Restoration of a De Backer 111/2 1560L/min Compressor
After searching the internet for a long while i finally found a compressor that met my demands, the pictures and the description ware very unclear, but it said 1560L/min of air. So i attached the trailer and drove over to the seller. Once there i realized what a beast of a compressor i was getting for only a few hundred euro’s. This was exactly what i needed and it was even in running shape.
At this time we have a 300L Grasso 81-1 compressor as main compressor which is pressurized 24/7 since this compressor was bought 50 or 60 years ago. I am running into capacity problems with sandblasting as this old compressor just can’t keep up. It is a 1 cilinder, with a 5,5kw motor where the De Backer 111/2 is a 11KW motor.
For sandblasting a minimum of 600L/min of air is required, but having 1560 seems good for me as the more air, the faster you can work, and the bigger the nozzle can be with less chance of getting plugged.
It seemed reasonable to me to replace the old compressor with the new beast, however now while i have the occasion i like to completely restore it to make it look absolutely stunning. To do so i took everything off, sanded everything, checked the pump, made everything clean, painted the compressor in Electric Blue for the tank and red for the pump and motor to make it stand out alot. The way this looks is very 1950’ish. After getting the looks right i added a frequency regulator to it, this way a smooth startup with solid state components instead of a star/triangle switchbox is possible. This should prevent alot of maintenance in the future and garantee the reliability of having air at all time. It also allows me to lower the frequency which is great as most of the time we just need a little bit of air, so filling up the tank at a lower rpm during normal operation results in alot less noise. When i do sandblast, or require alot of air for over 5 minutes i can always increase the rpm of the compressor.