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Air Compressor


gazzaecowarrior
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Air compressors are a bit of a black art.

Shot blasting eats CFMs, and the manufacturers claim delivery in CFMs - say 14, but what they should be quoting - so I understand - is FAD (Free Air Delivery) which is about 2/3s of the quoted CFM. If this doesn't make any sense - it didn't to me when I first came across the ideas, then have a gander at the link below if you haven't seen it

and thank the Lord for the wwwinternet...

This has forum and tutorial sections on Air Compressors, Welding (MIG) and Painting.

All three are a bit like riding a trials bike - they look easy until you try...

Hope helpful

Peter

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I,ve always used a 25 litre tank, holds enough to get a tyre blown on and stores easy. I recently got a 2.8kva genny for the van as well which will run the compressor incase of emergency tyre fitting at a trial or cleaning out carbs etc. Good price that 50 litre Paul :)

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I have 25lts 1.5hp which works fine and I don't own a beader. Make sure tank is full and valve core is out of the wheel and it normally pops up ok.

As I'm too tight/lazy to buy a beader sometimes use a ratchet strap round outside on a new tyre to get a good seat.

I think tank capacity is more important then CFM for popping tyres on.

One of the best addition to any garage mind as handy for blowing out carbs, brakes calipers, trapped water, crap etc plus painting and stuff

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As posted, for blowing tyre onto rim it hardly matters what size of pump you have, it will eventually put enough pressure in a receiver to blow tyre onto rim and then blow tyre up to pressure, you do need a decent size air receiver though and as also previously mentioned take valve out and make sure your airline is big enough to generate a big enough flow rate to blow the tyre onto rim in spite of air leaking out of unseated tyre, the direct drive machines are perfectly good for a diy type application i.e. most of us working on our bikes in our garages, yes F.A.D. is more important than displacement as a lot of the compressors on the market today are typically high revving direct drive piston type machines that are not as efficient as a lower revving unit, so you could get a 3 H.P. direct drive machine that displaces close to 12 C.F.M. but it will have an F.A.D. less than a higher quality 2 H.P. machine and that is before taking into consideration vane or screw type compressors or the extra efficiency that a two stage piston machine has over a single stage piston machine, a general rule is 4 C.F.M. displacement per horsepower, and the usual limit for running from a 13amp socket is 3 H.P. again this is a bit of a minefield because start currents can be up to ten times the running current on a single phase motor (you get away with this sort of current because it only peaks so high for a second or so) so this can lead to problems with burning the socket out, a better method for the machines above 2 H.P. is to wire direct into a 30 amp circuit (your ring main at home). and yes I know they sometimes come with a thirteen amp plug on ! It all depends on how much you are going to use your compressor and what you want out of it, the cheap italian ones that come from the likes of machine mart are ok as long as they are not overworked,

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