Cylinder breather as a pneumatic muffler?

[The Cobbler]

I have an air sander that's missing the muffler on the exhaust . they are available from Ingersoll Rand but costly when shipping is added .
What about a cylinder breather? I am wondering if it might be too restrictive .
for $4 I might give it a try .
the OEM looks like a faucet Aerator and has 3/8 MPT threads

 

[bigfunwmu]

These are typically rated for air volume in high the single-digit gallons per minute range. But for $4, it's worth seeing if the rating and reality actually match up enough to matter, or if it just works.

In theory, they are supposed to keep liquid water from passing through. They don't. But if your air has a lot of water in it, the breather might restrict more than if your air is dry.

 

[rlitman]

The air tool exhausts I've had that used sintered breathers like that as their mufflers had the style that's more conical than those flat ones.


Sanders get a lot of continuous use, and draw a lot of air, so their muffler isn't a place to skimp. When I bought my pneumatic wet grinder, it was painfully loud. I attached a piece of flexible "flat" drainage pump hose to the handle that reached about 4' back to the end of the air hose whip to just short of the QD, leading the exhaust far away from the tool kind of coaxially. And as it went on the handle, I stuffed the first 6" or so from the handle back with stainless steel pot scrubbers. It's now no louder than the electric version.

 

[danielbuck]

on mcmaster, for 3/8npt fittings the flat style 'breather' is listed as 7 scfm @ 100psi. No noise reduction amount listed, not that they won't reduce the noise, it's just not what they are intended for so it's not listed.

McMaster-Carr

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and actual mufflers in 3/8 npt like the conical style rlitman posted above are listed as 23 scfm @ 100psi, alot more flow with 15-20db noise reduction. It's also about $4, but you can probably find it cheaper elsewhere (mcmaster's shipping on a single $4 item will be probably double the cost)

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

Personally, I would go for the higher flow rating, 7scfm is an idea flow rate, so the actual is likely lower than that. if you have the room to put the extended muffler on it, I'd do that.. there are also some sold that have metal guards on them.

I run the conical style mufflers on some of my very old air tools, they work well if it doesn't get in the way of use.

 

[danielbuck]

looking at IR's website, not sure what sander you have but the first one I clicked on looks like it uses 8cfm, so I would not go with the flat style that will likely inhibit flow.

 

[Steve_P]

looking at IR's website, not sure what sander you have but the first one I clicked on looks like it uses 8cfm, so I would not go with the flat style that will likely inhibit flow.

A typical air sander uses 15+ CFM during use. Most manufacturers include a ridiculous assumption of a 25% duty cycle, or similar to come up with their fantasy ratings. Look up the air tool ratings on Dynabrade's website as they use real numbers.

 

[danielbuck]

A typical air sander uses 15+ CFM during use. Most manufacturers include a ridiculous assumption of a 25% duty cycle, or similar to come up with their fantasy ratings. Look up the air tool ratings on Dynabrade's website as they use real numbers.

even more reason to go with the actual muffler with higher flow rating