small silent air comp.cheap too

Has anybody tried these small silent sair compressors? They're probably about 10"x20"x8",several models easily found on e-bay.I think they're made for beauty salons (airbrush maybe?) and sell for about $150 or less.I'd to know how well it might work with a Lindsay with a foot pedal.

Hi Dave,
I am using one. It only pumps 22 orso liters per minute but that is more than enough. Best thing is no noise you can hear over the radio :thumbs up: And small ofcourse. I'd say go for it.

It should work. I think the question becomes how long will it last. Just for grins I tried a small airbrush compressor on my GraverMax. It was a diaphragm type that ran continuously and it worked just fine. It didn't last long, but it was old and used when I got it. I think with a good quality new one I could have gotten fairly good service, but couldn't run my air turbine handpiece because it didn't have enough CFM. Bill Jameson also used an airbrush compressor for awhile. If he sees this thread maybe he'll tell of his experience. / ~Sam

Daniel: What brand is yours?

Hi Sam there is no name or anything on it. I have looked for it before but can't find anything even whenn I take the hood off.
I got this compressor from a friend after he hadn't used it for over ten years. Before that it did see some good use. For the last 1.5 years I have used it without much problems. Haven't even had to change oil.
Mine does have one problem though, and that would be me :big grin:. I took it apart once and can't seem to figure out how to decompress the hoses properly so sometimes I have to jumpstart the compressor whenn it starts pumping again.
You are right that it doesn't work with an airturbine and I also think that a gravemax uses too much air for these little compressors but for the Lindsay it's perfect, small and silent.
Here it is whenn looking for the name and seeing how it should work.

Daniel: That's a nifty little compressor. Excuse my ignorance, but is that a small tank on the bottom or the motor that drives it? I assume it's the motor.

The one I used was a 1/4 hp Paasche, it was at least 15 or 20 years old when I brought it [$15]and looked like it had been used alot..My intention was to use it for a few weeks until I got my airline run from my big shop to my engraving shop, but it worked so well I ended up using it for about 2 years..

Daniel,

Your compressor has a little valve (brass) that unloads the compressor piston so it has no load when starting and the tank has air in it.

Sometimes part of the on off pressure switch.

Check the valve and be sure it is unloading (when it comes up to pressure and turns off you should hear a little air escapeing for a second). If not that is your problem.

Exersise the valve by hand and check it again to see if you can free it up, if not you may have to disassemble it to clean it.

This should fix your jumpstart problem..:thumbs up:

AirAmp

Sam, that is indeed the tank. Two or three liters I quess. It measures 6.75x13x14.5inch
On top of the tank at the back is the refrigerator compressor filling the tank to 6bar (is that 80psi?). It comes back on at 2.5 bar orso and that is where this compressor needs a jumpstart by decompressing the hoses. Hope to get a good one some day. Or have this one fixed.
Working at 2 bar I can work about 6 minutes before it starts pumping again (didn't time it though). Working at 70psi it only alows me about 50 seconds before the pressure drops. Best to have it running fulltime whenn doing the heavy stuff.

At work we had a double junn air compressor putting out 8 bars (116psi) in a huge tank to run the gravemax on and that thing had to restart every 11,5 minutes even whenn not using it. I wouldnt know how long a Lindsay pc or fc could run on that but I bet its a long time.

Getting back to Dave's question, if you only want to runn the Lindsay footcontrol on the compressor, I do think its the most perfect small and silent compressor to get. Get one that doesnt have problems though!

Billzach, do you also use Lindsay airgravers?

Airamp, I got this compressor after it had not been used for more then ten years. Whenn we started it we thought it was broken because we didn't hear it :big grin: It did work though only after reaching the 6 bar its emptied until it got to 2.5 bar and started to refill moments later. Alas I am not handy (or percistent) enough to fix the problem myself so I took that brass valve out and have to press it whenn the compressor wants to start pumping again 8 out of 10 times to jumpstart it.
Thaks for the tip though.

I too am using a very similar compressor that I picked up off eBay for $150. The one bit of advice that I can give is keep a small fan blowing on the unit when in use. Mine gets pretty hot under heavy use (which I expect) and will occasionally "thermal out". It didn't want to restart after cooling off so I had to pull the "can" apart and turn the motor a couple of turns by hand. I put everything back to gether and it's been working fine ever since. I believe that mine is a Paache but I don't know which model. The only concern I have about mine is where to get the correct oil for it. Paache is proud of thier's.

That red machine looks like it's made like a silent air, just a 1 gallon tank with a refridgerator compressor on top. I built one like that once.

Michael
Check the search engine several threads on compressor oil, Or give me a pm and I will try to help out:thumbs up:

Build your own silent air compressor

Here are a few web sites on how to build you own silent air compressor using a used refrigerator compressor or a new refrigerator compressor if you find one cheap. A used air conditioning compressor might work.

http://www.geocities.com/hugedom/model_misc.html
http://www.briansmodelcars.com/tutorials/tutorial/28
http://clubhyper.com/reference/compressorgi_1.htm
http://cs.finescale.com/forums/1195331/PrintPost.aspx

Hi Tbear, those are great links :thumbs up:
Thanks for showing them.

About my air compressor, that is a good one if it wouldn't have the jumpstart problem.
I also have another that I don't use and that one gives more noise and does get hot after some time.
It pushes 4 bar, stops and starts again at 2 bar. Or it pushes 6 bar and doesnt stop at all. To noisy for 6 bar and too quick starting to refill at 4 bar.
So Dave, if you deside to get one, get a silent one and not the less noisy one.