I'm sure Charles Culotta will chip in here... he has one and gets a LOT
of use out of it.
My contribution: You can't use it for SCUBA, unless you want to die. Too
much oil vapor in the air. You have to have a compressor specifically
designed either to supply air directly to the regulator, or to fill
tanks for that. If you get one of these, be sure you're not running in
anywhere near an exhaust source, or you'll suck in lots of CO and have a
great sleepy feeling underwater that you'll probably never wake up from.

"Keith R. Pleas" wrote:

--

Keith
"People waste time, effort and money on all kinds of things that don't
make sense, when by owning a boat one can consolidate and waste them all
on one thing."

• Mike Hughes

installation. I have a small compressor, but I don't have an air tank (or
valve, or switch, etc..) So, I started thinking that maybe I should put in a
larger compressor / tank combination and also use it for...what?

Keith,
When I got the big Khalenberg air horn I looked for a  good heavy duty 12v
compressor and tank set up. Found them to be very expensive.

Stay away fr those anemic little 12v compressors with no accum.
tank.
What I did was mounted my Sears pancake compressor  ( compressor regulator,
tank
complete), these cost abt 150 bucks but you can get a chinese communist
one, you
know , the same guys who took our airmen prisoner , version for $90 at
Harbor
Freight, in the engine room and ran an air line to the bridge. Ck the home
improvement stores too. Got an elec. switch and I am in
business. Additionally, I put a "t" on the line at the compressor so now I
have
compressed air in the eng room and at the bridge. This was SIGNIFICANTLY
cheaper
than pur a 12v compressor and accum. tank fr Kahlenberg. Works great.
The air hose , 50 ft is abt $15 , this was more than enough to get to the
bridge.
I considered running a perm. line to the cockpit to air the dingy but that
is more trouble than it is worth.
By the way the Sears is an  OILLESS unit whereas the chinese communist one
is not.
Some uses for air: blowing out mud daubers, ( don't know it that is a
problem in your area) around screens , fuel vent lines, yea even with
screens; cleaning parts; getting dust out f the way after sanding; and all
the uses you find in your shop ashore.
That is all lagniappe over the  REAL  reason to have the compressor,  THE
HORN.
CCC

The switch is not on the compressor. The comp. is plugged into a 110v outlet
in the engine room  and it has a  PRESSURE switch so that when the tank
needs air it automatically goes on , IF shore or gen set power is available.
The tank  stores more air  than I have ever needed  to blow the horn!
I ran the air hose from the engine room up to the bridge. At this point I
installed  an  electric 12v solenoid valve. Use the  existing horn button
to activate ( open) this valve. This allows air from the tank to reach the
horn.
The valves are available off the shelf .
The larger compressor is noisy but , in my experience , over the past
several years with it, is that even using the horn the compressor only
cycles once or so per week for maybe 15 or twenty seconds. I do not find
this offensive nor a burden. As I said the little 12v compressors ( the ones
withOUT an accumulator tank)  did not work for me.  In both instances YMMV.
Note , I used the larger compressor as it was much cheaper and gives me a
lot of compressed air.

Here is some info from  an earlier e mail , Jan 02 ,on this subject.

The horn came from an old tug boat. Just a plain  old brass horn , a
single trumpet. By the way the big marine hardware store here sells a
large plastic horn for use on commercial boats. I have not heard it
blown but the man at the store said they sell quite a few.
I use air in the Eng. room for: ( look , it is like I told my wife when
I pur. a compressor for my shop ( on shore). When you have air,
situations constantly come up to use it!) blowing dust fr the engine
where you cannot get a rag, cleaning rust debris from bolts, recharging
the accumulator tank on the fresh water system, blowing debris fr bolt
holes before reinstalling them, blew  dirt dauber mud fr the emergency
bilge pump discharge line,  blow cob webs fr. vent lines, dry parts that
I have cleaned before reassemble, cleaned the coils on the a/c units,
air up the bicycle tires etc., etc.
In all honesty I could live without it but I have the compressor for
the horn and the cost of a  T and  a 50 ft length of hose was
negligible  but the satisfaction of having it,  priceless!!!!
CCC