73: Compressor Adventures – Part II

Okay, so everything is ready to spray (again). I get all suited up, check that the tank pressure is fully charged at 175 psi, and that the regulator is set for 100 psi. I check the gun operation and it cycles fine, only when you mash the trigger the atomizer pressure gauge drops to 36 psi. It needs to stay rock solid at 40 psi. So, I try to shoot a canister…..it doesn’t work. Foam again doesn’t even make it all the way through the mixing tube. So, now I’m really psssssssd. Fortunately, this time I get the canister out of the gun and outside the house pronto, because it too starts barfing and belching and you can imagine what other colorful terms I thinking here. But, at least it isn’t doing it inside the house.

So, technical support gets another call, or two, or three, or five. We discuss every idea imaginable. Were the gun settings correct, what are all the temperatures, can I hear air leaking out of the gun, the air hose, or the compressor. Are there any kinks in the airhose that would restrict airflow. Am I using a tiny diameter airhose (most airhose is 3/8 I.D., but some is ¼ I.D). Is my airhose too long. I have to commend the guys at Soythane technical because they were right there with me every step of the way and for as long as it took. They even offered to overnite ship me a new gun at no cost so I would not lose any more work time. I said before you do that let me see if I can find another compressor to check my gun out on, so maybe we can isolate the problem to the compressor or the gun. So where in the sam hill am I going to find another big compressor on short notice. The answer just kinda fell out of the sky. My neighbor has a son who just bought a soda blasting rig to start up a side business. I had gone and seen his rig the day before. He said it’s just basically a “huge compressor”, capable of like 230 cfm at 175 psi, slightly more than I will ever need.

So, I drive up to his place and the compressor gods are smiling because he’s at home and happy to fire up the compressor. I reset all the gun settings to their default values and this thing sprays the prettiest canister of foam you’ve ever seen. He’s impressed with how the foam expands, so he got something positive out of it too. So, compressor #2 is dead or dying. I had noticed that all along it kinda sounded like it was loafing at idle instead of that nice, crisp RPM sound of a lawn mower making full power. As it has a governor, I grab the linkage with a set of pliers and goose it and the RPM’s go up, but I don’t have enough hands to hold the linkage and check the gun pressures at the same time, so the rental company gets a call and a request to bypass the governor. They didn’t like that idea and said no, we’ll send you a mechanic. He arrives 20 minutes later and in short order he administers last rites to the compressor. Fortunately he came in the truck with the liftgate so he could take the dead carcass back with him. I follow him up to the rental shop where they promptly refund my money.

So, parts have to be ordered and it will be 3-5 days before the repairs are finished. That’s not really so bad because it looks like rain is coming, and it’s the weekend and we had plans anyway.

There’s more to this story, so “yall come back now.”