Air Compressor

[Frightmares]

Anyone have any suggestions on picking a decent air compressor that will run six or seven animatonics and a couple of air cannons - do we get a small 22 or 30 gal or which is more important HP or gallons

[terrormasue]

There is a great book "A guide to animated holiday displays" by Edwin Wise It has a whole chapter on Pneumatics Basics. Gas compressor or electric this book talks about both. It shows you how to calculate how big of a compressor you need. He talks about how and why to locate accumulators near your props to "store" the air to run your prop smoothly rather then directly from the compressor itself. It shows examples of pneumatic circuits, valves, actuators etc...
The book is not expensive. I got mine from Amazon. It arrived in about 3 days after ordering Hope this helps

[lerandell]

thats a lot of air.. plus how busy do you expect to be? are you going to fire the air cannon every 60 seconds or every 5 mins.
The book is a good idea, I have never heard of it. good find.
I don't know how much you will need but from what I know the Gal is your reserve. The bigger your tank is the more you have in reserve. The HP of the compressor is how fast it can refill or should I say keep up with the equipment draining that reserve. You don't want that compressor running all night. for one its loud and two, get get freakin hot when they run too much.
we have an 80 Gal - 6 HP one from Home Depot.

[sophisticatedterror]

compressor

Yeah...it just depends on what your running...sometimes its hard to tell until you get it up and running if it will last reserve wise...Ill be running 4 60 gallon compressors for all the props, coffin rides, etc....




Kale