Well Thanks.. The single phase motor was one of my questions.. No I would never think of a converter.. so you are telling me a single phase 10HP motor wouldn't work.. do they even make those for compressors lol..
They do make 10 HP single phase motors.... but they are in the neighborhood of $800 to $1000 and they draw a whole lot of amps. You would need a hefty circuit to run it on. 7.5 HP is really the largest single-phase compressor you will see on the market due to the high starting amps (6 to 10 times the nameplate FLA) and very high cost of such motors.
What makes them not work well for non-cont. load applications.. What about a 310 or 325 then?? Single phase again!
Rotary phase converters are most efficient when tuned for the amperage draw (load) of the device they are driving - for a given amp load you need to tune them to balance the phases..... A compressor increases it's load as a function of pressure. Thus tuning the converter is difficult since there is a wide swing in the amp draw.....and so you have to oversize them a lot to get enough power out with them unbalanced across a larger percentage of the amp differential.
325 is the holy grail of home shop compressors. More air than most people will ever use - one could easily keep up with a two man body shop. Perfect size - they fit a 5 HP saddle like they were made for it and run easily on single phase power. Overall they are the best choice - but much like small lathe's and mill's they command a higher price than larger machines because most people can't devote the room or have the ability to run the larger machines.
GD
.. Hmm make a seperate roll around and connect tank to compressor roll around..