shop air stuff

 I have mostly been working on the media blasting cabinet lately, and working very slowly at that, since I am forbidden to lift more than twenty pounds and I am trying very hard not to bend or squat very much.

 In fact, I'm trying not to engage my core at all beyond what is subconsciously required to hold me upright.

 With that in mind, I can get a fair amount done hanging my body weight on a rope connected to two pulleys, using only my arms and upper torso muscles, including raising and lowering the 75-pound cabinet on its side so I can drill a new exhaust hole and mounting holes for the dust collector... 

 At first, I was having the damnedest time figuring out how to make a tidy hole.  I didn't see hand-holding a hole saw that size in even my big Hole Shooter™.  It doesn't help that the sheet steel is paper-thin...

 I started out trying to use a shitty Harbor Frights body panel air saw and just managed to wear out another blade.

 Then I stopped and pondered and mentally whined about not having a large radial drill press.  Hang on!  "Radial Drill Press" you say?

 After taking a few measurements, I realized I could swing the drill press's head sideways just by loosening two screws, since the tool is bolted down, and as it turned out, where I wanted to locate the hole was exactly 7.5 inches from the edge, and the swing from column to drill center is ... exactly 7.5 inches.

 Now, the reason the title of this post is "shop air" and not "blasting cabinet" is cuz very shortly I will need anywhere from 25 - 100 PSI of air at anywhere from 2 to 10 CFM (spoilers: I will not get to own a 10 CFM air compressor unless a platinum & diamond meteorite lands on my head*)

 Now, in addition to the fact that my current compressor is just-barely-only-kinda-sorta capable of supplying sufficient air for a media blasting cabinet, but certainly not for continuous duty, and in any case I've decided to get rid of it, as I don't care for the condition of the tank.  A large compressed air tank stores enough energy at 120PSI to blow a hole right through a cinder block wall - or you.

 So I'm going to give away the pump (via the alley gods†) which is in good working condition, and destroy the tank with a torch, then leave it in the alley for the scrappers.

 So now I need to buy a good compressor which not only delivers more air but also is very quiet.  There are a few companies making quiet (some are advertised as silent when they create 70dB of noise?!?) compressors by virtue of using multiple small, low-flow, high-pressure vane pumps, and also putting extra muffler tubing on the intakes to muffle intake port noise, which is a low-frequency, hard-to-absorb sound.  This drives the cost up considerably, although these frankenrigs are still thousands cheaper than a screw compressor.  Those still start around $4K which is too rich for me!

 Note also that dry vane pumps have MTBF lifetimes considerably shorter than oil-lubricated pumps, which is a real pisser.

 I also happen to need a nice, tidy little manifold from which to split off the various air lines to various places in my garage and workshop.  And I can't find one that actually meets my needs which isn't exhorbitantly priced and that is also pissing me off.

 I need at least one high-flow regulator for the blasting cabinet, as well as a second drier.  There also needs to be a main water-and-oil separator between the compressor and the distribution manifold, which I don't have.  I bought one at Harbor Frights, but it turns that is not something you should buy at Harbor Frights.

 And so it goes...

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*some days I wish one would.
†the alley gods giveth, and the alley gods taketh away