I got a sneak peak at the new Shoebox Compressor that Beemer brought with him to demo this past Tunaball weekend.
I have more pics which I will dig up later, but for now, here is one of it in action with the cover off;
You can see the input line on top feeding it 85 psi from a small shop compressor. Beemer brougth along a small $40 Harbor Freight unit which was more than adequate to do the job.
You can also see my 68/4500 psi Crossfire tank all hooked up. We started out at about 800 psi in that tank before we ran the Shoebox.
Construction
The unit looks very well built, something we all take for granted when it comes to anything TK puts his name on. The outside case has a nice thick red powdercoat on it, and there are big beefy rubber feet on the bottom of the unit which both protects the underside of the motor and stops everything from bouncing around (or off a bench).
The motor itself likes very durable and quite possibly overkill. We filled several tanks over the course of the evening and I don't think that it would have broken a sweat.
The on/off switch is on the top middle front of the unit. It is that big spring looking thing in the pic, and reminds me of a giant "Ace Switch" that is found on the Xmags.
There is also a bleeder knob on the bottom front right above the output nipple.
The whole front is enclosed by a nice uncoated sheet metal cover that is easily removed with 4 allen screws.
Everything from the cylinders to the hard lines and fittings look very robust and easy to access.
The only thing I can really critique is that they used a glass fuse instead of a plastic one, but im kinda picky.
Operation
Stupidly simple. Plug in your 1/4" nipple from the 85-100 psi air supply to the top, Hook your tank to a 1/8 output nipple on the bottom and turn the unit on.
85 psi goes in the top, to the first stage piston, out to the second stage piston where it gets further compressed, then out to the tank.
The shut off on the Shoebox is simple and ingenious. A spring loaded lever 'bumps' the switch off when the tension on it builds up from the pressure in the cylinder reaching 4500psi.
Yes, watching it fill a tank is like watching your grass grow. It helped that there was still some air in the tank to begin with. I think it took about 2 1/2 hrs to fill that particular one. The one after was just about empty and took approximately 3hrs.
The Shoebox itself is not nearly as noisy as the shop compressor. That small one we used for the demo had to kick on regularly due to the small size of the resevoir, and that added to the noise some. I figure that if I hooked one of these up to my shop compressor with the 50 gallon tank, it would not need to kick on nearly as often.
Another really great side effect of all of this, is that when your tank is finished filling, it is basically at ambient temperature. That means that it wont cool off and the pressure in your tank wont drop.
Conclusion
I was kinda on the fence about picking one of these up, but after getting a chance to play around with one im sold. For the amount of tinkering and tech work I do these days, it will be great to have a virtually unlimited supply of air.
Big thumbs up from BigE
I have more pics which I will dig up later, but for now, here is one of it in action with the cover off;
You can see the input line on top feeding it 85 psi from a small shop compressor. Beemer brougth along a small $40 Harbor Freight unit which was more than adequate to do the job.
You can also see my 68/4500 psi Crossfire tank all hooked up. We started out at about 800 psi in that tank before we ran the Shoebox.
Construction
The unit looks very well built, something we all take for granted when it comes to anything TK puts his name on. The outside case has a nice thick red powdercoat on it, and there are big beefy rubber feet on the bottom of the unit which both protects the underside of the motor and stops everything from bouncing around (or off a bench).
The motor itself likes very durable and quite possibly overkill. We filled several tanks over the course of the evening and I don't think that it would have broken a sweat.
The on/off switch is on the top middle front of the unit. It is that big spring looking thing in the pic, and reminds me of a giant "Ace Switch" that is found on the Xmags.
There is also a bleeder knob on the bottom front right above the output nipple.
The whole front is enclosed by a nice uncoated sheet metal cover that is easily removed with 4 allen screws.
Everything from the cylinders to the hard lines and fittings look very robust and easy to access.
The only thing I can really critique is that they used a glass fuse instead of a plastic one, but im kinda picky.
Operation
Stupidly simple. Plug in your 1/4" nipple from the 85-100 psi air supply to the top, Hook your tank to a 1/8 output nipple on the bottom and turn the unit on.
85 psi goes in the top, to the first stage piston, out to the second stage piston where it gets further compressed, then out to the tank.
The shut off on the Shoebox is simple and ingenious. A spring loaded lever 'bumps' the switch off when the tension on it builds up from the pressure in the cylinder reaching 4500psi.
Yes, watching it fill a tank is like watching your grass grow. It helped that there was still some air in the tank to begin with. I think it took about 2 1/2 hrs to fill that particular one. The one after was just about empty and took approximately 3hrs.
The Shoebox itself is not nearly as noisy as the shop compressor. That small one we used for the demo had to kick on regularly due to the small size of the resevoir, and that added to the noise some. I figure that if I hooked one of these up to my shop compressor with the 50 gallon tank, it would not need to kick on nearly as often.
Another really great side effect of all of this, is that when your tank is finished filling, it is basically at ambient temperature. That means that it wont cool off and the pressure in your tank wont drop.
Conclusion
I was kinda on the fence about picking one of these up, but after getting a chance to play around with one im sold. For the amount of tinkering and tech work I do these days, it will be great to have a virtually unlimited supply of air.
Big thumbs up from BigE
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