With the addition of the CNC Plasma Cutter to my workshop I quickly learned that the quality of air supply is critical to getting good cuts.  I concluded that my 20 year old 6 Gallon compressor just wasn’t going to hack it and it was time to replace it with something bigger and more powerful.

I shopped around and found a good deal on a Dewalt 60 gallon, 3.7HP, 11.5 SCFM compressor, on sale locally at a Tractor Supply store.  Less than 8 miles away!  I could pick it up and not pay any shipping charges!  Yippee!

So, I drove over there and found they had just one left, and it was missing it’s intake air filter.  Hmmmm, I checked it out and thought I could build a temporary filter while the store ordered a replacement (right at the beginning of the Covid pandemic!).  We loaded it on my truck with a fork lift and I brought it home.

So, here it is, ready to unload.

Arrival of new compressor. Fortunately, it’s not going far from this spot!

After a bit of reorganization of my shop (like moving my 300lb dust collector and installing a ton of air filtering/water separators/valves/etc), I successfully unloaded and installed it.

I then made the parts for the air filter…

Homemade parts for temporary air filter.

Assembled parts for temporary air filter.

‘Temporary’ Air Filter

Note that the ‘temporary’ filter is still installed.  Tractor Supply seems to have forgotten that they owed me one.  Good thing the ‘temporary’ one is good enough!