Wimminz – celebrating skank ho's everywhere

I have a proper belt driven compressor out in the workshop, but I had cause to purchase a “quiet” one as well, the definition of quiet being you could put it in an office or living room and it wouldn’t annoy anyone.

The leading “british” brand is bambi, 450 quid for a fridge compressor that costs all of 50 quid on a tank, and yes bambi sell replacement compressors for 275 quid, need more air? Well just add more fridge compressors at 275 quid a time, by the time you have four of them on a big tank (£2.5k) you’ll have enough air to intermittently run an air ratchet etc… and cos fridge compressors are oiled you’ll need a de oiler as well as a water trap if you’re planning on spraying or anything.

Not that anything about the bambi is british except where it is assembled and painted green and white, and the duty cycle is max 50% or max 30 minutes in any one hour…

My application I don’t actually need a lot of air, but I do want dry and oil free air, it’s basically 2 bar pneumatic rams to open and close a machine door, so a “fridge compressor” based machine would have more than enough oomph, but at 450 quid a pop I’d have been better off making one, about 350 quid better off.

So I went on to amazon and paid 129 inc shipping next day delivery for a chinese made 2 stage oilless direct drive job with pistons with synthetic rings, this is it in the pic above in a messy room with a brass zippo perched on the cap for scale.

Power: 750W
Frequency: 50Hz
Voltage: 220V
Speed: 1400rpm
Tank Capacity : 24L
Noise level :67db
Working Pressure :8BAR/ 116psi
Air Supply: 95L/Min
CE Approved.
Dimensions:605×310×605mm
Net weight:18kg
Connection size: 1/4″ BSP
Suitable hose:5*8MM
It is Oil Free compressor.
Start instantaneous power: 1650W.

Yeah, it’s not the kind of thing you buy to leave to your grand kids, takes about 1 minute 50 seconds to go from an empty tank to cut off at 120 psi and is silent enough you can talk on the phone over it and the people on the other end can’t hear it, and it’s 129 quid delivered so arguably I could have saved 29 quid making a fridge compressor one, if my own time is worthless, and this was delivered next day ready to go.

No brainer.

On a different track I returned yesterday around 6:30 pm after the lightning and thunder and turned on the big series 7 samsung monitor and pc, which is now about 9/10 years old, and it didn’t come on, soft click power button flickers soft click power button flickers etc.

Aww shit, I suppose I could go on to amazon and buy a new 4k 55 inch LG, but, that’s 800 quid and hassle, and I begrudge spending that kind of money, I spent a grand on the 48″ samsung ten years ago, it should last longer, so a quick google and sure enough click of death and bad caps, so carry it into the bedroom to lay it face down on the nice soft duvet (no point bruising the screen for nothing) and remove the back cover and sure enough.

Bad caps, not a very good pic but good enough to show they are swollen and one has a tiny leak stain at the top.

Now, this isn’t a diagnosis, I’ve just identified a possible culprit visually, but it’s worth investigating before saying fuck it and throwing your hands in the air and ordering new kit for 800 quid.

So off down to my local Maplin store just after 7 pm, happily they are open until 8 most days, and some 35 volt 1000 puff caps are duly purchased, (standard on the sammy were 10 volt 1000 puff, but while I’m at it, may as well up the voltage headroom a wee bit) I can only see two on the board and I was sorta expecting four, plus what the fuck so I buy four from Maplin’s, at a whopping 19 pence each, which is profiteering because they are only about 5p  really but I have no issues whatsoever with paying a premium to anyone willing to carry loose stock.

Get back, pull the board, pull out the antex iron, desolder and remove, put in new, solder, snip leads, install the board, plug in the mains lead and test, we have liftoff.

Clean the fan and replace the back cover, reinstall samsung in usual situ and reconnect cables to PC etc and power up.

Elapsed time maybe an hour and a bit.

Elapsed expenditure for repair 38 pence.

because I had the tools, because I had the attitude and basic soldering skills, because my first reactions wasn’t to throw my hands up in the air and say fuck it and spend 800 quid on a replacement (which of course assumes you have the money lying around to replace the item in question, and no better use for said money)

Of course the current squeeze, who witnessed all this, is in awe, TV’s are things that die and then you sell the car and eldest child to buy a new one, and sit around in misery and darkness for 48 hours until it arrives, and then everyone lives off bread and conflakes for six months because of the ongoing hit the TV purchase caused.

They are absolutely NOT something you walk in, it doesn’t work, you go awwwww bastard and put it on the bed and open it and find something wrong WITH NO TOOLS OR INSPECTION EQUIPMENT and then drive down the road a couple of miles and come back a bit later with 38 pence worth of parts, which you solder in and then it fucking works, that shit is pretty indistinguishable from magic.

So we have two entirely truthful and factual tales from the last 48 hours from my own personal life.

1/ I bought the cheap chinese compressor because it was so cheap I couldn’t really compete on the DIY route, and because it’s good enough, even though I know damn well it’s not built to last, it’s still well worth it and a sensible buying decision.

2/ I bought some cheap 19p per pop capacitors to “have a go” at something that being brutally honest I have already had 10 years of good use out of, good going for a flat screen telly, I could be annoyed and discomfited that it was dead after 10 years, but I couldn’t really complain, so the risk / reward for having a go was negligible, and to be honest it could still die next week, I found *a* problem, there could be other components on their last legs too for all I know, the flipside is the devil you know, I have been soak testing this unit for 10 years now, so I do not have any reason to assume that it won’t last another ten….

So……………….

Bambi are clearly making a huge markup on the hardware, they could just buy in orazios and paint them and rebox them, I’m not knocking them, but the business model doesn’t work when you are competing against the chinese at their own game, I could have bought THREE of these orazios for the price of one bambi.

The only possible reason to even consider the bambi is if you have genuine reason to believe it will last five times as long as one orazio…

On the other hand you have the 48″ series 7 RGB LED backlit LCD samsung that I paid a thousand pounds for ten years ago, I *know* it’s good quality, the proof is sat right in front of me, and has been for ten years, do I believe the LG I might have had to buy as a replacement would last 10 years too? Well, I’d *like* to think so… but…

I still miss the old broom wade 3/4 hp vertical 2 stage v twin compressor that I bought ten years ago for 20 quid and fixed by cutting new gaskets for the heads for 50p, it weighed at least 180 lbs and was incredibly quiet and smooth for a belt driven job and I basically gave it away for 50 quid when the psycho skank ho ex went nuclear.

I’ll miss the samsung when it eventually dies in the same way (hey, at least I don’t have to live with paying someone a tenner to take away only to hear a week later they fixed it for 38p…) because basically it just did what it said on the tin with no fuss, quietly and competently, year after year.

I won’t miss the orazio, and I wouldn’t have missed the bambi.

And this is how the west was won and lost.

We aren’t making any shit that is expected to last at least ten years (yes, I know there are exceptions, but this should be mainstream, not the exception) which you can make all sorts of bullshit Keynesian arguments about.

The trouble is, we aren’t making any cheap crap “good enough” either, all our locally made “good enough” crap is three times the price of what it should be.

Never before in human history has it been as easy, technically, as it is now in 2017 to make a fridge style compressor that should be good for 50 years of 24/7 use with no maintenance.

And it could be done for 250 quid which is what bambi charge for a replacement pump unit.

https://www.bambi-air.co.uk/products/view/budget-range—silent-air-compressors

What’s missing from these “quality” items ???
(standard one year warranty on the pump and three years on the receiver… big fucking deal)
go on, follow the link, take a look…

Yup, same as the cheapo chinese orazio.

Biggest most obvious glaring mistake is a total and complete lack of anything even approaching a decent intake air filter, and yes the orazio is getting one fitted, (it does have one as standard but it ain’t up to much) I’ll eliminate at least 75% of the wear on the synthetic piston rings by eliminating all the particulates from being drawn in and embedded in them, a 10 micron inlet filter is a lot more use than a 10 micron outlet filter, if it can’t get in it can’t get pumped out.

Try as I might, I cannot see *anything* to differentiate between the so called “quality” so called “british made and designed” bambi and the cheap and cheerful orazio, certainly not anything to justify a 300% price difference.

For a sale price of 200 quid delivered I could show the chinese how to make the orazio a bambi killer. (not that it isn’t already, I bought one)

1. good quality replaceable automotive style intake filter.
2. PWM soft start and stop motor
3. standard fitted good dryer and two pressure regulator for twin output, one low range for HVLP guns and one high range for dusters and light air tool use… and all on a sturdy bracket please…
4. standard tank pressure port for receiver capacity extension / twinning etc
5. cable tidy (2 cleats) for excess mains lead
6. big sticker on the side with an arrow pointing at the drain valve saying “DRAIN AT LEAST ONCE EVERY WEEK, YES, THIS MEANS YOU, YOU CUNT.“

I’d have bought it in a heartbeat, and so would everyone else trawling amazon for a cheap / quiet compressor for home / office / hobby / light ind usage.

Bambi sales would plummet to zero overnight.

Bambi should already be making their own compressors rated 24/7 for 50 years, fitting proper intake filters, then they’d have been an orazio killer and I’d have bought one… even at 400% of the price of the orazio.

Orazio sales would have plummeted to basically everyone who had a 150 quid and needed a compressor.

Out in the workshop I have one 15 metre air hose, one 10 metre air hose and one 5 metre air hose,, basically I can string them all together and go out to the street and run air tools or pump tyres, the 3hp belt driven comp (home built) is on wheels but it is also a big heavy old bitch and it does need a proper 13 ampere extension lead to run.

The orazio is only 4 to 5 times the price of a shitty pocket emergency 12v car unit, but it is small and portable enough to pick up and carry, draws 3 amperes wet, and a 5 gallon receiver @ 120 psi is enough even not plugged into the mains to inflate any non commercial tyre, and 1 hp is enough to run intermittent air tools like an air ratchet or the odd bit of windy gun.

No brainer.