Air Volume On A Star

[Rockchucker]

I was real surprised at how little air is needed to lube and size boolits this morning. I'm running a 10 gallon storage tank and one of those spiral air hoses to the machine, well I didn't turn on the air and was using the pressure that was left in the hose to size about 200 9mm boolits and the pressure stayed right at 40 the whole time. Looks like I'll never have to refill the tank. One other thing that I'm learning on this machine is when you add a stick of lube an sizing small 9mm lube groves I seem to get some air and it has caused the boolits to not completely fill out with lube until it worked itself out. Seems melting the lube and pouring it straight into the reservoir will be my best bet.

I just realized I should have posted this in the Star forum above,sorry.

[captaint]

I have a 5 gal air tank and I've done maybe 600 boolits (mostly 45's) and can detect no change in air pressure. What a deal !!! enjoy Mike

[Frozone]

Barring leaks;

The only air consumed is ~ 2 cubic inches per lube stick.
You lose more than that when you change/replenish the lube. But only another couple inches.

Considering there are more than 230 cubic inches in a gallon, It'll be a few sticks of lube before you see a difference.

Pick up a 'paintball' tank (an old scuba tank actually) of 72 cu ft. and you have enough air for your average lifetime (1728 X 72) or about 25000 sticks of lube.

[Rockchucker]

I have several paint ball tanks (4) I could use, but the problem is adapting them to fit a standard air line. If you have any suggestions I really would appreciate it. The 10 gallon air tank I'm using seems to be kinda large for what I'm doing.

[Frozone]

I suggest a cheap older scuba tank and first stage reg. Not the modern paintball integrated tank.

I've been into diving for along time an have a lot of old equipment - one of those was a small "Tusa' first stage.
I simply retapped one LP hole for a 1/4" pipe fitting and ran from there.
I use the same tank as a tire topoff station too.

[Rockchucker]

I'm a certified diver as well and may end up using one of the old tanks. My problem is they're out of hydro an a new certification is costly. I may look into a 5 gallon tank, there again I'd be looking at 30.00 or so. my 10 gallon is looking better all the time.

[Frozone]

Well, look at the brightside, once it's in Hydro - you only have to fill it once!!!! :razz:

A second option might be an old CO2 cylinder and reg setup. Argon welding rig too. Nothing says it has to be air.

[Rockchucker]

That's right, I sure do like the air set up though. It's nice having a constant pressure all the time, never having to adjust it unless I change the lube. Found out pretty quick that Magma lube is hard as a rock and C-Red flows great. Thanks for ally your reply's Frozone.

[Oreo]

Here's the scoop... look up aquatic gardening retailers. Dr foster & smith would be one place to start but there's plenty of competition. Those guys use paint ball air cylinders to bubble CO2 into the water for their plants. They have regulators that are specifically designed for paint ball cylinders and would work perfectly for our purposes here. A 12oz CO2 cylinder has 800psi & would feed a star for many years without refill, not to mention its very compact size.

[Rockchucker]

Thanks Oreo, The cheapest regulator I found was around 30 bucks and it would still require fitting a quick connector to it. Guess my old 10 gallon air tank is looking pretty good. It would be a nice set up though.

[MSGO-Hammer]

I am using a small one gallon compressor i picked up at the wall mart store. I can do a lot of boolits with that one gallon, and it is small and easily portable.