SpudFiles

Hey Guys,

Quick question;

My 1,000 psi compressor is nearing completion and my big cannon is finished with all anodizing and powder-coating. I am curious if there is any market for this kind of thing? I am not looking for lots of sales. But, I may consider puting the cannon and compressor up for sale and build another system if they sell. It would be freaking expensive, though. I have $1,500 invested in the two combined plus many hours. So, it would be over $2k for the two. But, I am just curious if there is anything out there to compare this to? I know that may sound like alot. But, a 500 psi compressor is $1,500 by itself. That is what drove me to build my own.

Anyway, just curious. I machine many things and sell them on-line. So, I am curious about this.

Matt

There are a lot of <S>shìt</S> basic launchers out there that sell for much more than what they are worth *cough*

Quality launchers like the bigger ones made by USG can sell for more than $1000.

Don't forget liability and warranty worries. A few damage videos on youtube though and you will find a buyer willing to part with 2k+

On the compressor department, commercial high pressure units are purchased for commercial use such as refilling SCUBA and HPA paintball tanks. Someone may want to buy yours if it is considerably cheaper. There are possible safety issues (resulting in liability issues) with a home brew solution that may have issues with moisture and the pressure.

A cascaded fridge compressor will not have the efficiency of a proper 2 or 3 stage compressor.

Yes, agreed. The air from my cascade compressor is oily. It is not safe for breathing. So, it could not be used for airing up a scuba tank. You are also correct that the efficiency is not the best. But, my primary compressor is larger than my secondary. That helps a bit. And liability is an issue.

At any rate, I may try to sell this one setup and make another. Of course, I love my cannon and I am sure I will love this compressor. So, that may be out of the question anyway.

Matt

Lets see the cannon! Did I miss it in another post or something? I tried to sell cannons and didn't get very far. Too expensive in my case.

One danger with oil and high pressure air. Applying air into a oily valve, regulator, etc can cause enough compression heating to cause diesel ignition. This is a very real danger. The danger is much less than pure oxygen, but compressed air is considered a concentrated oxygen environment increasing the fire and explosion hazard.

Most people do not consider opening a valve as an explosion risk. High pressure air with oil present can cause fire or explosion.

Moonbogg wrote:Lets see the cannon! Did I miss it in another post or something?

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/my-firs ... 21811.html

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/what-wo ... 23516.html

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/1-2-inc ... 22763.html

Technician1002 wrote:One danger with oil and high pressure air. Applying air into a oily valve, regulator, etc can cause enough compression heating to cause diesel ignition. This is a very real danger. The danger is much less than pure oxygen, but compressed air is considered a concentrated oxygen environment increasing the fire and explosion hazard.

Most people do not consider opening a valve as an explosion risk. High pressure air with oil present can cause fire or explosion.

That would be if I was quick filling a tank. My compressor slowly pressurizes the on-board tank, then that tank feeds the secondary compressor inlet which slowly fills the cannon tank. The fastest it could fill my smallest cannon (my 1/2 inch bore cannon) is about 10 seconds. My big cannon takes about 3 to 4 minutes to pressurize. Your observation would be correct if I was pressurizing a large tank to a very high pressure, then quickly opening a valve to transfer pressure to another tank, thereby quickly filling and quickly heating the air in the second tank, or am I missing something?

Good thing to be cautious, however. Actually, even scuba tank filling stations fill tanks slowly. It is normally not good to pressurize air quickly. It is best to do it slowly and monitor everything.

Matt

Opening a valve into a small closed pipe is enough to cause ignition at high pressure. On oxygen equipment, a common cause is contamination in the regulator. Opening the tank valve can ignite the regulator. I'm thinking of any place you have a pipe with 2 valves, such as where you connect and disconnect from your cannon. Connecting to the cannon and opening the source valve but not having the valve into the cannon open yet can rapidly pressurize that piece of pipe and cause ignition.

Typical Diesel ignition happens with about 12:1 compression and above. A pressure of 12 Bar is in this range. A pressure of 1,000 PSI is enough to cause a fire or explosion.

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Yup, understood.

My cannons use one way stop quick disconnects. There is no manual shut-off to forget.

I appreciate the words, though. It is always good to hear caution. Messing around with 100 psi is dangerous enough. 1,000 psi gets a bit dicey.......

Matt