About the service
I build and maintain compressed air stations for spray painting in small workshops, and I start with the gun rather than with the compressor. A gun that asks for 350 litres of free air a minute at the cap will empty a hobby machine in half a minute, so I measure the real consumption at your working pressure, add a margin of about thirty percent for duty cycle, and only then choose the output and the receiver volume. A bigger receiver is not a luxury: it is what keeps the pressure from sagging in the middle of a panel, where a drop of one bar changes atomisation and leaves you with orange peel or dry spray.
After that comes the water. Compressed air leaves the pump hot and wet, and every degree it loses in the line turns into liquid in the paint. I run the piping with a fall towards drain points, fit a separator close to the receiver, a refrigeration dryer where the workload justifies it, and fine coalescing filters against oil carry over at the gun end. Long thin hose is the other silent thief: ten metres of small bore can eat more than a bar, so I check the pressure with a gauge on the gun handle, not on the regulator by the wall, and size the line for the pressure you need at the inlet.
Safety is part of the job, not an extra. The station gets working extraction that pulls solvent vapour away from the painter and out of the building, instead of stirring it around the shop. You spray in a respirator rated for organic vapour, never in a dust mask. Solvents and soaked rags are a fire load: earthing, closed metal bins, no open flame and no hot work near the painting area. The receiver is a pressure vessel and lives on a schedule: condensate drained daily, safety valve tested, the vessel itself inspected at the interval the rules demand.
What the work includes:
— selection of compressor, receiver and dryer against your gun and your painting hours;
— piping layout, drops, drain points, filters and quick couplings;
— gun setup: inlet pressure, fan pattern, material flow, test sprayouts on a sample;
— check of extraction, lighting and wiring, solvent storage, fire precautions;
— a written service routine and a training session for the owner: draining, oil changes, filter elements, belt tension.
After that comes the water. Compressed air leaves the pump hot and wet, and every degree it loses in the line turns into liquid in the paint. I run the piping with a fall towards drain points, fit a separator close to the receiver, a refrigeration dryer where the workload justifies it, and fine coalescing filters against oil carry over at the gun end. Long thin hose is the other silent thief: ten metres of small bore can eat more than a bar, so I check the pressure with a gauge on the gun handle, not on the regulator by the wall, and size the line for the pressure you need at the inlet.
Safety is part of the job, not an extra. The station gets working extraction that pulls solvent vapour away from the painter and out of the building, instead of stirring it around the shop. You spray in a respirator rated for organic vapour, never in a dust mask. Solvents and soaked rags are a fire load: earthing, closed metal bins, no open flame and no hot work near the painting area. The receiver is a pressure vessel and lives on a schedule: condensate drained daily, safety valve tested, the vessel itself inspected at the interval the rules demand.
What the work includes:
— selection of compressor, receiver and dryer against your gun and your painting hours;
— piping layout, drops, drain points, filters and quick couplings;
— gun setup: inlet pressure, fan pattern, material flow, test sprayouts on a sample;
— check of extraction, lighting and wiring, solvent storage, fire precautions;
— a written service routine and a training session for the owner: draining, oil changes, filter elements, belt tension.
