Shop air dilemma

-
I have two Eaton Compressors and love them. One 5hp in my equipment shop and a 13hp Honda on service truck. Hard to beat for the money. I also have a T-30 Ingersoll Rand that came out of local Dodge dealer that was destroyed by tornado. It is in my car shop at my home.
 
Three phase is not that hard or expensive to accomplish at home. There are a lot of three phase vfd’s that will run off the single phase 230 you probably have in your panel. I have built two rotary phase converters that cost me a total of $150. The 5hp is in the garage and 3hp in the basement. Cheap motors off CL and relays and other control parts from eBay. If you are really cheap you can use a rope pull to start them but I like the button start option. Beauty of a rotary converter is I can run multiple machines at same time as long as total hp is below the converter motor.
 
Three phase is not that hard or expensive to accomplish at home. There are a lot of three phase vfd’s that will run off the single phase 230 you probably have in your panel. I have built two rotary phase converters that cost me a total of $150. The 5hp is in the garage and 3hp in the basement. Cheap motors off CL and relays and other control parts from eBay. If you are really cheap you can use a rope pull to start them but I like the button start option. Beauty of a rotary converter is I can run multiple machines at same time as long as total hp is below the converter motor.
I have a 50hp rotary at my home shop, I bought my 37” wide belt sander from another shop and I got the rotary for $250 more. Weights as much as a 4 cylinder engine lol. A friend runs his whole cabinet shop on two separate phase converters, maybe $400 installed for both. He has 200 amp single phase there. I’m talking big machinery too. Very easy to do and well worth the little trouble. BTW one motor in my shop has been in service since 1907. Longevity
 
1 phase vs 3 phase has nothing to do with how fast a compressor pump will pump. 1 stage pump vs 2 stage does. As well as volume and max pressure.
And no, running an air tool at more than 90 PSI doesn't make for a bomb. We have no regulators at the drops at work, been doing this for 30 years, never had a tool explode on me. Depending on your fittings and hose diameter sometime you gotta run higher pressure to make up for low volume. And, no, a rating of 175 PSI is NOT a "gotcha sucker" sort of thing for the uneducated/unsuspecting. I have never seen a 1 stage compressor rated anywhere close to that. Most single stage rate CFM at 40 and at 90 and the cutoff is set to about 120.
Most 2 stage compressors are rated at 90 and 175 PSI. And are set to pump to 175 as well.
This has nothing to do with single or 3 phase electric required to run a given unit.
Look at the certification tag welded onto the tank.
It will give a year of manufacture as well as max pressure,and usually tank thickness for the barrel and for the end bells. My 2 stage unit which regularly pumps to 175 before it cuts out is rated for over 200 psi. I forget the actual number on it, but there is a large safety factor built into that rating.
What the maker or certifier has zero control of is how often the water is drained, how humid the air going thru the unit is, etc....
We just got a new unit at work about a year ago, the old one's tank was from the 1990s and the compressor and motor were from the 1950s. They had replaced the tank somewhere along the way.
My unit at home is from 1987. I have rebuilt the compressor head once and I had to take the motor in once, I have had it since about Y2K or so. And I got it used out of the newspaper, had been a backup for a body shop before I got it.
And I have no plans to replace it. I have access to another 120 gallon tank that I may pick up as an auxiliary, so that would boost my reserve to 200 gallons.
Yes CFM matters. But reserve capacity definitely helps as well.
 
Mine is set a 130 psi but I occasionally add a regulator at the cabinet for 80.

I'm using real sand as most of the stuff I blast is caked in dirt/grease, even after washing and it gets expensive to keep replacing quality media and time consuming to thoroughly de-crud before blasting.

I just let the blaster do the work.

Most commercial sand blast equipment doesn't even have tanks.
What kind if sand are you using in your cabinet?
 
There are some standard RPM specs for continuous duty electric motors.

I want to say 900, 1500, 1800 and 2400.

The lower the RPM, the quieter.

However, most lower end to mid range compressors in the 5 HP and 15-20 CFM range tend to use higher RPM motors.


Am I gonna get a whole bunch of disagree x's because I stated what I thoght I remembered and even inferred as much?

Can't even edit or delete the post now.

I was close.

Lighten up.
 
-
Back
Top