C
Chalee
Guest
It looks like I might be getting my hands on a silentaire a 20. Anyone ever mod these to have a larger tank. The come with .4 which seems like the motor would be running quite a bit. Just curious.
M
Madbrush
Guest
Why not just buy a compressor that has a larger tank natively, it doesn't make sense to me to risk burning out a perfectly good motor just to see if a larger tank would work, my guess is if it was possible or acceptable to have a larger tank on specific compressor, it would already be there.
It might be easier to get your hands on two Silentair 20's and then you would have a Silent air 40, although I would personally just buy the latter if I needed the bigger tank
It might be easier to get your hands on two Silentair 20's and then you would have a Silent air 40, although I would personally just buy the latter if I needed the bigger tank
jagardn
Airbrush Acquisition Disorder Patient
I'd agree with Madbrush. That thing has a 1/5 HP motor, I'd guess that the biggest tank it would safely support would be around 2 gallon. Mine is 1/2 HP and can support up to a 6 Gallon tank. Doing any mods like this blindly is always taking a risk of damaging the equipment.
C
Chalee
Guest
I was just curious. I was getting this one for a steal. I had a tank lying around from an old husky with a bad motor. Eventually going to put a fridge motor on that. Was just curious about the 20. That said. Will the 20 suit me for spraying 2-3 hours a day and some 6 hour sessions on an occasional Saturday.
jagardn
Airbrush Acquisition Disorder Patient
There is a continuous usage chart on page 13 of the manual.
http://www.silentaire.com/silentaire/images/pdfs/050215_SaA_MAN_I-GB(silentaire)_R2.pdf
C
Chalee
Guest
Thanks looks like with spraying at 20 psi. Might be good to go with the 20.
M
Madbrush
Guest
I have little cheap compressor with a tiny 3 litre tank, I've had it about two years and never had a problem working continuously with it, I generally work anywhere between 5 to 20 PSI and occasionally a little higher if I need to blast something in, however, when I say "continuous" I usually start to paint something and work for about ten minutes and then stop and either scratch or erase or anything I might have to do that isn't actual spraying, sometimes these other practices take a lot longer than the spraying, but the point is the compressor gets lots of breaks even if I work the whole day on a painting.
Your compressor is somewhat more substantial compared to mine, and I see in the PDF that Jag linked you to that in the event of possible overheating your compressor will automatically shut and come back on again when it cools, so certainly if your working at 20 psi I doubt you will have a problem even with the auto shut off, but if you did you at least know it's coming back on, simply take a few breaks as you work, six hours non stop crouching over a painting would cripple even the fittest of us,
. if my compressor stops, it's never coming back onI have always had it in my head to get myself a bigger more powerful compressor just in case I need it, but since these days I don't do anything much bigger than A3 size my little cheapie performs quite well and for what it cost, to me it's no big deal to simply buy another which works out at around $30 per year, we blow more than that on erasers, of course that does not mean that if an offer too good to miss on a really good silent compressor comes my way, I wouldn't pounce on it, I just wouldn't spend $600+ on one even if I could
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Chalee
Guest
Somones selling 2 A20s for 325/dollars one works fine the other "leaks" air. They were pruchased for a nail salon which is closing. So if I mange to gwt them waa going to keep the one then try to use the other compressor for a larger tank. But if I isolate the leak maybe repair and sell it.
W
wmlepage
Guest
The leak is probably a bad fitting or connection. Possible solder joint but not likely. I would get both and possibly run them in tandem. Or keep one as a spare. First thing beside fixing the leak I would do is change the oil. Never know how well they were taken care of.
C
Chalee
Guest
Wound up passing on those two. Guess I'll just be limiting my brush time to when the landlords upstairs allow it.
jord001
Air-Valve Autobot!
Why not just buy a compressor that has a larger tank natively, it doesn't make sense to me to risk burning out a perfectly good motor just to see if a larger tank would work, my guess is if it was possible or acceptable to have a larger tank on specific compressor, it would already be there.
It might be easier to get your hands on two Silentair 20's and then you would have a Silent air 40, although I would personally just buy the latter if I needed the bigger tank
I have a SimAir silent model that constantly runs (no cut off pressure switch) but only has a small 1L maximum bottle (it might not even be that large a capacity) attached and has a screw in and out release valve for air to escape if the bottle gets full. I'd like to drop a larger bottle on and a pressure cut off switch to replace what I've got. I'm looking at compressors without a motor but not many come up for sale. Not so sure I can do it now reading what I have above but like i said, my motor is constantly on and only goes off when I unplug it from the power.
My mate is a refrigerator engineer so I will pick his brains about it when I get chance.
Lee
M
Madbrush
Guest
Your best bet might be to just buy a basic model compressor from B&Q or such, these are usually unbelievably cheap, everything you need is already on there and the only thing to replace is the motor, if your friend works in refrigeration he can certainly tell you what size fridge compressor you will need to make it silent and reduce the risk of overheating through constant running, he might even just happen to have a unit that has been replaced at some point, from what I understand units used for air-conditioning have more capacity and are more suited especially for larger tanks, even if this venture costs you 2oo quid it's still a lot better ans wiser than forking out anywhere from 400 to 1000, so it's worth your while to pursue it.
C
Chalee
Guest
Well as luck would have it I just won and ebay auction for a sil-air 50-9-D 1/2 horse power 2.5 gallon tank for 350 USD.
