Workbench Update!

[tbone1004]

@DA Aquamaster
The hope is that the metal lines will help to heat sink vs. rubber as well as having the pressure reduced by the regulator prior to hitting the water traps
Stage one is a standard 5um bronze filter for big stuff and water removal
Stage two is a 0.3um coalescing glass filter
Stage three is adsorbing filter to get rid of oil vapor and what not.
You can see a differential pressure gauge on top of the first two stages so will keep an eye on those.

Prior to startup I plan on letting the compressor run until gets up to temp and will do a dewpoint check on the outlet air and see how bad it is. There is a LOT of metal between the compressor and the filters though so it should sink the heat pretty well. All of the black stuff you see is aluminum not plastic so we will see.

 

[tbone1004]

99% done. The parts from Swagelok came in last night. You can see on the compressor side of the Haskel is the outlet adapter to a QF4 with a protecting cap on it. Inlet side has the same but with a 0.5um filter element to protect the booster side from any nasties.
I rotated the pump switch 90* after I wired it in because I felt it was cleaner like this.
Capacitor bracket will get made today which will finish up the electrical work, and hopefully one of my guys finishes machining down some bolt heads to permanently mount the booster in. The bolts that I have are too thick so they are the first contact point on the bottom vs. the soft plastic so need to get those taken down then it's done.

 

[Kensei]

well, the helmet bag came in today. Only thing in there is the double hose, no octo/spg/lpi. A bit big methinks, but that means the hoses are able to stay relatively loose which is good. I will be removing them from the reg itself for storage so they can take a natural loop but wanted to get the picture in there. Bag is pretty snazzy for $25, no complaints

View attachment 416903

They're down to $19 as of today (11/20/18). I also need one for my Kraken.

 

[tbone1004]

it's alive!!
Very slow on this compressor. Towards the 3000psi mark it was going around 1cycle/15secs on the 2l with an AL80 supply, and at the 2000psi mark which is what transfilled over it was going around 1cycle/8secs. It was pumping ~.14cf/cycle so started around 1cfm and dropped to .5cfm. Not terribly upset by that at all.
Compressor heads got very hot as expected, but everything else was pretty cool. I'll be looking at designing a mount for a computer case fan for each of the heads to combat that.
I do have to annoyingly move all of the filters around though. Filters function much better at pressure, so I need to put the regulator on the back side of them instead of the front. Should have done that in the first place but live and learn. Will skin that cat this week.

 

[tbone1004]

Had a crazy week at work running our registration audit for ISO. Came down to cave country for some long overdue R&R. Been down here recently, but diving with @victorzamora is not exactly relaxing.
Original plan was to dive with @The Chairman all weekend and in the first half of next week, but he had to make a last minute trip to Miami, so I'm flying solo. I had some adjustments to the rack to make and I came down with it fully disassembled. Gave the park people a call to see if Little River was open and they said it was. Around noon I had everything set up and ready to go. As I get to the park, they are closing the gates because the river was coming up. Due to the time and my location, no real other options open for today, so will take a mental health day and get some more gear tweaking done.

 

[tbone1004]

Some updates from previously that I hadn't posted.

A pair of splitters.
The one on top is the "primary" for 2:1 filling. Has a check valve, so you it can also be used for transfilling
The one on bottom is similar, but instead of the digital gauge, has a 1/4 turn valve, and a female QF4 quick disconnect. This allows connection to either the single fill adapter *which also has a digital gauge* for 3:1 filling, or to the top adapter for 4:1 filling. The valve can be used to isolate the other whip if you are filling to different pressures, but you lose pressure readout. Current plan is to shut the valve off when fill pressure is reached for the AL80's, then once the valve are shut off, open it back up to be able to check the pressure in the first two.

The splitters are super convenient for sidemount to ensure you have the same mix and pressure in each bottle. Also nice for use with the small bottles since it slows the fill rate down.
The 4:1 is primarily for use with Wolfpack Diversduring open water training when I run a long fill whip out to the trucks and lets us fill a bunch of bottles at once. Not the most efficient from a cascade perspective, but immensely more convenient to not have to switch bottles frequently.

The goal was for this booster to be as flexible as possible.
The block has female QD's on it because they are shut-off and it was easier than using stems with valves so the top adapter is M2M with standard industrial quick disconnects and a 1/4 turn flow regulator. Allows me to connect to the monster compressors at work, plug into an accumulator tank, or any other standard air source.
Bottom adapter is another M2M since the regulator restricts flow, but more importantly, has an adapter to a BC Inflator. Important to have that adapter for any diver IMO because it allows you to use standard air tools off of your regulator, but for this application, it means I can drive the compressor from a scuba tank if I don't have 110v power, or the compressor fails.

 

[The Chairman]

I recognize that place! It's NetDoc's Grotto!

 

[tbone1004]

It's been too long since any updates! Many things have been done, so will start documenting some in here. I was unhappy with the hanging situation, particularly with my wetsuits/drysuit, so I found this commercial grade Z-rack that is 85" tall and rated to hold 400lbs. I now have a good place to hang bc's and wetsuits to let them dry and stay organized which is ideal. A few more organization things have happened including a major update to the workbench, and will post those at some point in the next couple of weeks.

 

[tbone1004]

the Rixes are still a work in process, but here is the frame after blasting and painting, including the new motor mount to run an electric motor. That motor is 4-pole/1800rpm, but I may swap it for an 8-pole/900rpm motor. Stock Rix is designed for 1500rpm and pulls ~3600w with a 3600rpm motor. I want to run this at 1500w max, and the motor below is 1.5hp which has the pump turning around 450rpm. Since the stock pulleys with the 4-pole motor will slow it down to 750rpm, a 6-pole will have it at 500rpm max, and 8-pole at 375rpm. Not a whole lot smaller you can go on the motor side pulley, so I'd have to go bigger on the pump side.

 

[tbone1004]

Simple update to the gear bin, but put heavy duty bungee on the edges. The long side is two independent bungee sets, but it really helps keep everything organized which is really nice. Now to get to cave country to take advantage of it...