bigpappy
Aluminum
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2010
- Location
- South Jersey
I need someone to either convince me to keep a giant air compressor and that there is no such thing as too much air or tell me I'm silly and to get rid of it!
Recently participated in a local machine shop auction and among a surface grinder and some tooling, absolutely stole a 25hp SpeedAire compressor.
Watched and heard it run, even has a signed service interval chart with it.
Why did I do this you may ask.
I occasionally (maybe 2-3 times a month) have to use my glass bead cabinet and my old DeVILBISS compressor barely keeps up.
As a matter of fact, the motor blew on it about 6 months ago and I upgraded it to a 7.5hp Baldor motor with a slightly larger pulley to max out the pump speed rpm to give me a boost in the CFM department. Still not enough.
So not a whole lot of blasting, but it does become tiresome waiting for it to kick off when I am going full tilt.
Here's the issue I'm faced with.
My shop has 240 volt, 400 amp single phase service running through two American Rotary 50hp ADX converters.
This nets me around 200 to 220 amps of 240 volt 3 phase.
My main machine is a Mazak SQT18MS which is currently run off of a 150 amp fused disconnect.
Nameplate rating is 125amps largest motor, 60kva total ~140amps.
I have changed accel and deccel parameters so it doesn't pull nearly as much when winding up.
I have put an ammeter on the lines to see how much current it really uses and during normal ops, its around 50 amps.
My ammeter does not have an inrush setting though, so I don't truly know what it's pulling.
Being that this compressor is 25hp with a nameplate rating of 75 amps, I am concerned about it kicking on while the CNC is running giving me a low voltage alarm or just doing funny things with the electronics.
With both in a constant on state, my converters should have no problem providing the correct power, it's the startup that I'm concerned about.
As a side note, I am currently looking at small VMCs as well, so there may be another medium load on the system.
I'm not worried about any of the manual machines as only 1 will be run at a time and their power requirements are pretty much nill.
Option 1: Hook both up and just test it out to see what happens.
Option 2: Purchase a Fluke 370 or equivalent with inrush settings to see what I'm actually working with.
Option 3: Sell both and purchase a 10 or 15hp compressor.
Option 4: ???
What say you??
Recently participated in a local machine shop auction and among a surface grinder and some tooling, absolutely stole a 25hp SpeedAire compressor.
Watched and heard it run, even has a signed service interval chart with it.
Why did I do this you may ask.
I occasionally (maybe 2-3 times a month) have to use my glass bead cabinet and my old DeVILBISS compressor barely keeps up.
As a matter of fact, the motor blew on it about 6 months ago and I upgraded it to a 7.5hp Baldor motor with a slightly larger pulley to max out the pump speed rpm to give me a boost in the CFM department. Still not enough.
So not a whole lot of blasting, but it does become tiresome waiting for it to kick off when I am going full tilt.
Here's the issue I'm faced with.
My shop has 240 volt, 400 amp single phase service running through two American Rotary 50hp ADX converters.
This nets me around 200 to 220 amps of 240 volt 3 phase.
My main machine is a Mazak SQT18MS which is currently run off of a 150 amp fused disconnect.
Nameplate rating is 125amps largest motor, 60kva total ~140amps.
I have changed accel and deccel parameters so it doesn't pull nearly as much when winding up.
I have put an ammeter on the lines to see how much current it really uses and during normal ops, its around 50 amps.
My ammeter does not have an inrush setting though, so I don't truly know what it's pulling.
Being that this compressor is 25hp with a nameplate rating of 75 amps, I am concerned about it kicking on while the CNC is running giving me a low voltage alarm or just doing funny things with the electronics.
With both in a constant on state, my converters should have no problem providing the correct power, it's the startup that I'm concerned about.
As a side note, I am currently looking at small VMCs as well, so there may be another medium load on the system.
I'm not worried about any of the manual machines as only 1 will be run at a time and their power requirements are pretty much nill.
Option 1: Hook both up and just test it out to see what happens.
Option 2: Purchase a Fluke 370 or equivalent with inrush settings to see what I'm actually working with.
Option 3: Sell both and purchase a 10 or 15hp compressor.
Option 4: ???
What say you??