Posted by Karl S. on January 22, 2003 at 16:29:23:
In Reply to: Personal compressors? posted by Mountain Diver on January 22, 2003 at 11:16:27:
The scuba magazines carry ads for personal filling compressors. They come in electric powered and gasoline powered models.
If you plan to put your personal compressor in your garage, go for electric. But make sure you have all the filtering equipment. Normally you run an intake manifold up to your roof, with a filter on it, then in conjunction with the compressor you utilize two to five more dessicators and filters. Make sure there are no smoke sources around your house and upwind from your intake manifold, like a fireplace chimney, or car exhaust, etc.
If you plan to use your personal compressor at a remote filling site, like a mountain lake, then you would want to go with a gasoline system. Be careful so that you dont cross contaminate your air intake manifold with your motor exhaust manifold from the gasoline engine. That would spell death due to carbon monoxide tank contamination.
Tech divers will often set up their own garage compressor systems in order to fill their own trimix and argon tanks, since those gasses are not easy to find. I have some friends who have done that, and this is what they have told me.
Locating a source of breathing-purity helium in large industrial bank sized tanks is the hardest part. Oxygen for blending your own nitrox is not easy to find industrially, in breathing quality either (aviation grade or medical grade) because oxygen is a controlled substance in most states. Check your state laws about this.
For just plain air, it should be easy to find and buy an air compressor unit for your garage. Check the scuba magazines, like Rodales or Skin Diver or DAN Alert Diver or Advanced Diver Magazine.
Piece of cake. Just make sure you set up the system right, and that you fill the tanks slow, about 10 psi per second or slower.