So are you using air pressure to make the piston go up and down to pump the hand pumps?
Could you show a picture of the whole thing? How far can you push it in the number of hand pumps you could add? 5? 10? 20?
I have looked at some hand pumps and they brag that they are rated for 10 000 pumps which to me doesn't seem like a lot at all.
So what are common problems you've encountered with the hand pumps themselves? Gaskets or orings breaking? Not sure what wear and tear parts a hand pump has that needs replacing every so often.
This is the monster. It is actually very simple once you break everything down.
The other side
I pulled it out from my junk pile (it still looks like junk) and place it on top of my current compressor for pictures.
I was going for a third pump but was lazy sourcing a top and bottom plate that would hold up. Have to remember that with one pump using a 3 stage system rather than four as it will have to go thru more stages and the downward force has to be increased more as the air pressure rises. So let's say for one pump it requires 200 lbs downward force once you reach 4k psi. Well that means with 3 pumps you need a top and bottom plate that can take at least 600lbs of up down force. Better keep your finger out of harms way as well.
It was originally just a actuator connected to a single hand pump, operated with a simple joystick. But then it morphed.
I was using this I think for the first two years when i got into pcp. I bought the hand pump with the intention of automating it from the start, toping off my jb air tank and filling my air guns . Then one day I got the disease of doing 30 cal, then ELR and that gun was sucking air like crazy. So I evolved to yong heng. Well that lasted all of less than five hours of pumping when I came across what I thought was a deal on a Bauer.
As for your question most of the wear I see is in the last stage high pressure ball and seals. With some wear in the outside shaft and seal. That part was probably because the hand pump was not designed for supercharging the intake. I generally precharged the intake up to 60 psi. Surprisingly I get a lot of is particles (brass?) in the high pressure seals I think it's from the pump wearing. Sometimes just wiping the seals clean is all that's is needed until they get dirty again.
I thought about laying the pump on the side but with the high pressure air water will actually separate and fall out during the process so standing it upright will allow water to fall out and go to the next stage and settle at the pressure release at the bottom of the handpump.
My air compressor has a water separator that I have inline at the output. Then I have another water separator before the inlet of regulator #1
to the large actuator I use to compress the hand pumps. I also have another smaller regulator #2
to supply air to the intake of the hand pumps as the air pressure supplying that air is different from the air pressure for the actuator.
I also have air switches placed at the end of each stroke to change the direction of the actuator.
I was going to use electronics to do this but making the whole thing pneumatic was easier. The only thing electrical was a solenoid and switch to open and close the air pressure operating everything.
Why supercharge the hand pumps? Because I effectively reduce the amount of pumping required more than 45 percent. If ambient air is 14.7 then by increasing that amount to 50 psi I reduce the amount of pumps required to fill my bottle. However this is at the cost of more downward force required to pump the hand pumps. Typically I could pump up my 580cc impact tank from 180 to 250 bar in 30 to 35 pumps.
Why only 50 psi? Because with 2 hand pumps I actually needed a large amount of force required to push the pump down each time and since I was just playing, experimenting, goofing off, I did not want to lose a finger, limb or worst as there was a lot of force I was playing with. Plus I noticed higher wear and tear with high intake pressures.
The two black lines you see here are the only high pressure lines in the system and goes to a water separator that I remove.
The pump has been neglected for a while and has been stored outside. I also stole the large gold water separator from it to use on my yong heng the short time I used that. I will see if I can dig out out and take a couple pictures. Allen
