[ChevelleSS_LS6]

This thread is still alive! Holy cow, must be the most popular thread I ever srarted.
-matt

[TooMany2count]

My New TOY
Info Tag

got this on sale last week for less then $1200 after my 10% discount. i think it will work out just fine. my 45gallon one died last year & rather then buy a electric motor i bought this one instead, it's a Quincy Compressor which is made just north of me & matter of fact this is the same kind that the early Tin Dusters give away every year at thier car show in Oct......joe

[oldred]

Quincy Now that is a REAL compressor. I like Eaton and Ingersoll a lot but those Quincys have served me well for a long time and I have found them to be nearly indestructible.

[ChevelleSS_LS6]

Originally Posted by oldred

Quincy Now that is a REAL compressor. I like Eaton and Ingersoll a lot but those Quincys have served me well for a long time and I have found them to be nearly indestructible.

I've never heard of Quincy, but from the sound of it, it's bulletproof

your great-great-grandkids will be using it someday.

[oldred]

Quincys have been around a long time and are one of the best made. A co-worker of mine has a gas powered Quincy that has gone through three engines and a tank since 1974. After thirty one years that pump is still going! Yeah I like Quincys!

[frankenstang57]

I dunno what kind mine is, but it is a twin cylinder upright, 5 hp 220 motor, and I believe it's and 80 gal.(?) tank. The thing has a build date of 1959 on it. I'll hafta checkout the inside of the tank one of these days. My dad bought the think bac in the 80's and it seems to be in pretty good shap. Keeps up with nearly everything I have except for my big sandblaster. But then again, it takes about 10 minutes to get to that point. It's in the background of the picture.

[1939P7]

Originally Posted by atlantis

One double stage 3 phase compressor with 200 litre tank, don't know how many litres it flows unfortunately. Two portable small ones with 10 and 25 litre tanks and a flow of 90 and 200 litre. These are direct drives and noisy but convenient if you need a compressor to take with you.

The exploded tank pics scare me, my big compressor is 36 years old! Wouldn't have believed that these 8-9 bar make such an explosion. What pressure do we have in the welding bottles...

Regards
Martin

The wall thickness of a majority of compressed gas bottles are of a heaver gauge than your typical air compressor tank, and the fact that here where I live they must be retested and the valve changed every 10 years would account for less data on accidents caused by this type of tank explosion.
However, most accidents are caused from not securing the tanks properly, should they fall and the valve sheers off and launches an air borne torpedo.

Therefore, as Julmer stated in his post #23 >http://hotrodders.com/forum/showpost.php?p=362151&postcount=23<
It is a wise decision to inspect the bottom of the tank .
Again, it's always more safe to have your compressor mounted outside your work area or build a good structurally solid wall to protect one from injury of a compressor tank that may rupture. It's wise to replace the blow off valve on any older compressor, as should if fail to release the next weakest point would be that rusted tank bottom. "you'll never see it coming"

[daimon1054]

At home I had a small loud did I say small compressor. I just made one, OK not made but parted one togther. I had bought a generator trailer and it had a compressor on it but not all the parts. So I made a stand for the 2 HP motor and the oil filled 2 cylinder compressor and then used 1/2" high pressure hose to conect it to a tank that was also salvaged and sits on a homme made stand. Then I plumed it using switches and such robbed off of old not working compressors. All told I have 30 bucks in it and it is super quiet still a little slow but the tank is about 20 gal where I has 2 before and it does all I need. At the shop I have 2 50 gallon 19CFM compressors hooked togther so I never wait for air there.

[ChevelleSS_LS6]

Originally Posted by daimon1054

At home I had a small loud did I say small compressor. I just made one, OK not made but parted one togther. I had bought a generator trailer and it had a compressor on it but not all the parts. So I made a stand for the 2 HP motor and the oil filled 2 cylinder compressor and then used 1/2" high pressure hose to conect it to a tank that was also salvaged and sits on a homme made stand. Then I plumed it using switches and such robbed off of old not working compressors. All told I have 30 bucks in it and it is super quiet still a little slow but the tank is about 20 gal where I has 2 before and it does all I need. At the shop I have 2 50 gallon 19CFM compressors hooked togther so I never wait for air there.

kinda like mine, it has an ancient Westinghouse electric motor and a refridgeration pump form an old grocery store cooling unit. Speedaire tank, I wish it'd do 110-120psi instead of 80, yes I adjusted the regulator, I think it might be tank rating and the shutoff was set accordingly. Real quiet, seems to pump a lot of air. Works great, I love my old American stuff.

right now it's in the back corner of the garage, not too far away from my dad's 1970s Craftsman with a bad shutoff sensor (it runs and the safety valve pops, and runs some more...). The one most often used is a little pancake air compressor, circa 1980s. That's towards the front of the garage and everything works well.

[454me]

While an air tank can pop you really cant compare a 120-175psi air tank to a 2300 psi scuba tank. I have seen a wall plug go to ground in a house and it will pop a little and I have seen a 13,800 volt panel at work go to ground and it will open up 1/4 plate like a can opener.

Originally Posted by willys36@aol.com

I wouldn't touch a used tank w/ a 10' pole unless I knew for sure its history. Tanks can look great on the outside, hold a great coat of paint and be nearly rusted through on the inside. When a pressure tank explodes, it makes the network evening news. If you must go the used route, at least make sure it is an ASME coded tank so you have a fighting chance.

See this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

[oldred]

Back in 1979 I saw a 30 gallon tank rupture that was mounted behind the cab of a DM800 Mack truck.This tank had about 175 psi in it when it went and it peeled that Mack truck cab open like a tin can! I agree with Willys 100% and I would NEVER use a tank that was not meant for the purpose or one that was used and/or old of unknown condition. You can campare a scuba tank to a compressor tank in the sense that both can be devastating if they burst. If someone is thinking of using a tank of unknown condition I would highly recommend against it as I have seen two tanks rupture, one was on the Mack truck and the other(about a 40 gallon)made a hole in a garage wall big enough to drive a car through! If you are considering building your own compressor then do your homework first and put safety above all else as a compressor tank explosion CAN happen and DON'T let anyone tell you otherwise.

[daimon1054]

A lot depends, but if a 175 PSI tank opened up a truck cab something else happened. There is just not enought pressure for that to be possible. I saw a tank blow once and it did squat. A loud pop and some hissing.

[oldred]

It depends on wether or not just a hole opens up or the tank really ruptures as CAN happen! If you had seen that truck or the garage I am talking about you would not be skeptical! That tank on the Mack DID open up that cab, I was there I KNOW what happened! I am NOT just guessing what would happen! If you think 175 PSI in a 30 gallon tank would not cause damage like I describe then that is your mistake and you ARE mistaken! You saw a tank spring a leak and not rupture and belive me there IS a difference. I have been in the business for over thirty years and the two cases I described are the two I witnessed first hand and I know of several more. Old and damaged tanks can be very dangerous and if you want to chance it then that is your business but please don't tell someone else that it can't happen because it CAN! I KNOW I have seen it first hand!

[daimon1054]

All the CAPS don't matter I am an engineer and can tell you from a matmatical stand point it is not possible! Again other things can be at play, oil in the tank with hot air and the right situation can cause a diesel effect and make a hugh explosion. Just because you see something does not mean you know what caused it! Put it this way I have seen a OXY tank loose the top and it went through a wall but it did not explode and that is a 3000PSI tank, so a hole in the tank will not explode no matter how it opens. I am not saying you did not see what you saw but that the effect was not from a rupture in a 175 PSI tank.

[oldred]

I don't care what you are, anyone who has seen a truck tire blow off the rim(as happens sometimes at the mine here) with a lot less volume and pressure than those two tanks can attest to the damage that much volume can do. When that tank split it was mounted behind the rear window and all that air then vented into the cab which is not capable of holding the pressure.I have witnessed this first hand and you can play with your slide rule all day and it will not change the fact that compressed air will expand violently if released suddenly. I have worked with air systems for over thirty years and I do have a good understanding of the physics involved here. You said that you saw a tank "blow" and it did squat, a loud pop and some hissing, since you are an engineer you should know the diffrence between "springing a leak and catastrophic falure" as happened in the two cases I related. I have seen a great many "leaks" happen due to rust or damage and a vast majority of the time a leak is all that does happen but when a tank really "blows" the results can be devastating! In the case of the truck the tank had extensive rust damage that was not visible on the outside and just for the record I am well aware of the potential diesel effect of pressurized air and oil mist but that is not the case here as this incident was examined as a mine accident and the results are quite clear. You are plainly saying that a tank will not explode no matter how it opens but you are dead wrong and there are a lot of cases to prove it. If a small hole pops through as happens most of the time then what you describe is all that will happen but we are not talking about just a hole and if that tank fails massively as can happen then mister you WILL see just how wrong you are! Just try telling the guys who repair truck tires that the air volume and pressure contained in a truck tire will not explode violently and we are talking a lot less volume and pressure than a compressor tank.