What size air compressor

B

Busbee Cue

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What is a good size tank and HP for a compressor that would handle all coring needs in cue building?

I have a 2 HP 4 gallon portable compressor that I have used on a few forearms
that works but I have to go slow and stop and let the air build up a couple of times,
this is very slow.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
One thing to consider instead of going with a bigger compressor ($$$) is to install a larger tank inline between the compressor and your hose. This will increase the storage capacity, but will take longer to fill when needed. Just an idea.
Dave
 
Hi,

Being a ex commercial diver I have a fair amount of experience with surface supplied air from compressors.

When buying a compressor for cue making here is my opinion of the parameters you should consider.

1. Oil less. - compressors with oil lubed crankcases require expensive filtering systems to prevent downstream contamination. Oil residue and cues don't like to live together.

2. Pressure - 100 psi is good for sanding around veneers. Other than that you don't need it over 50psi IMO. So you can set up cheap reulator at stations where less is needed.

3. Volume in CFM - many compressors are rated in HP by the maker. Check to make sure that you have over 5 CFM at 100 psi as a minimum. 10 would be great but somewhere between 5 and 10 is good for a one man shop for adequate recovery.

Receiver / Volume Tank - 20 to 30 gallons is where you want to be. Make sure the tank has a drain on the bottom and purge it often.

Drier System - I myself use two desscant filters. One large one just downstream of my volume tank and a smaller one just upstream of my spray gun. It is also cool to have two volume tank to act as a temperature defusser before the air enter the shop stations.

The desscant filters have clear acrylic bowels so you a see the pellets. The pellets are deep blue. When they start looking a little pink I bake the in a tin baking sheet in a little pizza oven I keep in my shop until they are deep blue again void of moisture. Usually about every three to four week depending on the season.

Having too small of a compressor and volume will lead to more run time and more condensation build up within the tank resulting in problems especially if you don't dry the air. I can tell you that if you don't dry the air there will be problems in your clear coat. JMO.

There are air drying machine you can buy also. I never went there because after installing my second dessacant unit my clear coat was without issues whatsoever.

I hope this info is usefull.

Rick
 
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I use a 5hp two stage, with an 80 gal. Tank. I have never run out of air when coring!

Larry
 
6,5 hp and 60 gal tank..... it pumps up to 120 psi...... I use a regulator and a water separator, I have never had a problem.

Kim

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
 
I have 2

One 5hp with a 60 gallon tank. It pumps up to about 13 cfm at 165psi.

The other is a 5hp 3 phase Ingersol Rand commercial compressor. It has an 80 gallon tank and puts out 17cfm at 175psi. It's a beast!

Our shop is split into 2 sides, and we have one on each side. We do a lot of big hole coring, .750" by 15" long for our cues and can use a lot of air. When we core a lot of cues, usually a couple of hundred pieces at a time, we work the smaller unit pretty hard. I haven't used the bigger unit for that yet, but we might as time goes on. I'll need to move the lathe though to be able to get it to reach easily.
 
hey randy, you have a 2hp but what kind (recip or oil less). the industry has changed on the way HP is marked on new compressors. wht you really need is the CFM for the jobs you need to do. give me a call, can help you out on this one.
 
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