Compressor advice

[Neale]

Done a bit of workshop clearing recently and now might have space for a small compressor. This would be mainly for dust clearing on router, maybe for mist coolant as well, both for router and vertical mill. I've never had a compressor, and have no idea what might be a suitable size/rating, or what I might do with it if I had one beyond purposes mentioned. Are compressors generally too noisy to have in the workshop itself?

Any comments or recommendations, guys?

[Lee Roberts]

They are noisy when running, obviously this then becomes how often will it run, so then it comes down to size.

I would say you want nothing less then 20L, again how much you use will depend on how often it kicks in, I have a 5L one I use for blowing out dust on computers small things and so on and a 20L one for when I've got a "big job on", generally though it's the 20L one I reach for purely because of how long a full tank lasts and so to avoid the noise of either kicking in.

.Me

[lucan07]

They can be noisy, there are some quiet units but you end up paying the extra for them, the ones I have looked at the cheaper they are the louder they are, so far £300 range for a 24ltr 50db or £75-£100 for 24ltr 80-90db so 3-400% markup for quiet operation, biding my time at the moment as hoping to get a unit thats being removed from a dental practice thats almost silent, not that I am tight or anything I like recycling especially if I don't have to open my wallet.

[cropwell]

I want to have a play with a fridge compressor, (If I can get one for free out of a de-gassed fridge) I have no idea what the output is like, but at least they are quiet.

At the moment I have a compressor from LIDL in the garage and a, fairly quiet, airbrush compressor (also from LIDL) for chip clearing on my toy MD A4 trapezoidal. This only supplements a large low pressure pond air pump, which runs when the spindle is going and is 'reasonable' at clearing around the cutter.

Anyway, I just thought I'd throw in my 1.5 pennuth.

Cheers,

Rob

[lucan07]

I use a small pond air pump at the moment on the mill for clearing Alu chips and its very effective if placed correctly for low pressure it works well I believe the piston pressure pulses help a lot. To much pressure can be a bad thing in a small shop, saw the 18v leaf blower I'd repaired the other day still cleaning chips from places they could never have reached but did.

[Neale]

I want to have a play with a fridge compressor, (If I can get one for free out of a de-gassed fridge) I have no idea what the output is like, but at least they are quiet.

Interesting idea - might have one to play with myself next week once guy has been to change compressor in our fridge/freezer. Mind you, the fact that it needs changing probably means that it might not be in great nick... However, I did discover that the current refrigerant gases in use can be released into the atmosphere so degassing might not be a big deal if you can salvage a more recent fridge.

[nirmal]

If you can wait a bit, I would suggest keeping an eye open for the ALDI compressors. They are probably the best value for money and they come with a warranty that will be honoured if it fails.

[Lee Roberts]

I'm in Aldi as I type, look what I found:



£170

.Me

[Boyan Silyavski]

I'm in Aldi as I type, look what I found:

£170

.Me

Exactly a compressor not worth buying. .

[Lee Roberts]

Exactly a compressor not worth buying. .

Why not that is contradicting what you've said above "2hp mega store" or did I miss something ?

From what I can tell all these Aldi/Lidl power tools come from the same main brand and just get re branded, for instance my drill press is a PowerCraft, little 80a stick welder - pankhurst. Both are listed on the main website - Erbauer.

.Me