Bought a big *** air compressor today

[RJ Squirrel]

Went over to Montana and picked this up today, came from a sawmill that shut down a couple years ago. The air tank is a 500 gallon propane tank. I plan to drive the pump with my tractor PTO and use it for sandblasting, maybe a pumpkin cannon too. I just thought it was cool and had to have it!

 

[Kern Dog]

Bought a big *** air compressor today​

Strange choice of words. A literal interpretation leads one to believe that that your *** needs a massive volume of outside sourced of air.

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Nah my *** does not need an outside source

 

[sr71mopar]

That is indeed a big *** air compressor

 

[j-c-c-62]

Does it work?
Is it 3 phase?
What voltage does it require?
If your usage only requires intermittent short term uses during the day, you will have a hefty electrical bill if the entire system has any leakage.
A way to reduce that problem would be to have an auxiliary 60-80gal air tank, bypassing that propane industrial sized tank, that would fill up in a relatively short time looking at that compressor.
Using a PTO kind of voids these electric motor questions, but a PTO seems a bit brutish.
You could for that matter use any 5?hp compressor with the large tank as auxiliary storage capacity, and when sandblasting work 10minutes blasting and taking 15 minute breaks while air built back up?

 

[Demonic]

That big 4 cyl pump will need a PTO to drive it. That actually may be more economical that a phase inverter. Congrats! I strongly suspect you might need an intercooler between the pump discharge and the tank, with a good moisture trap.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I hear banjo music.

 

[Mackman]

There are some asses out there that need compressing!

 

[RJ Squirrel]

Thanks for the replies guys.

That big 4 cyl pump will need a PTO to drive it. That actually may be more economical that a phase inverter. Congrats! I strongly suspect you might need an intercooler between the pump discharge and the tank, with a good moisture trap.

Not real visible in the picture, but it does have finned intercooler tubing behind the big pulley/fan. These big Quincy compressors also have "unloaders" visible on top of the cylinders that stop it from building pressure on startup, and also will keep the valves open and stop it from pressurizing the tank when the set pressure is reached. I have been doing alot of reading about it, will most likely take it apart and have a look see inside before I run it. Also need to learn more about how the unloaders work. Fun project!
The electric motor on it is 25 HP three phase, and I dont have three phase power at my place. PTO drive seems like a good choice besides finding a diesel motor the right size.

 

[j-c-c-62]

I think you are not seeing the forest from the trees here. That compressor set-up outputs 75CFM+?, what realistically are your cfm needs here, and at what duty cycle? Not many here can physically operate a 60CFM? sandblaster near a 90% duty cycle for an 8hr shift. The tank by itself has some usefulness, if you can wait the 30? mins it would take to fill up, and you can physically blast long enough to where a 5hp? regular compressor can't keep up after draining your filled propane tank and you need to give it time to recycle. It's an impressive set-up, just not sure it's smart. A 3-phase converter doesn't make sense here bang for buck, and I suspect the motor is at least 440V which reduces the possible use of the converter on other small 3 phase equipment, mills, lathes, etc.
The finned output tube you note on a 25hp compressor is mere window dressing BTW.

 

[Don Frelier]

With the 4 V belts I would have guessed more like 75 HP.
Be careful, it looks like it's not bolted down and barely sitting on the frame.