DIY air refills

[Violent Ken]

I'm a serious greasemonkey and am planning on getting a compressor in the near future so that I can use air tools when required.

Assuming that I get one capable of supplying the required pressure, what else would I need in order to be able to carry out safe air refills?

[NotDeadYet]

Aren't most tool compressors fairly low pressure?

[nigelH]

Originally Posted by Violent Ken

I'm a serious greasemonkey and am planning on getting a compressor in the near future so that I can use air tools when required.

I have a compressor to run air tools. It has virtually no diving applications known to man other than driving a Haskell. It gives me 8 to 10bar but masses of volume. It drives a mean nut driver though and we used to use it to spray paint stuff...

Assuming that I get one capable of supplying the required pressure, what else would I need in order to be able to carry out safe air refills?

I also have a compressor to do this. It pumps 310bar but only about 100L/min input so to fill my twin 10s takes nearly an hour. It has two stages of filtering to remove the compressor oil and other gunge from the output to get it to a clean enough level to do oxygen rich mixes. I can't just put a reg on the output to drop it back down to 10bar to run the air tools as it doesn't give enough gas to keep up.

Incidentally both these beasts draw well over 15A of single phase so they don't just plug into the wall.

I think you are not going to find something that does both. Well, not without spending silly money.

[Violent Ken]

I feared this would be the case

Oh well, I'll just have to get 2 then! Where could I find a diving compressor which can generate up to 300-ish bar, and how much would it be likely to cost?

[Hazel W]

Originally Posted by Violent Ken

Where could I find a diving compressor which can generate up to 300-ish bar, and how much would it be likely to cost?

Hi Ken

As has been said .. home / airtool compressors have no diving application and diving compressors cannot be used for air tools / spraypainting.

Diving compressors are specialised pieces of kit and can cost upwards of £3000.00 new They can also be very dangerous when not looked after right ( anyone who has seen a filling whip explode will tell you this )
I would recomend you look at Bauer compressors on the net they do a self contained one for "home" use and if you are wanting something a little larger then Central compressor supplies do bristol hamworthy (the best) compressors for about 2k reconditioned.
Think very seriously about second hand kit as this can be an accident waiting to happen.
Another comperssor i have seen advertised for home use was an american thing ...i think called airking but you would have to google for this ..

oh one more thing .. whatever you do get please dont try mixing your own nitrox without training ... this is a VERY dangerous task without the correct equipment / procedures there have been three people killed in the last year mixing with o2 ( friendly advice )

anyhow hope this has been helpful ..

Hazel

[Violent Ken]

Cheers Hazel, and don't worry there's no danger of me trying any DIY gas mixes. I've yet to master diving on air so mixed gases are a long long way off.

I just thought how handy it'd be if I could refill my own cylinders and save me a trip to SDS every time, but unless I win the lottery I think I'll save myself 2 grand and just put up with it

[gobfish1]

Originally Posted by divebiatch

Hi Ken

As has been said .. home / airtool compressors have no diving application and diving compressors cannot be used for air tools / spraypainting.

Diving compressors are specialised pieces of kit and can cost upwards of £3000.00 new They can also be very dangerous when not looked after right ( anyone who has seen a filling whip explode will tell you this )
I would recomend you look at Bauer compressors on the net they do a self contained one for "home" use and if you are wanting something a little larger then Central compressor supplies do bristol hamworthy (the best) compressors for about 2k reconditioned.
Think very seriously about second hand kit as this can be an accident waiting to happen.
Another comperssor i have seen advertised for home use was an american thing ...i think called airking but you would have to google for this ..

oh one more thing .. whatever you do get please dont try mixing your own nitrox without training ... this is a VERY dangerous task without the correct equipment / procedures there have been three people killed in the last year mixing with o2 ( friendly advice )

anyhow hope this has been helpful ..

Hazel

Hi divebiatch,

Have got more info

(there have been three people killed in the last year mixing with o2)

Steve G

[Hazel W]

hi Steve .. i presume you mean have i got more info on the deaths?....
I know that one worker at a dive centre in japan was killed in an O2 fire ( the filling whip caught fire through a micro fracture leak overheating in contact with contaminents) and also last june two people were killed in an explosion in a dive centre in the states when an inexperianced staff member used the wrong compressor and lines to scavenge o2 out of partially empty J bottles ...the resulting bang took out the front of the shop..... the worker and her co worker.

i could find out more if u need


Hazel

[wreckweasel]

Hazel, the states incident was at rennakers place. It didnt happen like that and only one person died (3 were injured). The component currently thought to be at fault was the actual customer tank. Theres a whole raft of speculation about this one already on various sites including the decostop, Im hoping we wont start yet more on here


Recent incidents that I know of;

1. The infamous BBQ Kato on a dive boat in UAE, last month I think. The boat burnt to the waterline. This was started in a CCR.
2. An 'alledged' incident at a certain well known UK dive centre within the last two weeks. I dont know the details, I do know that a few people have somewhat sooty kit.

[gobfish1]

Originally Posted by divebiatch

hi Steve .. i presume you mean have i got more info on the deaths?....
I know that one worker at a dive centre in japan was killed in an O2 fire ( the filling whip caught fire through a micro fracture leak overheating in contact with contaminents) and also last june two people were killed in an explosion in a dive centre in the states when an inexperianced staff member used the wrong compressor and lines to scavenge o2 out of partially empty J bottles ...the resulting bang took out the front of the shop..... the worker and her co worker.

i could find out more if u need


Hazel

Thanks for the reply

steve G