Shoebox will be here inside of two weeks
Note on Tom Kaye’s Shoebox forum, he is assembling the first 100 for shipment, I am number 54. On my shop bench, everything sets, oillesspancake compressor, moisture trap and hose and two scba tanks.
Bad news is, JDS just sent me a email that his 4500 regulator will not fit my Pygme bottle.
It is just a slight difference in money to make my own good news and get a regultor from Joe Branco like the one he sold to 80 grit, put it on the pygmee and attach a lifeline to my etac and have any out put I choose for that new 25 caliber barrel I am getting tomorrow, UPS site says it is in Portland loaded on a truck south to me for tomorrows delivery.
And maybe on the Disco pistol with the 10 shot mag I am building, thanks to my fellow enabler and addict Riverside.
If I keep up on this rate, I will have to pick things up at the UPS store, I don’t think they deliver to homeless people. I wonder if I can get all this kit under my cardboard box? ❓
“Hi my name is Roachcreek, I am a airgun addict.”
Roachcreek
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I have been reading the comments on the shoebox compressor and looked at the videos, and performance. What interests me most is that an average paint ball player will go through a 72 cu in tank in a game in about 15 minutes Then goes home and hooks up to the Shoebox and waits for 3.5 hours to get a fill so he can go shoot again. And if he wants to fill a 3000PSi scuba tank to get multiple fills it takes 24 hours to fill a tank. I don’t know how much time it would take to fill an 86 Cu Ft airhog tank to 4500PSI — but a long time.
I agree with Walter, that if you can tolerate a hand pump quality of air — You don’t need to worry about moisture, Because you can’t pump fast enough or long enough –and at the fill rate of the shoebox compressor, you can’t get much moisture in the tank.
I sell compressors to SCUBA shops, Air gunners and Paint ball fields/ players. These compressors can fill an 86 CuFt Airhog tank to 4500PSi in 16 minutes and then you can go shoot for 3-4 hours. If you have a couple of tanks you can shoot all day. There is no comparison between the shoebox compressor and a 4 stage 4-6CFM compressor –in price or time to fill a tank.
If you are a serious shooter -buy a compressor. If you are not, buy a shoebox because time is not important.
Jim Shelden
It certainly is much dryer here than in many other parts of the country. Some days are dry with the humidity down in the teens, or lower. We also have days like to day where we see humidity at 39%, or greater. Again, I realize that many of you have much higher humidity. However, even in my lower humidty region, I still get plenty of water from my moistuure tarp, and desicant chamber. I am actually very surprised at how much comes out when I open the valves.
I’m pretty sure that the more that we “squeeze”/compress air, the more moisture that comes out. So…an inline water seperator right of of the shop air compressor is only removing a fraction of the total moisture that is in the air going to the shoebox. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is more moisture comming out of the high pressure side of the shoebox than what you think. I know that if all of the water that came out of my traps had gone into my tank, the tank would be sloshing around pretty good. I certainly wouldn’t want that much moisture going into my any of my PCP guns, especially an Airwolf MCT!
Maybe it’s time to do some more investigating. Maybe drain the tanks you have been filling with the shoebox and remove the valves to perform a visual inspection for yourself?
I know that I am not going to be very popular for making this assertion, but that’s how it goes. Physics is physics and the byproducts of the high compression of air is heat and water.
An inexpensive compressor is wonderful for our sport. However, this is an issue that should be properly checked out. Ignoring a potential problem for expediency, or the desire to not spend any more money is like ignoring the elephant in the living room.
So if you can tolerate that quality of air in your PCPs etc then you are good to go.
Going along those lines, I have a couple guns that I’ve had for years and have ONLY filled using a hand pump. Gets quite humid down here, too.
I’ve torn those guns apart and have found no evidence of moisture in any of them….
B51, S4xx, and some 22xx based PCP’s.
Fellas, IMO the Shoebox will provide the same air that a hand pump will.
So if you can tolerate that quality of air in your PCPs etc then you are good to go.
Add the filter/drier/water trap to the outlet of first stage and you have better air than the hand pump.
Deluxe would be a trap/filter at full output pressure but that kinda violates the economy of the Shoebox. Seems to me the Shoebox will be fine as is.
Some have thought of upsetting their tanks every now and then to blow out any free water and oil. Sounds like that is good enough solution to the problem.
I am not concerned about any moisture it may collect. I am not breathing the stuff and for the most part it is used in my aluminum bottle gun.
The steel reservoir guns will get torn down every so often to see if a problem shows up. None yet.
Walter….
Walter,
Yes, i am interested in Steve’s question also, I have just the moisture trap connected to the outflow of the pancake compressor.
And where I live people fall off their bikes and drown, while Steve lives in a desert.
Roachcreek
So Walter, what’s your opinion on moisture traps and descicant moisture removal cartridges? Do you think it is enough to moisture removal as set up by Dollarhunt?
My compressor has both a moisture trap and a descicant cartridge, but they are mounted on the high pressure side. I get lots of water when I drain the trap. Not as much seems to come out of the descicant containing chamber.
Savage, I am using a Chemiquip PLV-255S valve and you fellas can buy them for $138usd I’ll look for a link later.
needle valve is a valve with a tapered plug and so it closes off tightly and opens slow. We use them on higher pressure instrumentation stuff.
The beauty of the limiter is it is set at 3,000psi and I can forget about it. The cutout is left activve for 4500psi. Noise of the slapping cutout is reduced to the last few minutes of a fill vs the last half hour or so.
Walter….
if your fill hose is rated for 5,000psi just hook it up to the tank you are going to fill and leave the tank valve closed. Turn on the compressors and watch it pressure up the fill gauge to confirm cutout pressure.
I have mine setup as follows…..
compressor…tee with gauge…. Pressure Limiting Valve….. needle valve…. fill whip.
So I can close the needle valve to check my settings quick and easy.
These might be stupid questions but I’m trying to learn. Waltor is the pressure limiting valve part of the shoe box system or something you added (if so, may I ask how much $$$ one cost) also what is a needle valve?
damn great idea and so simple i can believe i hadn’t thought of it!!!talk about embarrassing. oh well, as a senior citizen, i am entitled to lapses of common sense- at least i tell myself i am. thanks Walter.
Dollar,
if your fill hose is rated for 5,000psi just hook it up to the tank you are going to fill and leave the tank valve closed. Turn on the compressors and watch it pressure up the fill gauge to confirm cutout pressure.
I have mine setup as follows…..
compressor…tee with gauge…. Pressure Limiting Valve….. needle valve…. fill whip.
So I can close the needle valve to check my settings quick and easy.
Dollarhunt,
I have been wrong so many times in my life, admitting it hasn’t been embarassing for decades, it is when I realize I am striving to convince someone that I am correct or right about something, that I get really embarassed.
Roachcreek
Tom, thanks for this invention, I hope production is going well and you’re business is growing. If I didn’t have a SCUBA shop next to my local wing bar, 5 mins from home, then I would be on your waiting list 😉
If it’s 1 or 2 CFM it hardly matters. The only difference is how many times the shop compressor turns on during a fill. I can’t stand the things so we use a bigger one just so we don’t have to listen to it.
We ran one off the smallest cheapest compressors from Harbor Freight and it worked fine, it just kicked on all the time.
Tom Kaye
as far as the 85psi, that is the minimum input. tank will fill faster if input is about 95 to 100. as far as the 1cfm, i thought it was 2cfm but i may be wrong- wouldn’t be the first time.
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I think you are mistaken Mr Shelden. We are serious shooters, quite happy to fill a large SCBA tank over a long period so as to have a whole day of serious shooting. Just because we don’t run around the woods with paintball guns wanting a refill every 5 minutes doesn’t mean the shoebox is not suitable for our needs!
If they were avalible over here, quite a few of us airgun hunters would be interested.