For years I've been thinking about getting into the hobby as an affordable pastime. The recent listing of a scba compressor on a local auction just rekindled my thinking. Anyone here into them? Looking for ideas, advice ect. Thanks Keith
I'm in research mode and I'm definitely planning on adding some PCP rifles to my collection. There are several good YouTube channels dedicated to air rifles. Up north air gunner in one. Teds holdover is another. Can't remember the others currently.
The Aea Zeus .72 cal looks like a blast. Want to get a compressor first. Looking for a breathing compressor at least 5000 psi. preferably from a rural fire department.
Government surplus auctions, I have seen a few local to me. govdeals.com one in KY and Oh right now cheap $500 and $560
I'm leaning going with the shoebox compressor using my shop compressor as the first stage. As far as rifles, I have several I'm interested in. 22 through 257 caliber. Im wanting to get an Air force in 257 for lead bullets.
As a machinist I'm looking at future endeavors requiring more than gun tank volumes worth of squeezed excitement.
I have an airforce texan .45 and use a yongheng HPA compressor. I'm guessing you're looking at dive/fire dept compressors if you mention an auction? fwiw, I'd buy another yongheng, no complaints about it yet. Lost 1 burst disc and 1 gauge so far on it. I don't let it get hot so I anticipate lots of hours out of it. So far I have about 5 hrs of run time on it. my thread on my rifle Another Black Rifle thread..
There is a forum called gta, there are some machinists on there that tinker with air guns. You might want to check it out for that only,. They have some great experience already on what works and what won't.
I was leaning towards a fire department compressor based on bang for buck. Someone suggested a Alkin compressor as a decent unit.
They are better than a yongheng. If you can get one for the same price range, it's a no brainer. If it doesn't need rebuilt anytime soon. The chinese one does the job well though for what it is. I'm not sure how hot the air gets from a dive compressor but the yongheng gets hot, I put my oil/water separator in a bucket of ice to cool the air down and get as much moisture to drop out as possible before it hits my 2 desiccant filters. I've also added heatsinks to it to help with the heat. Always run ice water thru it because they get hot.
PCP- Compressors, The shoebox was a great idea back in the day- no longer made or supported. I had one for several years. Cheap chi-com units all over the place- luck of the draw on most . I do have a ex military unit at present good for 3000psi. A lot of the newer guns are topping out at 4000psi now and the low cost compressors really struggle with that . Then there is the issue of moisture again the low cost units are not great in that area. for 4000 psi a 3 stage compressor is about the minimum, 4 is better. Bauer- top of the line, Alkin next, Nuair offerings after that- not sure of where they are made, but west coast is where they are located with support stateside. ( something that lot of the chi-com units lack) Nuair is closing out the mch6 unit ( new model coming out) At $2400 best bang for the buck- USA and Italy mfg of their units . Only down side is west coast location ( well for me being WI) Bauer and Alkin start at around $5k. Most of the chi-com units can handle the bottle on a gun but large tanks are another story, duty cycles are short. ( kinda like 12v DC winches if you have ever looked at depth in to those) Spent a lot of time in competition ( 30+ years worth from springers and single stroke pnuematics to co2 to pcp).
Cudahy fire has a 4 stage Eagleair at auction. 10hp and it's single phase. Was going to call and see what condition it's in. Has a filling station that I don't really need but.......
What a bummer about the shoebox. Its been awhile since I looked into air compressors. I've been mainly looking at the rifles as of late.
I respectfully disagree at least on the china yongheng compressor (which is a 3 stage compressor) . Never ran others, can't speak for them. It handles the largest scba tank just fine. You may have to stop if you're cooling solution is inadequate. It fills my tank to 4500 psi, it doesn't struggle, It does a bit better than 4500 psi, I fill it just a tad above it since it drops a bit as I disconnect everything. The only duty cycle on the YongHeng is heat buildup and again, it comes down to cooling. When I first started I filled 2 liter bottles with water, froze them and stuck them into a cooler with water for cooling. It couldn't really keep up. I would have to stop and let the water chill down again before restarting. Now I just fill the cooler up half way with ice, pour a gallonish of water into cooler and let it rip. It doesn't even get into the low 40c range until I'm about done topping my 60 minute tank off. I think I could fill 2 60 minute tanks up with the way I have it setup now. Moisture is an issue with them but really that is inherent with any compressor. The air is just a heck of a lot hotter than your stock 150 psi compressors. I have a moisture indicator on my last stage going into the tank and it never shows moisture above 10% with my setup. It doesn't give me a better indicator than that, I'm not sure if it's worth the money on buying a 5% indicator disc though. I use silica desiccant and molecular sieve in my loop. plus I have a dwell valve that won't allow air to pass thru it below 2k psi so the desiccant has time to the job. if you get thru this wall of text, china compressors can't beat a 4 stage dive compressor and if you have the money do it. But most being sold/auctioned off are going to need rebuilt. That was the consensus on the air gun forums..
In the past I have had extremely good luck with honesty regarding fire department surplus equipment. Dive shops I'd be cautious as all get out.
My new plan is to try one of the Air-Venturi Rovair portable compressors. Air Venturi RovAir 4500 Portable Compressor | Pyramyd Air
Or the nomad. I'm not willing to spend much more than this unit at this time. I'll really have to get neck deep in the air rifles to consider a $1000+ compressor. Air Venturi Nomad III 4500 PSI Portable PCP Compressor | Pyramyd Air
