air gun/air blower

[Zach LaPerriere]

No shop is complete without a compressed air blower. Do you have a favorite brand?

I have a couple of Napa specials, but they're LOUD. I've seen a few older air guns that are quieter. One of the things I love about turning is you don't usually need hearing protection, but the Napa version is right at the edge of hearing protection.

After some research I see that you can easily blow $80-100 bucks on a quieter air gun. If anyone has a favorite, I'd be grateful for the recommendation. Thanks in advance.

 

[Bill Boehme]

A cast iron cylinder oiled type pump runs quietly. The loud ones are the dry piston flapper valve type. They are the small portable ones and the low cost lightweight larger portable tank types. I plan to get a two stage Ingersoll Rand vertical tank type when my current Sears compressor goes belly up. I used to have one of the loud ones ... really loud ... loud enough to wake the dead. My current one is a top of the line Craftsman cast iron cylinder single stage pump. It's pretty good, but not enough air for some high demand tools like an air sander or an HVLP paint gun. I have abused my current compressor and it is still hanging in there after fifteen years or so. I've never changed the oil ... I know, I'm a bad boy. I had to replace the regulator several years ago and that's it. Once I had a cheap hose develop an aneurysm and it blew out while I wasn't there so the compressor ran for about 24 hours non-stop. I guess that overall I can't complain about it although if it could complain ... it might complain about me mistreating it.

 

[odie]

A cast iron cylinder oiled type pump runs quietly. The loud ones are the dry piston flapper valve type. They are the small portable ones and the low cost lightweight larger portable tank types. I plan to get a two stage Ingersoll Rand vertical tank type when my current Sears compressor goes belly up. I used to have one of the loud ones ... really loud ... loud enough to wake the dead. My current one is a top of the line Craftsman cast iron cylinder single stage pump. It's pretty good, but not enough air for some high demand tools like an air sander or an HVLP paint gun. I have abused my current compressor and it is still hanging in there after fifteen years or so. I've never changed the oil ... I know, I'm a bad boy. I had to replace the regulator several years ago and that's it. Once I had a cheap hose develop an aneurysm and it blew out while I wasn't there so the compressor ran for about 24 hours non-stop. I guess that overall I can't complain about it although if it could complain ... it might complain about me mistreating it.

Hi Bill........

The Campbell-Hausfeld is a pretty good brand, too......this 80gal Husky brand (home depot) compressor has been mostly trouble free for 7-8 years now. My regulator blew an O-ring seal a year, or so ago, and I fixed it myself.....other than that, it's been perfect.

I have my compressor, and lathe hooked up to industrial timers. The timer has on and off settings, but I only use the off, and manually turn on the power every morning. This is a good safety measure for exactly the problem you experienced with the hose blow-out. The timers are set to turn off the power automatically around 3am each day........

ko

 

[hockenbery]

No one ever complains about having too large a compressor.
I have a 60 gallon single stage Quincey. It is a lot quieter than my 27 gallon Hausfiled Campbell which is running strong at age 30+
Check out Northern Tool. They have a large assortment and have free shipping on compressors ( don't pay for the lift gate).
The freight company is going to put it on the ground.

I had a Rollair compressor for a demo. It was the quietest I have used.
We have a shop rule not to use compressed air to clean up.
Blowing out hollow forms puts enough dust in the air.

A compressor opens the door to many air powered tools to do thing like Sanding, carving, sawing, sandblasting, drilling.......
These tools are usually loud....

Al

 

[Alan Trout]

Unless you spend a lot of money typically non of them are very quiet. For quiet you generally need a two stage pump and a low RPM motor 1725rpm. Those show up in usually the 80 gallon compressors and start typically about 2k price point. With that being said the cast iron pump belt drive units will be quieter then most of the direct drive units. I have a friend that has one like this http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/p...mpaignId=T9F&gclid=CMXh3tDA0ckCFZOBaQodPlsCkw He says its very quiet, but pretty expensive for a small compressor. Heck I am half def anyway so for me it takes a lot of noise to get me riled up.

 

[Zach LaPerriere]

Thanks for the response on compressors. I see that I didn't explained myself very well!

I'm looking for recommendations for an air blower/ air gun/ air chuck. The tool we use to blow off chips/dust from what we're turning. The cheapo version looks like this:



There are a few high buck air guns that are said to be quiter, such as the Exair—but you can easily blow a hundred bucks on these!

That said, I also really appreciate the conversation about quieter compressors. I'm thinking to build a smaller, well insulated room for a compressor and dust extraction. A quiet shop is blissful. If other folks have quiet compressor recommendations, I'm all ears.

Best,
Zach

 

[Dwight R Rutherford]

I use this from HF, http://t.harborfreight.com/air-blow-gun-set-4-pc-68260.html
Running 70# of pressure, noise is moderate to my ears.

 

[hockenbery]

I just use the cheats ones.
Box store, HF etc.

Approach thin turnings with caution. It is easy to blow a hole in thin turning.
Don't ask how I learned that.

Al

 

[Raul McCai]

quincy compressors
Air gun? Whatever comes to hand.
Use an old heat exchange unit with copper piping from an old HVAC unit to cool and dry the air.
Place it between the compressor and the tank.