Increasing air compressor volume

[LeeJustice]

So I started on round three of trying to cut a piece off this forklift tine...

This time I remembered that I had a pneumatic rotary grinder and some cutoff wheels I got at a recent auction.  It did not take too long to figure out that this tool was consuming quite a bit of air from my 10 gallon compressor, causing the grinder to bog down and making me wait for pressure to build back up.  So I brought out my 3 gallon compressor and hooked up the spare air fitting on the 10 gallon with a line to the 3 gallon.  I had done this before while I was doing some blasting, 30 percent more air.  The grinder was able to run all out for a while longer before I had to stop.  The 3 gallon was not plugged in, not running, just the compressor on the larger one.  As a matter of fact, the little one stopped working a couple months ago.

[ThomasPowers]

Use of an accumulator tank is well known for machines requiring a lot of compressed air.

[Frosty]

Microphone and speakers?

If you just want to cut the forklift tine use a cutting torch or have it done. It'll cost less to pay someone than buying another compressor tank and WAY LESS than using an old one you found at a yard sale that explodes next to you. 

You guys trying to cut steel with angle grinders an rotary tools with cut off wheels are almost always doing it the hard and significantly more dangerous way. 

Heck you could lay that thing on it's side in the yard, cover it with charcoal briquettes to normalize and cut it with a modified hack saw. Or a converted bone saw using metal bandsaw blade sections. AND do it in half an hour or so as opposed to. . . How many days have you been trying to cut that thing now? Hmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

[LeeJustice]

I bought that compressor new about five years ago, it gave up the ghost on the compressor side.  It holds air fine.  Part of the point is that even a broken compressor (provided that the tank is still sound) can still be of some use.  In addition if one has a couple good compressors but neither has sufficient volume, they can be combined for greater capacity.  Like I mentioned I had done before for doing some blasting.  I did use the hack saw eventually as well, while the tanks built pressure back up.  I bought new blades last week.

  I started cutting it the first two tries with a 14" abrasive chop saw that I got earlier this year at an auction.  I thought that bad boy would make quick work of it, but it did not.  Some research revealed that I was doing that wrong, I had the long section flat in the saw, if you can picture what I mean.  I should have positioned it such that the smallest cross section was being cut, less blade contact at any given time and consequently less heat build up.

If I can't fix that compressor, maybe it will become a small forge.  But until then, it is not entirely useless.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I went through a forklift fork in less than a minute with the horizontal bandsaw at work. A porta band would also do it in good time.

Adding a tank only adds capacity, not volume per minute. The ONLY way to get more volume is a bigger or faster running compressor head. Doubling the tank size just means the compressor has to run twice as long to fill it back up.

[LeeJustice]

We have a bandsaw at work, but I cannot get away with using it for such a job.  Not only that, but also that sucker is heavy!  Easily 300# or more.  I had to drag it out of the back of the truck.  So it is not an easy task to safely muscle it around/position by myself to cut.  Or to reload back into the truck.  And I don't have a porta band just yet.

I agree that there is not more volume per minute, just a longer run time, whether it be painting, blasting, grinding, etc.,

But hey, I got a chunk cut off finally.  It is a little lighter, but still a beast.

I also got a jib crane at that same auction but I need to get a mounting plate made up for it.  That thing will help move the heavy stuff around.  Serendipitously, my work was throwing out some heavy duty chemical anchor type bolts and the chemical anchor itself.  I brought home a bunch for that project!  I will have more to spare.

[Archie Otteson]

There are words but I really don't think this needs an explanation.