Dental air compressors

I have been keeping my eyes peeled for a dental air compressor to replace the loud oilless junk compressor in the theater shop.  I found an auction with about a five on the block but I can't find specs on them.  Most of them are Apollo O82 or 082 (hard to read the font).  All I can see on the photo of the sticker is 30 gallon 100 psi

Turbine Industries (can't see numbers in the photos)

Apollo 082 

Anyone know anything about them?  Is there a dentist in the house?

Docwyte is a dentist. You might shoot him a message. 

If those fall through, the hammer store has a compressor that is supposed to be 80% quieter than a regular shop compressor. You might look into them. 

https://www.harborfreight.com/26-gallon-175-psi-ultra-quiet-vertical-shopauto-air-compressor-57336.html

I have a couple of old Jun-Airs. They are quieter than my refrigerator. The first time I plugged one in, I thought it was broken. Then I saw the needle moving on the gauge. 

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

The Turbine Industries unit with the blue air receiver uses three modified Copeland refrigeration compressors for the air compressor part.   Those almost certainly have oil in the crankcase so if you need oil free, those most likely aren't.   I'm not sure what dental air requirements are pressure wise, I would think they would have some pretty extensive filtration downstream of the compressors / air receiver to be sure the air was clean and dry for infection control and contamination reasons.

The Apollo unit has four Gast oil free compressors; I've worked on these.  They use carbon vanes inside the compressors (rotary type compressor), they should be in current production so parts should be available.   They often use the Gast units as "jockey pumps" on air charged dry sprinkler systems for garages and other areas that might freeze.   If quiet is a big requirement know that they're not super quiet in my opinion.  (3,600 RPM direct drive motor if I'm remembering correctly.) 

Edit to add a link to a Gast dry sprinkler system booster compressor.   Looks like 4.5 CFM / 50 PSI so probably not a good match for tools.

4LCB-46T-M450GX | Gast Manufacturing (gastmfg.com)

I have a Jun-Air that is pretty awesome.   dual-twin head compressors in an isolation chamber.   It's whisper quiet and goes from 0-135psi in about 45 seconds.

the bad?  5-gallon tank.   I'd like to switch it out for a 60gallon 2-stage compressor.       I can handle some noise in the garage.

also,  requires special oil due to the high tolerances.

I also find myself using air tools less and less.   

I have an Air Techniques.  Not the biggest tank on it and I have the optional "quiet" cabinet that goes over the whole thing.  Even with that and it being in the equipment closet of my basement, it's still fairly loud.   I picked it up from a friend used when he bought up a smaller practice and didn't need it.

Not as loud as an oil less or even as loud as my oiled one in my home garage but they're far from quiet.  Not sure its worth the additional cost vs getting a good, regular, oiled compressor.

Funny story, 11 years ago, when I was moving my office and looking into an air compressor I came close to just buying one from Home Depot.  Add the desicant filters in line so my drills are happy and call it good, maybe $800 all in.  My dental supply rep was aghast that I wasn't thinking about buying one from him for $5000 because his put out "medical quality" air.  LOL!!  Medical quality air!!!  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Huh, never thought of a dental air compressor for a shop. Interesting idea though, and some good information here. Neat.

Quiet is a pretty big need.  If I'm building something in the shop while people are rehearsing on the other side of the garage door in the theater, I can't use the compressor I have.  It's a made-in-bangladesh, direct-drive, oil free, and sounds like a fog horn.  I'm looking for something that is at least a little quieter than a run-of-the-mill belt-driven shop compressor

11GTCS...  Good to know that the Apollos aren't very quiet.  I'll likely pass on them.  No requirement for oil-free or oil.  I assumed that dental compressors were specifically designed to prevent the oil from mixing with the air, but I could be mistaken.

Is the Turbine Industries model something I could work with?  Serviceable parts?  Enough SCFM?  Its so hard to read the plate in the picture.  I don't need a whopper since most of what I do at the theater is brad nailers and narrow crown staplers, but there are times when we fire up the HVLP gun to paint a big set.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

https://www.atlasresell.com/used-dental-air-compressors-matrx-dual-head-copeland

Here’s a two compressor unit I found that’s rated at 8.4 CFM at 100 psi.   I’ll guess with three compressors it would be 12 CFM.    

Tough to say on parts, Copeland is owned by Emerson Electric now.  I found the refrigeration compressor version on their site but nothing air compressor wise.   With that said, the refrigeration versions are pretty much indestructible so I’d guess in the use you’d give it they would last a long time. That’s a pretty big tank so you’ve got storage volume to work with. 

Edit, sorry about the dead link.  Working off an old iPad at the moment and it struggles with some things.  

That's more than enough CFM for a single HVLP.  This is a long shot... do you happen to know if I could push the pressure a bit?  100 psi at the nail gun is more than enough, but since I can't really move the compressor, I sometimes use a lot of hose to reach the work.  Current compressor is 125 psi and I can bump it (or I could buy a portable pancake compressor if the theater weren't so limited on budget).

Just wondering if the 100psi I'm seeing on most Dental compressors is because that's all dentists need, or if the tanks aren't rated for more, or if the compressors can only handle 100 psi.  My thinking is that they're overbuilt and could probably take an adjustment up to 125, but I want to be sure that I'm barking up the right tree.  I gotta think that a refrigeration-style compressor can easily handle more than 100 psi.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

I looked though the pictures on the Turbine Industries one again.  One of them shows the cover of the installation/operation manual.   It’s not easy to read but it shows the triple unit rated at 13 CFM.   The copyright date is from 1987 so it’s not new. (The daily checklist has some dates from the mid 90’s).   Sitting on its side on the pallet means the oil is probably not in the crankcase where it’s supposed to be, you’d need to get it upright and leave it that way for a while.   There should be sight glasses on the compressors to check the level.    You’ll probably need a 30 amp / 230 V feed to run it as well.  

Edit: tough to say on the discharge pressure.  125 psi, maybe?   In refrigeration duty with R22 they would produce in excess of 200 psi on the discharge side but who knows what internal changes Copeland made for air compressor duty.  

In reply to 11GTCS :

I'm also noticing on the TI unit that it looks like it has been leaking oil slowly for a while.

Theater has a measly 900A of three-phase Delta.  I think I can find the juice   I would probably run it on 208 because the only thing left in the building using the delta leg is the HVAC.  I have 300A of hi-leg that is mostly unused.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

See if you can get it cheap, I wouldn’t go over $100.00.   Similar 2 compressor ones that look newer on the dental equipment sites look like they sold for $250.

Ok.  Thank you for the pricing.  This auction is notorious for sucking at their descriptions which means anything that fits a specific niche like this will only get bids from people who know what they're looking at.  Their food service items usually get bid up to market price.  I noticed in this auction (which has 11 days left) people are going nuts over the surge strips, computer speakers, and office desks, but the niche stuff is ignored.

For instance, there is an 80 gallon traditional shop compressor that is already bid up to $230, but most of the dental air compressors have no bids for even a penny.

I would like to know if it's possible to add a large tank to mine.    can you safely plumb in a secondary air storage tank?

In reply to Grtechguy :

When I got tired of rebuilding the oil-free Craftsman 5 hp compressor, I bought a commercial 80 gallon unit and plumbed in the 60 gallon tank from the Craftsman for additional capacity.  Works great.  Total overkill for my use, but since I had the tank and the space, I did it anyway.

Used to go to a dentist that used a noisy shop compressor, it was in a utility closet on the outside of the building. They even kept the same setup when they moved buildings.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to 11GTCS :

I'm also noticing on the TI unit that it looks like it has been leaking oil slowly for a while.

Theater has a measly 900A of three-phase Delta.  I think I can find the juice   I would probably run it on 208 because the only thing left in the building using the delta leg is the HVAC.  I have 300A of hi-leg that is mostly unused.

Start looking for a proper used 3 phase industrial rotary screw compressor and enjoy all the compressed air you'll ever need without the noise! 

I had an amazing atlas copco compressor at work. Small screw unit. Ultra quiet.