[dharmic]

About 15 years ago I lashed out and bought a "shop" compressor for my shed. 3hp, single phase, 2 piston splash lubed direct drive on a 36l receiver from the local toolmart. They suggested 10 or 12 cfm. Which was fine for occasionally doing a bit of spraying or air dusting or rattle gun. For maybe an hour at a time I (and the neighbours) could put up with the 94dBa measured at 1m as this thing blatted out the air.

Anyhoo, flash forward and things have changed. The unit is shagged, it leaks from the receiver back through the check valve and head valves and back out the intakes. It seems to pump more oil than air. It's gotten noisier, too. Sadly Toolmart advise that the brand has evaporated long ago and so the new rings and valves it so desperately needs are no longer available.

I could possibly strip it, get out the verniers and hope like hell that one of the eBay compressor bit vendors has something that fits, and rebuild it. Or, for the sake of the $400 it cost me I could keep the motor for something else, keep the receiver to bank air and buy a new compressor - a small price to pay for the labour and frustration it would save me.

None of this helps with the noise. Running the mister and air blast on the router, the sand blasting cabinet, the air duster and so on means some days it's on/off for 8 hours which is just being plain rude to my neighbours. That 94dBa needs to come down to something closer to 60.

I /could/ buy another ~$500 compressor and make up a sound damping box with a ceiling ventilation fan and baffles for the compressor and motor.

I'm waiting on a price for a baby Pilot Air screw compressor but have a fairly strong suspicion it's going to be more than my router was.

And I'm intrigued by the Chicago (not Chicago Pneumatic) brand oil-less compressors being flogged by Sydney Tools. I think @RCaffin may have mentioned them in another compressor thread somewhere. Particularly this one has my eye.



There's another mob flogging these ganged dental style compressors on eBay too but they won't quote FAD, sound like they don't know their 4rses from their elbows and sound like they are just bringing in and flogging off containerloads of Alibaba crap. I would rather pay the extra couple hundred bucks and get the Sydney Tools one, even if it turns out to be the same machine from the same place. But, at around $1400 delivered, it's a danged expensive way of getting quiet air.

Still - it's oil-free air which is a bonus, particularly in the blasting cabinet if I'm trying to prep stuff for powdercoat or paint. And, again, would save me a mountain of stuffing around.

Does anyone have one of these compressors and feel like rating it?

Does anyone feel like pitching in and making another suggestion on getting quiet air around the 12cfm FAD mark?

[dharmic]

Had to have a giggle this afternoon.

Spent a bit of time at Clark Rubber and Bunnings and, to take a new (say $500 compressor) like the one I have now and make an enclosure for it:
$200 - Sound deadening foam
$150 - Sheet of decent thick ply
$150 - Decent muffler and plumbing for intakes
$ 40 - 300mm ceiling fan
$100 - Replacement flex discharge hose and fittings
$ 50 - Rubber mounts for the compressor and enclosure
$ 20 - Weatherseal adhesive strip
$ 50 - Various hardware to hold it together

Or nearly $800 for a decent DIY sound box for a standard compressor - assuming it's a compact direct drive like the one I have now, a belt drive will need more foam and timber.

So I'm up to $1300, which makes the Sydney Tools ones start looking a little less painful...

[aarggh]

I have one of the Chicago noise-less compressors, and apart from the aluminium tank, it is really quiet. Far more quiet that any of the other compressors I've had over the years.

Highly recommend them. It would take very minimal insulation to totally sound proof them.

cheers, Ian

[dharmic]

Thanks Iain

Kinda what I needed to hear. I guess my concerns were around what the air delivery was like (they don't quote FAD numbers) and how well they lasted. There's a bit of hate for oil free machines out there and many claims that they don't last anywhere near as long.

:edit: What is it about the ali tank you don't like?

[aarggh]

Sorry, stupid fat finger typing, the alu tank was a good selling point for me. I recall the vast amounts of water the old compressor trap used to collect, and always thought it can't be good for that plain steel tank. But the weight factor also is very much better with the alu tank. Lot more easier to move it around and over the junk that always seems to accumulate right in front of wherever the compressor is sitting. ;-)

cheers, Ian

[dharmic]

Ah, that sounds better. And I agree - with SCUBA diving I've seen the difference a bit of water makes in the bottom of a steel vs ali tank and have had much the same kind of thoughts.

Can I ask which one you got and whether you are getting enough air out of it (and for what)?

[aarggh]

I don't have huge requirements, just some pressure casting, cleaning, nail guns, etc, etc. Certainly not a 24/7 duty cycle, so I got the 50L tank one, was very cheap I recall and performs fine, even when using the framing gun.

Although I am about to re-use a large old gal/iron gas tank for an air reservoir when I get time, so I'll more than probably need to go to a dual head one then.

cheers, Ian

[RCaffin]

Hi dharmic

It back-flows?
I have a small utility compressor which simply stopped compressing, so recently I took it apart. (Brand now longer existing? I know ALL about that!) Yes, the flap valve between the tank and the piston (under the head) had broken in half. Essentially no exhaust valve at all now. Now, I am mean and stingey, and it seemed to me that throwing out this otherwise neat little unit just for a broken valve was a bit wasteful. So ... I took a spare feeler guage and cut out a new flap valve from one of the blades. Polished the edges etc etc, and reassembled it. Works fine now.
Sure, ALL these flap valves leak a bit. They rely on the revs to overcome that problem.
Check valves are often a floating ball out of a bearing. Can you replace the ball and clean the seat? It's usually possible.

Sadly, the little oner I fixed was not quite big enough to drive the air blast on the CNC, but it's a lot quieter than the 'workshop' compressor I mainly use. A triple-header as you show might be tolerable? Al tank? My steel tank fills with water quite regularly in humid Sydney! I have water traps, but I still see drops of water up the lines.

Cheers
Roger

[dharmic]

Yep. Valves shagged and rings too: oil everywhere. Kind of embarrassing that I let it sit under the bench unchecked long enough to let it get into this state. No parts to buy so I'd have to fab or substitute. For the price it's just not worth the effort.

[RCaffin]

Rings are a problem. Sad.
Cheers
Roger

[dharmic]

They aren't that big a deal - I could probably find something that's close enough. Probably.

Having just gone through a SCUBA compressor rebuild (140lpm but at 3500psi/240 bar) which needed new bearings, rings, valves and a bunch of other stuff I can't bring myself to face another compressor strip and rebuild just now.

And it's not that sad, for a few hundred bucks I got good air for a heap of projects over plenty of years - I got my money's worth out of the old one. And can still use it as the drag-around tyre filler or for bits for other projects.

[RCaffin]

Rings ...
Could you make a mandrel the size if the piston groove and make some out of cast ron? Just wondering. After all, they are made somehow.
Hum ... lots of rings on eBay too. Wonder what might fit?

Cheers
Roger

[dharmic]

Yeah, wouldn't even need a mandrel. 4 jaw in the lathe, lump of cast, cut ID and outer profile of rings, parting tool to create rings from the tube, bandsaw for the split.

Remember though: even if I got it back into perfect working order it's still not high enough throughput and way too noisy for what I'm doing with it now. Hence the question in the original post. That compressor looks about what I need, I just wanted an idea of whether it was as quiet as advertised and if it was a half decent build or it's going to die in 12 months and 1 day.

[RCaffin]

Ah, but if it was restored you could sell it, to help pay for the new one.

Cheers
Roger

[dharmic]

Sometimes I wish I was a little less strict with myself. If I was a bit dodgier I could probably hit the thing with degreaser, make it pretty and flog it as is.

Now look at you, you've gone and created another bloody project for my list.

[aarggh]

They're still noisy as all crap though!

I do like my new one, they still make noise but nowhere near the amount my old Ingersoll Rand did.

cheers, Ian

[Bob La Londe]

Rings ...
Could you make a mandrel the size if the piston groove and make some out of cast ron? Just wondering. After all, they are made somehow.
Hum ... lots of rings on eBay too. Wonder what might fit?

Cheers
Roger

http://m.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch

Just throw a new pump on it. A cheap Chinese pump should do.

[dharmic]

Dropped the hammer on the Hush100 just now, when it arrives I'll put the old one into the "should do something about that one day" corner.

I expect it will boil down to:
a) gut it for a bigger receiver, motor, valves etc which will never get used and will slowly rust away in the corner of the yard.
b) flog it for $100 as is on gumtree (same same as Craigslist for any seppos reading).
c) buy new rings, valves or complete pump for it, spend ages on it, get it pretty and flog it for $110 on gumtree. (Bless those industrious little bargain hunters on "hay m8 wl u tk a carton of woodstock cans?" gumtree!)

Laying out the options as realistically as I can, option b seems to have some appeal.

[InMesh]

Had 40 years service outa my little Swan 10 cube V twin yes a little noisy what a gem I fear replacing it .

[dharmic]

Holy smokes

Just received delivery (yep, on a tilt tray and all) of my new Hush-100 compressor.

Cost a bit more than I wanted to spend but, then, everything does. I will forget that fairly quickly. What I'll remember is that this thing is quiet and fast. 100l tank filled in well under a minute and about 20dB-A at one metre quieter than my old two cylinder direct drive with all three motors running. Even quieter if I switch two off which, unless I'm doing a lot of sandblasting or air blasting, I probably will for most of the time.

Bloody impressed.