Tuxing Nightmare

So I know I have seen many reviews of the Tuxing style compressor that have been favorable. After last night I have had just about enough of mine. It works but has been nothing but one problem after another.

1.) When I recieved my compressor it was packaged pretty well but form the get go I thought the unit vibrated unusally loud. At first I figured it just is what it is. After 3 or so fills one of the screws on the side towards the rear backed out and I learned that the cast iron mount at the rear of the motor had broken. I contacted LJ high pressure co and they were kind enought to send me a replacement motor mount and fan blade. That was not a very simple repair. I had to desolder the wiring to get the job done and of course rewire it. I opted for spade terminals with a bit of solder to lock it in thinking that that would be a bit more robust. Problem fixed, sort of. All of the vibration caused the screws on the front side of the compressor to hollow out enough that the screws couldn’t be torqued down. I had to drill new holes and using 10-24 socket head srews with nylock nuts to hold together the front of the compressor.

2.) I had issues after about 3 fills where the unit would get to about 3000 to 3300psi and the unit would begin surging and trip the overload. I tore the unit down to try and find the problem. I was unable to find anything after a few attempts but eventually changed out the brass piston rings. The seemed to be the ticket because after that it began working again. Ok, not too serious but I am starting to get irritated with the constant failures.

3.) Just a few days ago my switch stopped functioning, like at all. Again, No big deal, just replace it. However, I couldn’t source a like for like part so I used a generic industrial toggle switch. I made sure it was rated for 20A and once installed all was well again. I couldn’t mount the receptical and switch back onto the unit so now they reside outside of the unit with rubber tape and electrical tape wrapped about the terminals to keep everything as safe as possible. At this point I am starting to call this thing the frankencompressor but it still works at building pressure.

4.) Last night was the last straw. At maybe 1.5 to 2 hours of life runtime total, I am doing a routine fill on 68cu in paintball tank that I take to the field with my Priest. I started at 3800psi on the tank and hooked it up to the compressor. I was monitoring the fill as usual and I peeked in on the gauge on the compressor, at about 4300psi, and the gauge on the tank at about 4500psi. I decided that I would shut the unit off. With my face maybe 9 inches from the head of the compressor, reaching for the pressure relief screws, The fucking burst disk blows. I didn’t know that at the time but the vent hole on the cap was pointed right at my face and I took a 4000+psi blast right to the left cheeck. After hitting the ground in shear fear and thinking the whole damn thing blew up in my face I turned the unit off. I took a moment to try and fucked with my ear for a moment to try and silence the ringing I decided FUCK THIS THING!!!

5.) I woke up early this morning and figured I would try to replace the burst disk and give it a test. At least this time I can be prepared for the worst. ear pro, safety glasses, a board in front of me as a shield just in case. I replaced the burst disk and torqued down the cap. Put the plug into the whip and went for a test. It wouldn’t build pressure at all. Inspection of the whip I noticed an o ring had blown out… Ok replace that and try again. Everything looks good, pressure building, getting close to 4000psi, 4100psi, and BAM!!! new disk blows out at about 4100-4200PSI. Replace it again. Give her one last chance. Same shit. Disk blows out at 4100ish PSI. I have one disk remaining so I figured that now I have a cdompressor capable of about a 3500PSI fill. Pretty short for me considering my priest like a 300bar fill and when your reg is set at 150bar, 3500PSI just doesn’t yeild the shot count that I bought the gun for in the very first place.

I have seen many favorable reviews for the compressor and I am not one to give a bad review often but seriously, be as careful as you can with these units. If you start to get a cascade of problems, think hard for a moment if you should continue putting it into operation, I think my luck with this thing has run out. I am going to try and see if I can exchange or get a replacement unit and chock this one up to just being a bit of a lemon but I seriously doubt LJ will be able or willing to do anything about it. I hope I am wrong.