Hello all,
After lurking for a bit, I finally got my account set up, mostly to share my excitement and pleasure with my new Shoebox.
Like many of you, the pain of getting tanks filled at the scuba shop 40 miles away was a real burden. Then by a complete stroke of luck a friendly fellow by the name of Zasadny moved within 5 miles of me. He was happy to fill me up whenever I needed air, and that always meant a great conversation about topics wide and varied while we waited for the bottle to fill.
But it was too good to last, and he left me, and took his compressor with him...dang! He moved away without any thought at all of my air needs ;^)
The idea of going back to the scuba shop was really unappealing, and then turned out to be impossible when they went out of business.
So to keep shooting I was going to have to make an investment in a compressor. After considering all of the alternatives I opted for the Shoebox Max, which arrived earlier this week.
After doing all of the set up, tonight was the first run, and I have to say I am very pleased.
Topping off my Drager 88cf bottle from 4050 to 4500 took a surprisingly short 1hr and 5 minutes. The pressure on the fill rig and the bottles valve gauge matched, so I am fairly certain about the accuracy of the numbers. The auto shut off occurred at 4200, I made a quick adjustment to the spring and turned it back on, and it ran to 4500 without shutting off, but I was monitoring it for just that possibility. I made another adjustment to the spring somewhere between the two settings and now it shutdown immediately with the bottle at 4500, so it should be set at a safe level. Of course, now having it stop short of 4500 is not a big deal like a full fill from the scuba shop was - I can top off any ol' time I please now ;^)
My input pressure was 87psi. I monitored the temperature of the cylinders with an infrared thermometer, the hottest reading I could find anywhere on them throughout the entire fill was 78F - the fan does a great job keeping things cool.
As mentioned I was surprised at the short time to produce 450psi into the large bottle. Based on the performance info on the Shoebox page I was expecting it to be over twice that long. Hour long run times should mean low maintenance and a nice long life for this unit.
I am very pleased tonight, and I hope you don't mind me sharing my excitement.
Thanks for reading.
Rod
After lurking for a bit, I finally got my account set up, mostly to share my excitement and pleasure with my new Shoebox.
Like many of you, the pain of getting tanks filled at the scuba shop 40 miles away was a real burden. Then by a complete stroke of luck a friendly fellow by the name of Zasadny moved within 5 miles of me. He was happy to fill me up whenever I needed air, and that always meant a great conversation about topics wide and varied while we waited for the bottle to fill.
But it was too good to last, and he left me, and took his compressor with him...dang! He moved away without any thought at all of my air needs ;^)
The idea of going back to the scuba shop was really unappealing, and then turned out to be impossible when they went out of business.
So to keep shooting I was going to have to make an investment in a compressor. After considering all of the alternatives I opted for the Shoebox Max, which arrived earlier this week.
After doing all of the set up, tonight was the first run, and I have to say I am very pleased.
Topping off my Drager 88cf bottle from 4050 to 4500 took a surprisingly short 1hr and 5 minutes. The pressure on the fill rig and the bottles valve gauge matched, so I am fairly certain about the accuracy of the numbers. The auto shut off occurred at 4200, I made a quick adjustment to the spring and turned it back on, and it ran to 4500 without shutting off, but I was monitoring it for just that possibility. I made another adjustment to the spring somewhere between the two settings and now it shutdown immediately with the bottle at 4500, so it should be set at a safe level. Of course, now having it stop short of 4500 is not a big deal like a full fill from the scuba shop was - I can top off any ol' time I please now ;^)
My input pressure was 87psi. I monitored the temperature of the cylinders with an infrared thermometer, the hottest reading I could find anywhere on them throughout the entire fill was 78F - the fan does a great job keeping things cool.
As mentioned I was surprised at the short time to produce 450psi into the large bottle. Based on the performance info on the Shoebox page I was expecting it to be over twice that long. Hour long run times should mean low maintenance and a nice long life for this unit.
I am very pleased tonight, and I hope you don't mind me sharing my excitement.
Thanks for reading.
Rod
