Air dusters / blasters

[JackOfDiamonds]

For big things, I have an airgun I can hook up to the compressor.

For smaller tasks, like cleaning computer parts, blowing shavings out of the bottom of blind screw holes, etc, I used to keep around a can of the "canned air". The cans work, especially when I can put the small straw down in the bottom of a screw hole, but problems here are that the cans are expensive and don't last very long, or I lose the straw...

I've become aware of two alternatives. First is the rocket blower:

https://a.co/d/dJ8NgmX

These will never run out and seem to be a classic tool for photography, but I've never used one so I don't know how powerful they are.

Another option is battery-powered blasters. Cheap ones seem to be available from the AliExpress lottery, but I have yet to find one from a legitimate tool maker like Milwaukee M12. I don't know which one to roll the dice and buy, so I haven't tried one yet. Does anyone have one they like? How do they compare to the "Canned air"?



Finally there are CO2-powered ones. I normally have lots of cartridges available, but I don't know how well these things hold air if they aren't used a long time.

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[Beerhippie]

There must be a zillion reviews of these on YT.

I have and use a Rocket for my photography gear. It's really more of a "puffer". It will blow the dust off of a lens, but one thing you don't want on camera gear is to blow the dust deeper into places where it can do damage.

 

[GeoBruin]

TTC recently made an updated video on the battery powered dusters.

 

[Cruzan80]

I bought a battery powered duster. It works pretty well for the most part. The only issue is that even on HI (three levels), it doesn't quite have the same oomph as a squirt of canned air for a particularly stuck particle. But it is probably 85-90+% of the strength. And I can run it on Low for a long time to blow out all the hair/dust/etc that tends to accumulate. Figure with the price of canned air going up every time I need to buy another one, and the lack of bitterant (that always seems to linger on your hands afterwards), it was worth it.

Edit: My wife figured out a Crown Royal bag is the perfect size to keep it and all the accessory nozzles together.

 

[RTM]

I have a vintage Air-O-Can, which you pressurize with a compressor or hand pump. Made for refillable fluids, I suppose you could change the nozzle to one you stole off a single use can, and it may work.

I have another, forget the brand, hiding right side in this post

2023 Garage Sale Thread

More stuff from the Main to Main sale. Sears pipe vise, wood mallet with brass fittings, rubber and hard hammer heads (Croquet?) and a DOE Whitworth wrench from England for $15 and a Navy ammo box, nickel plated Stanley level and an electrical box turned into a tool box with a few goodies inside...

www.garagejournal.com

 

[pcrov]

These will never run out and seem to be a classic tool for photography, but I've never used one so I don't know how powerful they are.

I use those rocket blowers for photo gear. They are not strong at all. They're a tiny puff to safely knock a speck of dust off a lens. Great for what they're for, but very much will not handle what you're after. That bulb fits in your hand, it's just not a lot of air.

I picked up this battery-powered duster a couple months back and couldn't be happier with it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPQLJLBY?tag=atomicindus08-20

It's one of the ones tested in this project farm video:

It didn't rate the highest but it was about a third the price of the one that did. It rated better than canned air which is all I actually needed.

About the only thing I still use canned air for is a puff down the straw in a screw hole. Fortunately those cans last a *lot* longer now this is handling everything else (e.g. blowing out air filters, workbench, computer, dusting or drying small parts, etc.)

 

[L.Cheapo]

I have the Wolfbox one from the TTC videos. It's stronger than one would expect for its size. It's also LOUD. More of a novelty for me than anything else. I never bought/used canned air. It wont replace my compressor, but for small tasks its fine.

 

[dscheidt]

I have some random battery blower from amazon. i have no idea why I bought that one, instead of another. it's suprisingly powerful (on high, pointed down, it will nearly float), but as noted elsewhere, it's not quite as powerful as canned air out of the straw. It's also a lot cheaper to use. I use it for lots of random dusting tasks, works fine. Battery life *****, but isn't really a problem.

The ump at one my daughter's baseball games used one to clean the plate. I had to extend my rule that the better at squating down and brushing the plate off, the better they call the game....

 

[Sumboodie]

I use the canned air for a/c systems. Way cheaper than the canned labeled 134a and it's the same.
Also works decent to freeze bushings for shrink fits.

 

[richfinn]

I have the Wolfbox, you won't be disappointed, it's pretty ridiculous how powerful it is and how well made it is for the price, I haven't plugged my puny little portable air compressor in for about 3 months (I'm all cordless now )

drying and cleaning electrical connectors (along with Deoxit D5)

Cleaning the van (without dragging an airline through the interior)

Blowing leaves/debris out of air boxes/filters

Cooling down hot stuff like soldering irons/freshly shrunk heat shrink tube

Blasting ****/oil/water out of spark plug tubes

I would buy another tomorrow if I lost mine

 

[milky2k]

TTC recently made an updated video on the battery powered dusters.

I recently got the Mellif/ Makita clone blower because of this video. I previously had the Ryobi blower and it was okay. I wanted the Makita but its expensive, so when I saw this Makita clone I jumped on it. Its very powerful and I can use it with my DeWalt batteries. The air moves very fast it gets warm right away.

 

[Beerhippie]

I use those rocket blowers for photo gear. They are not strong at all. They're a tiny puff to safely knock a speck of dust off a lens. Great for what they're for, but very much will not handle what you're after. That bulb fits in your hand, it's just not a lot of air.

I picked up this battery-powered duster a couple months back and couldn't be happier with it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPQLJLBY?tag=atomicindus08-20

It's one of the ones tested in this project farm video:

It didn't rate the highest but it was about a third the price of the one that did. It rated better than canned air which is all I actually needed.

About the only thing I still use canned air for is a puff down the straw in a screw hole. Fortunately those cans last a *lot* longer now this is handling everything else (e.g. blowing out air filters, workbench, computer, dusting or drying small parts, etc.)

Damn all yer hides!

I've never really considered that I needed a rechargeable mini-blower... but I ordered one of the ones linked.

Maybe now I'll realize that I do need one....

 

[kbeefy]

I've been a little intrigued by them, especially since TTC and PF did videos on them. Neither of which I have watched.

Every time I think I should try one out, my brain reminds me of how many air compressors I have.

I have at least 7 air compressors. From a bauer handheld drill looking thing that runs off dewalt 20v to a 100g 240v in my shop, and about everything in between. Plus several CO2 tanks.

 

[Beerhippie]

Mine arrived today:



It blows.

It blows the metal swarf out from under the base of my DP. It blows the benchtop clean. It blows tools off of the benchtop.

I've been going crazy dusting stuff since it showed up.

I have a blowgun mounted to the air hose reel in the shop, but this is just handier.

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

I also bought one, and noticed it came with a nozzle for inflating boats and pool toys. It's really tiny but I wonder if it's powerful enough to replace the big ryobi one I've been using.

 

[Beerhippie]

Yesterday, purely by accident, I discovered that the nozzle of the blower is held on by a magnet:



My first thought was "Oh, ****, I broke it already!" My second thought was "Should I have read the instructions?"

Then, because:



it's warm in the shop,



(imagine aging hippie in the chair) it's a personal cooling fan!

I set it to low speed and it's about perfect! It's probably loud, but this is the physical plant of a brewery and I'm surrounded by large pumps, so who knows?

I wonder how long the charge lasts running on the lowest setting? Gonna find out....

 

[pcrov]

I wonder how long the charge lasts running on the lowest setting? Gonna find out....

In case you haven't found it yet, the actual highest speed is achieved keeping the trigger held down. The charge on it does not last long.

 

[Beerhippie]

In case you haven't found it yet, the actual highest speed is achieved keeping the trigger held down. The charge on it does not last long.

I actually did read the instructions--such as they are.

As for the personal cooling fan, it's a bust. I have no idea how long the battery would last running on the lowest setting, as it turns out, the noise is BAD. I'm wearing sound-blocking earphones with ANR (YouTube), and as soon as I took them off, the high-pitched scream of the device was intolerable.

 

[Steel_Rain]

My experience with these small ones is the amount of noise they generate and the short battery life.

I have the XGT (40v) Makita air duster and despite it's larger size, it's a much better option for my application.

 

[Beerhippie]

My experience with these small ones is the amount of noise they generate and the short battery life.

I have the XGT (40v) Makita air duster and despite it's larger size, it's a much better option for my application.

I bought mine to dust out the areas I can't reach with a shop brush or vacuum. It does a great job and is less likely to damage stuff than using a leaf blower--less likely, but not unlikely.

 

[Steel_Rain]

using a leaf blower

This is what I have:



I think Makita makes a small leaf blower, but I wouldn't want to use that for my application.

 

[dscheidt]

This is what I have:



I think Makita makes a small leaf blower, but I wouldn't want to use that for my application.

For a lot of things I use mine for, that's too big. I don't use it for long periods of time, so the battery life isn't a problem, but it does ****, as does the noise level. (But high velocity air is loud by itself, so hearing protection is a good idea, regardless of what's generating it.)

 

[Steel_Rain]

For a lot of things I use mine for, that's too big. I don't use it for long periods of time, so the battery life isn't a problem, but it does ****, as does the noise level. (But high velocity air is loud by itself, so hearing protection is a good idea, regardless of what's generating it.)

I understand. For me, I have space because its in my box and I use it cleaning out cowl drains, door jambs, rad inlets and pollen filter housings.

 

[Beerhippie]

For a lot of things I use mine for, that's too big. I don't use it for long periods of time, so the battery life isn't a problem, but it does ****, as does the noise level. (But high velocity air is loud by itself, so hearing protection is a good idea, regardless of what's generating it.)

It's a tiny turbine fan going 180,000 (claimed) rpm! It's going to be a bit on the noisy side.

 

[Beerhippie]

For a lot of things I use mine for, that's too big. I don't use it for long periods of time, so the battery life isn't a problem, but it does ****, as does the noise level. (But high velocity air is loud by itself, so hearing protection is a good idea, regardless of what's generating it.)

I can see that being very handy around the rigs. I use the leaf blower for that, but it is a bit of overkill.

 

[Steve_P]

Ok, so in true GJ fashion, I bought both the Wolfbox, and the Mellif- for DeWalt batteries. I've used the Wolfbox a bunch already in the last week. I used it so much today that I ran out the battery. I don't know how long this took, but I'd guess ~ 5 minutes on high. I have a legit 7.5 HP compressor, and an Ego blower, but the Wolfbox is very convenient, and it's absolutely not a toy. While it's not quiet, I didn't find it stupid loud.

It's a PITA for me to bring my compressor hose outside as I really like to move my car outside and out of the way to prevent scratching it with the hose- the compressor is on that side of the garage; but, when it's 93F out, I really don't want to open the overhead door and move the car out for something that will take 5 minutes. So yeah, the Wolfbox is a tiny handheld hurricane.

I haven't used the Mellif yet.

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

I used my wolfbox for it's first task...I scrubbed a weldment with hot water and degreaser before painting, and used the wolfbox to blow all the water out of the crevices and holes. It would have taken a whole can of canned air to do it.