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used my air compressor to blast out a bunch of crud from my keyboard, took a while, and I started smelling something weird.
turns out it's not all too happy about being run at high duty cycles from max flow rate, and the whole pump assembly was so hot I couldn't touch it for more than a fraction of a second. real toasty.
got a fan on it, gonna let it cool off.
@gsuberland Fuuun.
You remind me I need to get a high flow rate CGA 580 regulator and some suitable tubing and connectors and a blow gun for my N2 tank (and maybe a larger tank). I wanted to stop using duster-gas cans for blowing samples dry after cleaning.
@azonenberg @gsuberland reminding me I need to pick up an N2 tank for just such a purpose.
@azonenberg surprised that the cans have fewer contaminants than compressed air - is it because the propellant tends to boil off?
@gsuberland The cans work great from a contamination perspective, they're either HFC-134a (which I think I've entirely used up) or HFO-1234ze filtered to like 300 nm.
But they're expensive, not the most environmentally friendly (HFO-1234ze is lower GWP than HFC-134a but still not *great*), and during prolonged blowing the cans will freeze up and lose pressure so you have to round-robin several of them.
Even technical grade N2 is probably good enough, I can add an in-line dust filter or something if I see problems (will test), but I can always upgrade to UHP if I see issues. I don't have a compressor, nor do I have the space for one. I use little enough blow-gas that just driving a tank over to the lab makes more sense.
@azonenberg ah ok. I just got a cheap compressor with my airbrush kit and I've ended up using it to dry stuff off and to blow out dust and crud far more than I have actual painting
@gsuberland yeah i dont want to deal with the noise and vibration nor do I have a lot of space for e.g. a cheap pancake compressor.
A little welding N2 tank is much more viable.
@azonenberg @gsuberland they make *really* high power lithium powered handheld air compressors now. fits in your hand, blows out basically everything you'd encounter in a daily life
@whitequark @azonenberg @gsuberland got any recommendations for a specific one?
@whitequark @purpleidea @gsuberland Cool but not useful for my application (drying microscope samples, so I want very clean gas).
Even with high purity N2 I probably will want to add inline filters etc
@azonenberg @purpleidea @gsuberland oh I see, makes sense
@whitequark @purpleidea @gsuberland Yeah the overall flow is going to be polish/decap sample -> rinse off bulk debris with distilled water and/or solvents -> sonicate in detergent solution -> rinse in distilled water -> blow dry with moderate pressure, low particulate, low-humidity gas -> image
@whitequark @azonenberg @gsuberland They're great for most things, and I love having one around, but they're still not full replacement for canned air or a compressor in the (in)ability to produce an immediate short pulse of full power air.
@azonenberg @gsuberland huh? HFO-1234ze has lower GWP than CO2 itself. I have zero concern about releasing it to the atmosphere