New compressor head

Well, seven years AFTER I rescued a Jacksonville Air Products 5HP compressor from being hauled for scrap (just needed a new motor bearing!), It finally threw a rod bearing. It was about 20 years old, and had lived a hard life of lots of moisture accumulation, due to living outdoors (unsheltered) for 13 years until I got it. I was faithful about changing oil, but it had endured a lot before I got it. Noisy as hell from day-1, but not worth completely re-building, because it had a Chinese pump.

So I replaced the head with a new Eaton 2-stage 5HP 24 SCFM pump. It'll do 17 SCFM at 175psi, and I'm only running the tank at 145. We don't use a lot of air, so that's all we need. It's mostly for machine control and the occaisional blow-off or painting job.

This is SO WEIRD! I've never actually heard the electric motor running before! I've got to get used to some new sounds. You can actually carry on a normal conversation 5' away from this thing while it's running.

We used to have to run out of the shop if we were on a cell phone call when it came on. Now we can walk right by it and keep talking. I don't think I've ever heard a pump this quiet.

Man! If I'd known then...

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh
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You -don't- use much air so you bought a 24scfm pump? Um, OK.

Aren't those wonderful? Now add a baffle of some sort on the intake and you'll lose even more sound. The valving is the loudest part.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Larry Jaques fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Um, Larry? That's not a lot of air to feed a shop with ten machine stations.

It's got paper filters on both intakes, along with filter cans, so it doesn't make a lot of intake noise -- just a light "puffing" noise.

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Larry Jaques fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

PS... we have two air presses. We don't use them very often, but when they're both in service at once, we max out that 24cfm pretty easily.

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Gunner Asch fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

That would not work in this situation, Gunner. We already have a 100- gallon tank on the unit, and we do have a couple of spare tanks on dolleys with fittings we can plumb in right at the point of use as we need them for really intensive use for short times (like sand/bead blasting).

The problem is that those two presses working together use about 18CFM, and when they're in use it's pretty much continuous for 5-6 hours. So that leaves us little overhead for the rest of the shop.

I'll just stick in another compressor if we exceed that level of use. Cheap solution in the long run, and it isolates use to the tools that need the extra air, instead of sharing it all. It would also give us a modicum of backup we don't have now, except for a little 8CFM roll-around portable we keep for 'emergencies'. Added compressor, a couple of transfer valves, and Bob's your uncle.

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

let me know if you need to buy a 10 HP Quincy compressor. QR-25 350 pump.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus6493

We just installed an additional 160 gallon tank for this reason.

Partly it was motivated because I finally found a 48x48 sand blasting cabinet that I could afford.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus6493

OK, but that info wasn't in the original post. I agree.

Those do a good job at reducing intake noise. Ayup, you're covered.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I'll bet. Using 2 paint guns at once would, too.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I have a couple of little 5gal air pigs I connect to mine for more air, and it helped me spray my closet doors. The tips weren't right, so I ended up warming the paint plus Floetrol after a 10% thinning, and it went on a bit better. Now that I have the airless, I'll use that in the future for furniture and larger jobs. The little Krause & Becker sprayers from HF are just wonderful! It cost just $149.25 with coupon while on sale, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I sprayed an entire house and garage in a few hours (after 2 half-days of masking.) It paid for itself in that job alone. The 15gal paint job on a triplex fence paid for the pressure washer and the airless made my life a whole lot easier. 'Twas 625lf of fence, and one medium coat covered it well.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I have this extra air tank on a solenoid controlled valve. This way, I use it only when it is actually needed. I do not have to pump it full every morning.

The valve is solenoid controlled because the tank (and dryer) is on a shelf above the compressor.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus25175

Well ... isn't that half the job of an air compressor (or a vacuum cleaner)? :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

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