(starter) air compressor for Brother?

azander · Jan 22, 2020

Hello,

After (years of) deliberating industrial machines I finally pulled the trigger. I have a new, fairly vanilla, Brother S500X1 on the way. To start, I'm renting a bit of available space in a semi-communal type shop. Unfortunately there's no air available. Therefore I'm looking for a temporary use (cheap) air compressor with a small footprint just to get started. I believe the Brother uses 45L/min at 0.4 - 0.6 MPa or about 1.6cfm at ~70-90 PSI - I understand this is continuous while running? I believe I read a while back that another Brother user/forum member burned out a 2hp California Air compressor in rather short order. For my situation of light use while I finish out design work and prototyping, could one of these compressors, or the likes of, work temporarily for ~12 months at 15-20 hours/week of machine-on time?

Thanks

plastikdreams · Jan 22, 2020

How much do you have to spend

Rick Finsta · Jan 22, 2020

Look for a used rotary screw compressor in your area. You will never regret buying more compressor than you think you will need.

Listening to a piston compressor constantly cycling is enough to drive a man mad. If you are sharing shop space everyone else will hate you.

D.D.Machine · Jan 22, 2020

I really like the older Emglo compressors .. they make a little twin tank that is like 1hp to 1 1/2 hp and its just about as simple and reliable as you can ask for ,,, I run one every day and have for years and yes you well need to change oil every few months and swap valves once a year or so . but there slow speed, SOLID cast iron and best of all most are setup for constant run ,, meaning even when your up to full pressure they don`t stop spinning ,, they just open the intake valves and push cool air in and out ,,, AKA they run cool and don`t give you a ton of water in your air ... I have found all of mine for under $300 and have got them as low as $100 for nice ones .... parts are super cheap and just plan on stocking valves and top end gaskets ,,,

I fire off the 120 gallon industrial 5hp compressor in the morning to fill the tank fast then run all day off the little quit Emglo ... it runs about 8 to 10 hours a day 6 days a week ,,

FYI
The older Emglo`s are great but the newer ones marked as Dewalt or Jenny are junk ,,,

Finegrain · Jan 22, 2020

azander said:
I believe I read a while back that another Brother user/forum member burned out a 2hp California Air compressor in rather short order.

That was me. The poor little thing ran pretty much constantly. My Speedio uses a lot more than 1.6 CFM. More like 5. Part of it is how many tool changes you are doing. Each tool change gets a full pressure blast to clear the taper.

I now have a 5 kW screw compressor + 120 gal aux tank.

Regards.

Mike

azander · Jan 22, 2020

Rick Finsta said:
Look for a used rotary screw compressor in your area. ...

Unfortunately they are a bit too large for the floor space I have right now.

... Noise is a definite consideration, hence I was thinking the California Air or equivalent, at-least for the short term. In terms of cost I was thinking not much more than $750-1K especially if I'd get a $3-5K screw compressor in the future when I'm running full bore and likely in a different space.

azander · Jan 22, 2020

Finegrain said:
That was me. The poor little thing ran pretty much constantly. My Speedio uses a lot more than 1.6 CFM. More like 5. Part of it is how many tool changes you are doing. Each tool change gets a full pressure blast to clear the taper.

I now have a 5 kW screw compressor + 120 gal aux tank.

Regards.

Mike

How many hours did you get out of it? Weeks or like a year?

gkoenig · Jan 22, 2020

I have a 2.0 HP California Air tools compressor with the 30 gal tank and the air dryer. I've had it running for 18 months without an issue. Love that little guy!

plastikdreams · Jan 23, 2020

There was recently a thread on an Eastwood scroll compressor that was small and fairly inexpensive.

SND · Jan 23, 2020

Kaeser air tower seem compact but a bit $$$$.

Those little Eastwood elite QST-30/60 look interesting, Seems compact and quiet, low cost, probably good enough.
Needs a dryer from the looks of it.

Who sells and services Brother in Canada now?

Cole2534 · Jan 23, 2020

plastikdreams said:
There was recently a thread on an Eastwood scroll compressor that was small and fairly inexpensive.

That was me and so far I really like it. Itneeds a dryer and filter/reg added so factor that in to your economics.

It's real damn quiet, and the noise is makes is much easier on the brain than a recip.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

Finegrain · Jan 23, 2020

azander said:
How many hours did you get out of it? Weeks or like a year?

I has used it for about 1 year before I got the Speedio, but all it had to do for that time was keep the lathe's bar pusher plunger pumped up which used practically no volume. It started to crap out about 3 weeks after I started running the Speedio. It just wouldn't build enough pressure to hit the upper limit, regardless of how long it ran. I opened it up to see if it was something I could fix, and the internals were a gong show of cheap manufacturing. Contact surfaces for O-rings as-cast, not even decked. Stuff like that.

Maybe they're better now.

Regards.

Mike

Rick Finsta · Jan 23, 2020

Do you at least have room for an auxiliary tank? That will reduce some demand on the compressor. Also keep in mind you need an air dryer. I think it is foolish to run a CNC without protecting the air supply from moisture. The Speedios are at least greased spindles so far less likely to cause damage, but still...

Wsurfer · Jan 23, 2020

I got a Ingersol rand compressor from northern tool for just under 1k. 5hp 60 gallon. My S500 doesn't seem to use much air even though the spindle purge is continuous. Duty cycle is pretty low with this setup. It is noisy though.

Wsurfer · Jan 23, 2020

Forgot to mention i have a air dryer from Harbor Freight. Still working after a year despite being a chinese POS.

.

cosmos_275 · Jan 23, 2020

I used a 30 gallon DeWalt for a while. Capacity was ok if it was meant to run a lot (charge several times/hr). It was not and died in a few months. I had used a dessicant dryer, but I'm not sure it was doing a great job. I now use a 60gal Quincy and size 25 dryer from them. Quincy makes a 26 gallon which I thought about before getting the 60. Hard to know if it would fare much better than the DeWalt.

I hooked up a button to turn on and off the spindle purge air. That will waste a lot of air. Someone on here got Yamazen to do it for them in the form of it would turn off when the spindle was not on. Maybe you can get them to do that.

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