a reducer to 1/4" valve.
     
  11. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    Yes that's what it was! 1/2" inlet to 3/8" outlet. It has a 1/4" reducer coupling that I could add if I wanted. $20 bucks new from facebook market place 15 min drive from my house. Easy no brainer decision.

    It's quite a heavy little unit. Maybe 5 to 10 lbs. Feels solidly built. Can't find any info on it online though. Weird.

    My compressor puts out 15.9 cfm so lefty is safe for now.

    Soon I will get my new blasting gun in the mail. And I'll make a trip out to one of the box stores for a new 3/8" hose and bigger fittings. Then with any luck my blasting setup will work nicely...?
     
  12. Jason

    Jason Gold

    no worries there... 40cfm is a lot of air. 16cfm is PLENTY for around the shop.
     
  13. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    Yeah 16 at 90 psi is perfect for continuous blasting so I hear. So basically I probably won't need more for my shop.

    I love my workshop. Its turning out to be very handy for just about any project I can come up with.

    I especially like my tig welder. Probably my most favorite tool.
     
  14. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    I went to HF today to look at 3/8" hoses. They had some, but I saw that every single hose had 1/4" NPT fittings??? How the hell does that make sense. To reduce the line down to 1/4" would pinch off the airflow and be the same thing +/- as buying a 1/4" line with 1/4" fittings.

    Do I need to get a 50 ft 1/2" hose and cut it to 25ft (to fit my 25 ft retractable reel), then barb one end to 3/8" to get unobstructed flow? Can I even cut and barb these hoses or will they fray on me?
     
  15. It makes sense because we're dealing with a fluid not a solid. If you lose 2 psi per foot in 1/4" hose and 1/2 psi per foot in 3/8" hose, a 50 foot hose will lose 100 psi in 1/4" and 25 psi in 3/8". All good so far. But if you have a 1/4" fittings on the 3/8" hose, which add up to 2" of length, you lose another 1/3 psi through the fittings. While there are additional losses only due to diameter changes, you can see that 25.33 psi loss in a 3/8" hose is still better than 100 psi loss in a 1/4" hose and it may not be worth spending a lot of money to try to avoid that 1/3 psi in the fittings. At these pressures pressure drop is pretty much linear and distance is the killer. If you need 17 ft of hose you're better off cutting to that length.

    The pressure drops I assumed are for very high flow rates but were chosen to get the point across. When it comes to fluid flow, don't sweat the small stuff. And definitely don't take your regulator apart and see the tiny opening everything has to go through.

    Another way to maximize flow is to move your regulator to the end of the hose since you can run your hose at full compressor pressure. The molecules are packed in the hose tighter and yo move a lot more standard cfm easier.

    You can cut and barb hoses. You can't get 50 ft of 1/2" hose where 50 ft of 1/4" hose went.
     
  16. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    I might shelve the hose issue for another day. At some point I'm going to switch over to a larger hose diameter and the new industrial dryer I got from face book market place for $20 bucks.

    For right now I'm very happy. The blaster is finally working!! The problem seems to have been the terrible quality harbor freight gun that came with the blasting cabinet. It just would not pull a siphon no matter what I did to it. The new "king" brand gun seems to work very well.

    This is the gun I got from amazon based on all the positive reviews. It seemed like a good buy and I'm happy with the results so far "Sandblaster Air Siphon Feed Blast Gun Nozzle Ceramic Tips Abrasive Sand Blasting"
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GVHB7ZI/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    Here's a quick 51 second clip of my new blaster working flawlessly. The bronze piece was already pretty clean so its hard to see the effect on the metal, but the sand is easy to see gushing out of the nozzle.

     
    joe yard likes this.
  17. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Welcome to the world of bead blasting. Nice gun for 17bucks! You want a neat trick, take a piece of glass, print out a sticker and apply to the glass. Bead blast around it, then peel sticker. Frosted glass! What have you come up with to protect your glass? Cheap plexi covers work, but glass is so cheap these days, I've just been replacing my glass every couple of years.
     
  18. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    If you place a piece of metal window screen on the interior side of the glass it deflects a lot of the media and significantly extends the useable life of the window. Best if not directly against the glass but still ok.

    Best,
    Kelly
     
  19. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I keep forgetting about that window screen trick. I'll try it next time I change the glass.
     
  20. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    I was planning on going to lowes with the eaten up glass and having them cut me several replacements.

    I will have to try the glass art you mentioned. Might make a cool gift for the women folk.
     

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