You'd think I were an eBay noob, they totally got me cuz I was tired and rushed and as cautious as usual. Oh well. I would need a metric butt-load of them at this size! So it's back to the other auction from Pakistan for 48 of the damned things for $16, since they specify right in the sale how big they are. With a ruler in a picture, by god. Ahem. Anyway.
As seen at left, I installed it when it was complete except for the stuffing, and even without the stuffing, the muffler is extremely effective, knocking down the intake port noise so far that the "knocking" of the compressor pump's mechanical noise is louder. This is good. The stuffing will just be a tweak, to kill the last bit of Helmholtz resonance in the big tube. Any further noise reduction will require a total enclosure. When that can happen will depend on when I get income again. The original air filter at the bottom could be flipped 180ยบ so it doesn't stick out as far, if I replaced the pipe nipple at the top with one half an inch or more longer.
Because we are still scraping by on the generosity of family, I'm still agonizing over when to pull the trigger on the air drying components necessary to run the blast cabinet (which after all was the whole point of buying a large and expensive compressor).
Those bits consist of an aftercooler created from an automotive oil cooler, and a conventional industrial moisture separator installed between the pump and tank. They will cost about $100, and will
remove something like 75% of the moisture from the air before
it enters the tank. This means the air entering the air plumbing of the shop will already by dry enough for all routine purposes (tools, mostly) and only a single minimal dying cartridge is required at the point of use for really fiddly applications like painting or a blast cabinet. I probably won't even need drip legs at the various air drops, but I'll probably install them anyway.
A desiccant drying cartridge will be installed right at the blast cabinet. I don't have space for a paint booth, and if I did, I'd install an oven as well as a spray booth, and use powder-coating in the future. And if I could breathe vacuum, I could flap my arms and fly to the moon.
Frankly it's killing me to put all of this time, money, and effort into something which was intended to make money for the shop... yet the phone ain't exactly ringing off the hook, and I'm having trouble figuring out how to get the word out to potential customers. I should change my ringtone to crickets chirping.
More as it happens...
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