Yong Heng compressor, filter stuff, and scba tank holder thing

[LamontGrady]

I just got done with a holder for my 45min scba tanks and I'm really happy so thought I'd share. It's super simple, light, takes up minimal floorspace. I saw a lot of other people's ideas and was pondering... then stumbled into a hunk of 8" sonotube in my garage! Perfect!

I cut a circle of plywood with router and routed a groove in it and glued the end of the sonotube into the groove. Cut a ring of some stiff foam stuff leftover from packing material. I don't know what you call it but it's pretty robust, it's like what PA ships pellet tins in. Glued that in the top to sort of hold it kind of secure. It's sort of a tight fit. Tight enough I had to cut little openings for air to pass through when you shove the tank in and out.  Glued a piece of nylon strap around the top edge to protect the edge, it's just heavy cardboard basically. Screwed another one with holes melted through with nylon nuts for a handle. Works great, it will be so nice to have it just freestanding and easy to move around!  I figured if it didn't seem stable enough I'd just cut another slightly bigger circle and glue/screw it to the bottom but it's fine.

I know some people need a holder with the tank on it's side. I could do that with this by making the bottom more D shaped than just round, and cut a similar board for the top so there would be a flat side to set it on. I almost cut a ring of wood for the top anyways then decided if I just glued something around it to keep it from getting banged up that should be adequate.

My compressor rig has evolved and is pretty much done now. The wood box was leftover from something else it was made to hold rack-mount gear. But it fit the square kitty litter bucket so I used it. I use two frozen 2-liter bottles and it's totally adequate for a tank topoff. But I had to fill a tank from zero. Coincidentally, my washing machine broke, failing to sense when the water level was up. So after I got it working, it was VERY full of cold water and when I started pumping it all out I had an idea! I threw a plug in the sink and used that water for cooling! It's probably like 7 kitty litter buckets worth of water or something, it worked great.

First from the compressor is one of these cyclone separator things, it works great! A LOT of water comes out of it I try to crack it open every 4-5 minutes.  The black thing is a stack of tampons. Topoff there will be some moisture on the first one, maybe tiniest bit on the second. Filling tank from zero at least 3 of them had moisture.

Then the big gold can is just full of molecular sieve. I saw some people concerned about corrosion or something (although a lot of others say they didn't have problems) so I lined it with a piece of paper. Then the small gold one, bought before I bought the cyclone so now totally superfluous. Could have used the small black one it comes with for this too. It's just full of color-changing desiccant so I can take a peek here and there and see if it starts to change color. If it ever does, I'll know my molecular sieve is ready to swap.  Then last but not least there is a check valve at the end of the hose coming off that last stage. Man it sucked not having that. Now I can purge the cyclone as often as I want, and when I do I'm assuming some of the pressure from the big gold can is back-blasting the black tube too. But obviously zero air is lost from the tank itself now. Even if I forget to close the tank when I open the purges and turn off the compressor when it's done! Which, uh, has never happened... uh, yeah.

[Doug Wall]

I like it! I've thought that if I ever got on, I'd get a hand cart to mount everything on, to make it easy to move around as a unit.

[smellyjawa]

Nice setup! Would you mind sharing where you picked up that check valve? That's one item that I don't have, that would be so nice.

[LamontGrady]

Yep! It's really needed. Pretty sure I found the source somewhere on this forum.

https://www.discovervalve.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=101133

1/8" 316SS 6000PSI Inline Check Valve
INCVSS01

[smellyjawa]

Thanks for sharing that info so quickly!

[elguapo99]

That's the same check valve that I use. Works like a charm.