home garage compressor: how many CFMs?

[Dave K.]

My dad had a carbon seal compressor and it finally died after about 15 years
when the cylinder wore out.   I didn't know that was the modern version of
the oil-less compressor.

My hard pipe is 3/4" steel...


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brett Dikeman" <brett at cloud9.net>
To: "Dave K." <desmo888 at comcast.net>; "Konstantin Bogach"
<kbogach at comcast.net>; <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2003 11:46 PM
Subject: Re: home garage compressor: how many CFMs?


> At 8:24 PM -0400 4/18/03, Dave K. wrote:
> >I have thoughts on the "oil free" design.  My guess is that it is done to
> >reduce (eliminate?) maintenance on the compressor.  IF that is true, I'll
> >take an oil lube version.  I am not that lazy that I can't change the oil
in
> >my compressor every couple years.  I would think the oil version would
last
> >longer.
>
> We've got an ancient 1HP cambell-hausfield(sp?) that is 'maintenance
> free'.  During the summer, it saw use almost every weekend for years,
> pumping up the tires on an old blazer we had for going out on the
> beach...and it then got converted over to playing "garage compressor"
> for when we needed to inflate tires, work with air tools, maybe do a
> little sandblasting...it's not quite enough to keep up with the
> sandblasting gun, but it works fine for almost everything else.
>
> Anyway, my father didn't believe the "maintenance free" claim, and so
> a year or two ago, he pulled it all apart- and found that there's
> absolutely nothing to service.  I asked him how it managed to seal,
> and he said it was some sort of carbon seal, he wasn't sure, but it
> didn't need any servicing, nor was it even possible, far as he could
> see.
>
> >I have a 60 gallon 6 hp single stage upright BlackMax by Coleman unit.  I
> >will get the cfm rating on it but I think it is around 8 or 9 cfm.  It
runs
> >my die grinder nicely. I put it in the basement and ran hard pipe up to
the
> >garage.
>
> One note here- I've read that PVC has an incredibly failure rate.
> Even though the stuff is often rated to 250PSI, it seems to shatter
> easily, and I've seen a lot of reports of people installing PVC,
> having tons of problems, switching to thick-wall copper, and not
> having any further problems(steel pipe seems to be the ultimate, but
> requires regular maintenance, as the water vapor causes rust, and
> that's not good for the tools.  Copper naturally doesn't have that
> problem.)
>
>
> >   It doesn't take up room in my garage and it sucks in clean air from
> >the basement.  Great set up.
>
> One problem with most compressors is the sheer noise- our 1 HP unit
> is absolutely deafening, although I suppose the belt-driven units,
> which operate at slower speeds, are quieter.
>
>    Scroll compressors are supposed to be the best thing since sliced
> bread, but it seems they're simply not made in small sizes.  I can't
> understand why- startup power requirements are lower, they're
> completely vibration-free, and almost dead silent.  They could market
> it as "The MarriageSaver"...
>
> B
> --
> ----
> "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/