Beating Heart of the Shop (compressor)

[desertrefugee]

I guess you could say I did this today, but it would be more accurate to say that I finished it today. This was a serious two day project. Three if you count transporting it home on Friday. I have been irritated by my woefully inadequate Home Depot 15-year-old compressor for quite some time. Finally bought a serious 5 HP, 80 gallon Ingersoll Rand two stage. Had to run another 220 V circuit to power it.

Still have a few loose ends to tidy up, but now operable. Turned out to be more of a project than I expected, but it’s done and I couldn’t be happier...

 

[desertrefugee]

Sorry guys. I intended for this to go into the “what did you do today“ thread. Don’t know how I screwed that up.

 

[dan filipi]

Nice :yes:

 

[mcgovern61]

That is nice! :rocks:

 

[Winger 82]

:good: :good: :good:

 

[desertrefugee]

I did a bunch of research. A lot of bang for the buck on this one. Had to travel abit toget it, but it fills the 80g tank from zero to 150 in less than 5 minutes. Will more than keep up with the blast cabinet - basically a wide open leak. It appears to be a solid unit. Time will tell.

 

[AApple]

:clapping: :clapping: :good: Can't beat an Ingersol for the money. :salute:

 

[DaveKamp]

NOW you're talkin'!

The nice thing about big compressors, is that they're SO MUCH quieter, and a whole lot more efficient than a small system. Adiabatic efficiency is important, but usually overlooked, and small compressors are so blatantly overrated...

here's mine, from a few years ago: https://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132876

Being horizontal, mine hides nicely under a slightly-higher workbench/large tooling shelf next to my vertical mill. Aside from the unloader mechanism on shutdown, and the automatic drain valve, it's basically silent. It's in the heated garage, but I have piping going into the house (attic, and basement in three places) as well as to the henhouse and north lean-to, over to the small shop, the larger shop, the pole barn, the generator shed, the grainery building, and the diary barn. Eventually I'll have an air hose reel on the light-pole in the driveway, too, but for now, I just pull a hose from the small shop.

My compressor's output currently goes from the tank, to a long pipe with a vertical drip leg leading to a small tank that I've placed a drain petcock on. From the drip leg, a larger pipe goes up to the ceiling, then back abouthalf the wall's length, to the distribution block. This pipe provides room for precipitant moisture to drop out before moving on. In a few weeks, I'll be starting work on an Atlas-Copco FD115 refrigerating dryer... something that's not so necessary down in the southwest, but up here, it's a must-have if you want your blast cabinet and spray gun to work properly, and for your air-tools to not corrode or freeze and crack in the winter.

 

[joedrum]

Worked with of those compressors Darrel ...going all the time in a wood shop ... if driven hard the motors and compressor unit are a bit weak for the size of tank..in Florida air drier is mandatory..I always considered them toys ...the tank is about 2 times to big for the hardware on top of its ...recovery time to slow in my opinion ....of course we used them big time

 

[desertrefugee]

Yo Dave, thanks for the input. I devoured your Brunner overhaul thread. Fascinating stuff. I'm too lazy and impatient to go through that - especially when there's a powdercoating operation that needs to get moving... (My cheapo oil-less unit was way out of its element)

And Joe, I sure hope I get better service than what you're describing with this thing. I can tell you that it actually cycled a few times yesterday with the blast cabinet running full bore.

That's more capacity than I had expected and I am very happy with that. So far, so good.

 

[dan filipi]

joedrum » Yesterday, 8:26 pm[/url]":1gqi8p0r]
Worked with of those compressors Darrel ...going all the time in a wood shop ... if driven hard the motors and compressor unit are a bit weak for the size of tank..in Florida air drier is mandatory..I always considered them toys ...the tank is about 2 times to big for the hardware on top of its ...recovery time to slow in my opinion ....of course we used them big time

I spent some time as the tool, building, and truck maintenance guy at a busy cabinet shop. Much different deal.
Like my Craftsman, which could be better for sure but for home shop use it's fine. The most continuous use it see's is my son air drying/blasting his motorcycles dry.

 

[Rednaxs60]

Nice - Wish I had the room.

 

[DaveKamp]

There was a time when IR was a king of industry... the biggest ones we see in shops are barely infants in comparison to the huge monsters I've seen in industrial environments. When they're 150 tons, and powered by 600hp steam engines, they're 'medium size'... but back in those days, IR did not have any interest in trying to be a commercial or consumer product, it was 'industrial'. Compressed air was used for pumping up tires, not running garage tools. As time went on, the use for compressed air became more popular, it was found at auto service shops... it eventually trickled into home environments. Guys that had the opportunity to snag an industrial unit, would move them to their home shops... and that's what happened with my Brunner. I also have a big Quincy twin-cylinder two stage that will be getting disassembled, and the shaft straightened (it dumped over and got bent, which is how I acquired it for $50...) But anyway, I-R, like many other companies, saw that there was light commercial and home market demand for air compressors, they ventured in, and found that using imported componentry removed the engineering and manufacturing costs of that product echelon, they phased out their smaller unit production. There's lots of older IR compressors out there... one of my buddies used to work for them, and could tell you every compressor type they ever made, and he can tell you where the cutoffs from one series to the next occurred.

The newer flavors aren't 'bad' machines. They might not be as brutal tough as those from 25 years ago, but they're still very capable. In Darrel's environment, his system should perform extremely well, and last long. Dry environments reduce compressor loading, increase lifespan, and reduce maintenance dramatically.

Darrel's circumstances in Chandler will NOT be like what Joe has in Florida... or what I have in Iowa.

 

[joedrum]

desertrefugee » Mon Dec 02, 2019 11:34 am[/url]":201jjage]
Yo Dave, thanks for the input. I devoured your Brunner overhaul thread. Fascinating stuff. I'm too lazy and impatient to go through that - especially when there's a powdercoating operation that needs to get moving... (My cheapo oil-less unit was way out of its element)

And Joe, I sure hope I get better service than what you're describing with this thing. I can tell you that it actually cycled a few times yesterday with the blast cabinet running full bore.

That's more capacity than I had expected and I am very happy with that. So far, so good.

As said we used them big time ..air sanders ..tools that had sit devices on them ...to me there probably what I consider HD home unit....anyway you look at lt ..tank to big ...it looses punch and capacity with such a big tank ...I eventually had both compressors pumping into one tank to keep capacity high and recovery quicker ....it almost acted like a commercial compressor LOL ...but not really..I was use to a compressor that had a tank about 40 gallons maybe a bit more with 4 cylinder monster compressor that could delivery 175 lbs pressure constant out of a 3/8” hose no problem ...

The electric motor is crap ..made cheap ..to small of wire ..has thermostat switch ..will quit ..I’m not sure how the original motors lasted ..it wasn’t long ...they got in trouble quick if called upon ...even when new ...try not to push them ...they won’t take it ...

 

[dan filipi]

joedrum » Today, 8:58 am[/url]":ac0xakdb]

desertrefugee » Mon Dec 02, 2019 11:34 am[/url]":ac0xakdb]
Yo Dave, thanks for the input. I devoured your Brunner overhaul thread. Fascinating stuff. I'm too lazy and impatient to go through that - especially when there's a powdercoating operation that needs to get moving... (My cheapo oil-less unit was way out of its element)

And Joe, I sure hope I get better service than what you're describing with this thing. I can tell you that it actually cycled a few times yesterday with the blast cabinet running full bore.

That's more capacity than I had expected and I am very happy with that. So far, so good.

As said we used them big time ..air sanders ..tools that had sit devices on them ...to me there probably what I consider HD home unit....anyway you look at lt ..tank to big ...it looses punch and capacity with such a big tank ...I eventually had both compressors pumping into one tank to keep capacity high and recovery quicker ....it almost acted like a commercial compressor LOL ...but not really..I was use to a compressor that had a tank about 40 gallons maybe a bit more with 4 cylinder monster compressor that could delivery 175 lbs pressure constant out of a 3/8” hose no problem ...

The electric motor is crap ..made cheap ..to small of wire ..has thermostat switch ..will quit ..I’m not sure how the original motors lasted ..it wasn’t long ...they got in trouble quick if called upon ...even when new ...try not to push them ...they won’t take it ...

"Thermostat switch"? Do you mean the motor overload?

Seems like you're hell bent on discounting anything less than what you had.
Reality is the home units are usually plenty for most projects.
Keyword here is "Home". Of course production or heavy machine maintenance will need more.

 

[pidjones]

I like your rig. Sure beats all of the oil-free units I've used (and now have). I'd love to have a belt-drive two-stage oil lubed system. Don't really use enough to justify, though.

 

[desertrefugee]

Thanks PJ. The only reason it's here is because my son picked up a powder coating ensemble. He's using my shed for blasting and spraying, and the shop for baking (the only clean part of the operation). Although a freshly minted engineer, he is money hungry and looking to moonlight.

Frankly, there's such a demand for the service around here that I see potential to get in on the action after I retire ... or sooner! So, I am providing space and facilities and we'll see where it goes. The first job is already done. A Kawasaki pit bike frame for a friend of his. He charged $125 and says he could get $200 for the job. Maybe, but regardless, it only took a couple of hours, including blasting, and about $15 worth of powder. Seems pretty attractive to me.

 

[joedrum]

Wow nice

 

[Ansimp]

I m amazed that all your compressors are vertical tank units. I am lucky to have a second hand 25cfm Champion 3 phase compressor for my blast cabinet. Old and noisy but it does a great job! No where near as shiny as Dan and Darrell’s units. :good:

 

[desertrefugee]

3 phase at home? Wow. Australia. What a country!