What have I gotten myself into!: "Tooling up"

I still remember the day I got my first Craftsman compressor, it was a very thoughtful Christmas present from my wife, and in the past thirty years I have used the heck out of it.

Ol' Red

I love that thing, but over the years it has become very loud, and it doesn’t help that it sits right behind my back as I work on the lathe. When it occasionally fires up, it shoots 100db right through my brain and my bones! It scares the crap out of me every time.

Actual compressor noise reading while standing by my lathe

Never mind my sanity though, the bigger problem is that the whole neighborhood is well aware of when I’m working on a project. It is embarrassing, and I have to time my operations as to not disturb my neighbors.

Additionally, since the garage back wall is shared by the guest bedroom, the bed’s headboard is literally inches from the noise maker. In the past, I have forgotten to shut off the compressor at the end of the day, only to have it go off at 3 am and freak out my guests.

"Thousand apologies, Wade!"

Running the new plasma cutter only exacerbated the situation, as the Hypertherm consumes a huge quantity of air, air the small 22 gal tank cannot store, and that the compressor has to produce on demand. Ergo, plasma cutting equals compressor running, aka noise.

This shop situation was quickly deteriorating, and something needed to be done soon, so when Wade casually dropped the California Air Tools name, I started investigating their line of quiet compressors.

No… they are not cheap! Yes… it was a hard decision to make!

"Well played, Wade! Your conflict of interests never really entered my mind, until now."

Anyway, I rationalized the decision by telling myself this would be the last compressor I’d ever buy, and that I would be forever grateful I didn't buy something noisier every time I turned it on.

I chose a 60 gal tank to avoid having the motor running all the time. The four cylinders produce an incredible volume of air, with a ridiculously low amount of noise. Most people don’t even realize the compressor is actually running, and they think the noise is just cooling fans. When I tell them that is it, they usually start laughing.

I wasn’t laughing when the huge box showed up at my door though, and the delivery guy couldn’t get it in the shop.

“I could have sworn it looked a lot smaller online!”

"What in the world!"

Out of the box, I was able to barely get it under the garage door.

"Good enough for the time being!”

"My Ducati had fewer cylinders than this motor!"

"How the hell am I supposed to move this thing now?!"

And that's exactly where it remained for the next couple of weeks, as I went back to work pondering the sad truth I might have actually gone too far this time.

As much as I loved the idea, there were a number of logistic challenges, not the least of which was where to put it in an already crowded garage. But before I could even start playing the compressor shuffle game, I had to figure out how to wrestle around this 300lb behemoth on my own in a tight shop.

Searching online for a solution, I found some castering wheels with retractable rubber feet. These appeared to fit the bill, as I would be able to move it around effortlessly, then lock it in position for use, so I took a leap of faith and ordered a set.

FOOTMASTER GD-60S

The wheels fit perfectly, and worked as advertised. As a matter of fact, I am so happy with them I might even buy more to use them on other projects.

The rubber foot is lowered by turning the orange dial

With the compressor mobile, I started investigating possible locations for it, but not before running a quick test of its noise level (or lack of it).

Testing the new compressor's quietness claims

In the end, I decided to put the new compressor in the same spot the old one use to be, even though this forced me to chop nearly a foot off my bench, relocate a cabinet, and run 220v cables through the insulated walls from the recently upgraded circuit breaker panel.

Running wires for the new 220v circuit

Not my favorite task to perform, but necessary.

The old cellulose insulation my son and I sprayed in 8 years ago is holding up well.

New circuit on the right

"Ops check... OK!"

While the outcome was slightly in doubt for some time, I’d say the transplant turned out great in the end, and one could be excused for not knowing it had been there all along.