Comments on: Hot or Not? Portable Compressed CO2 Regulator/Tank for Nailers

By: Bob Ferguson

Bob Ferguson — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:16:18 +0000

I wrote to JacPac about the sealing problem, and was advised to place a second o-ring inside the regulator connector, flat across the bottom. I’ve tried this a couple of times now and it seems to work perfectly.

By: Can you use just regular compressed air out of an air compressor for paintball tanks?

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:34:05 +0000

[...] Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Hot or Not? Portable Compressed CO2 … [...]

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:17:00 +0000

Am I glad I found this thread–I was beginning to think I was imagining things! I bought the Kobalt CO2 Regulator at Lowes, and it has been very handy on a few of my small jobs, but the problems have FAR outweighed the benefits! I returned the first one I bought, because the knob broke, and wouldn’t shut the valve. Now, after less than a hundred nails with the replacement, I too can’t get a good seal between the bottle and the regulator. In addition, when I tried to attach a new bottle the other day, ALL the CO2 leaked out, before I even got to open the regulator. Is this a case of poor engineering, or is this operator error?

By: Bob Ferguson

Bob Ferguson — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:34:09 +0000

This is an extremely handy tool for me, but I have problems keeping a seal between the bottle and the regulator. The first unit I got worked great the first two or three times I used it. After that, I had serious leakage around the connection between the bottle and the regulator. I replaced the o-ring on the bottle as advised by the manual, but this had no effect. Eventually I returned the regulator to Lowes where they courteously gave me a replacement unit. My experience with the new one was identical: it worked fine the first time or two, but then started leaking badly. I don’t see any damage to the connectors, and have tried replacing o-rings repeatedly; even tried a different CO2 bottle. Has anyone else had this problem?

By: Gas Guru

Gas Guru — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:40:06 +0000

I just stumbled onto this thread and I felt the need to correct Mr. Santos. 1. CO2 is tough on regulators - I agree although if designed correctly the life expectancy of a CO2 regulator can be greatly extended to last for many years. Like a good nail gun, make the regulators fully rebuildable (see Power Tank) and this is not an issue. 2. Not all CO2 is is “dirty”. In fact, nearly all CO2 sold nowadays is acceptable to push beer and softdrinks which means it is food grade clean. 3. CO2 is not detrimental to o-rings. Read again how guys have been using homemade CO2 systems with their air tools for decades as I have without a single tool failure. I spoke with an Hitachi engineer and he had no issues with using CO2 in their guns. 4. CO2 is easily refilled and far safer to fill than HPA (high pressure air) as pressures are far lower (2k-4.5k psi vs. 800 psi). There is simple equipment available now that allows you to refill CO2 right on your tailgate. 5. We researched fiber wrapped tanks and they were found to be too fragile for our construction environment. It was too easy to chip the surface which forced the bottle out of service and at the high cost of this type of bottle ($150-$250) it was not worth the slight weight savings of a few ounces. And if I dropped the bottle from a ladder or roof I’d much rather drop a $40 low pressure CO2 bottle than a $150 high pressure HPA tank. Another advantage of CO2 over HPA was mentioned previously in this thread. This is that CO2 provides a constant bottle pressure which means you’ll get a more consistent nail shot without having to adjust your regulator. As far as mounting the gas botle to the gun, in my opinion adding 2 lbs. to my nailgun that I have to lift for hours at a time is 2 lb. too much. I prefer using a lightweight hose and carrying the 2-3 lb. on my belt.

By: MIke Santos

MIke Santos — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:27:32 +0000

OK guys, here we go. The real deal about Co2 powered pneumatics. Your equipment as well as the regulators will fail. There is no way to stop this. The constant freezing and thawing of seals as well as the, for lack of a better term “Dirty Gas” , makes failures inevitable. I am a certified airsmith in the paintball industry so i have delt with Co2 for many years. As you may have read in one of the earlier posts, the Liquid Co2 poses a serious threat. This guy isnt kidding. The liquid will destroy seals very very quickly as well as cause serious pressure spikes in output pressure if the regs are not high quality and Co2 friendly. No the things will not kill you. The tanks themselves will NOT rupture. They are rated FAR FAR FAR above the actual operationg temps of the gas used in them. If anything fails the gas will simply Vent from the failed seal or if a Co2 tank is over filled the burst disc (a one time use safty port) will blow and simply vent the gas. Yes it will be loud and will give you a cold burn if you are stupid enough to try to cover the venting liquid Co2 with your bare hand. ;oP If you are SEARIOUS about building a rig that will not fail and is easily refillable on the spot you should invest in HPA systems from the paintball industry. These are small 48, 68- 114cu inch tanks by volume and hold 3000-4500 psi of pressure. These puppies have tiny built in regulators cappable of regulating as low as 90 psi consistantly. All of the adjustable types sport 1/8th npt threads on the output side and are easily filled off of scuba tanks. These air systems are fiber wrapped vessels and the entire system weighs in at about 2 lbs. They are easily mounted to nailguns so there are NO hoses what so ever. Not even a tank on your back or side. I made a rig for my friend who does roofing. Imagine being able to nail upside down and not have to drag hoses around. No tripping hazards. The best thing about HPA systems when compared to the Co2 is that the gas is Clean. It will never hurt your guns/equipment. In fact it is far superioor than the air you use from a normal compressor which takes moisture from the atmosphere and stuffs it through your equipment. Scuba air or comprssed nitrogen (either will work in the systems i am describing and are readily available from Paintball and scuba shops accordingly) are completly dry. Anyhow… I guess i am done ranting. You can find these systems on ebay or any paintball retailer. Online simply search for Paintball Air system or Paintball HPA systems. If you have any questions you can try and reach me at taperunner4@yahoo.com I hope this helps someone… anyone… oh please because im tired of typing and if this was all for no reason at all im gonna shoot myself with my hoseless nailgun! :OD

Mike

By: CO2 Power for Pneumatic nailers - Page 4 - talkFestool

CO2 Power for Pneumatic nailers - Page 4 - talkFestool — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:10:01 +0000

[...] Re: CO2 Power for Pneumatic nailers Found a link to a forum discussing this thing. It actually raises a few more questions than it answers and there is more stuff here than I have time to read. [...]

By: Steve Anderson

Steve Anderson — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:31:19 +0000

guess i will buy that power tank outfit and let ya’ll know how it works out!

By: Steve Anderson

Steve Anderson — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:29:41 +0000

I have been through about 5 of these in one year. I am a commercial user, i carry 90lb of co2 in my truck. these regs are junk and somewhat dangerous as they fail and put a tremendous amount of pressure into the line. sometimes the “burst disc” on the line works, sometimes its the seals in your gun that save you. this is a tremendous idea, but i am looking for something safer!

By: jason

jason — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:42:42 +0000

possiblities of using this for occasional model airbrushing, any comments.

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:55:12 +0000

I bought the Kobalt a few days ago and used it this weekend to install base boards and crown molding in a 12″ x 12″ room. It worked very well but I do have some comments. Overall it is good for me - an occasional DIYer in a condo - but some lessons here. The back of the box lists the specs and capability, from a few hundred to many hundred nails on a 9 oz tank. I found that the 9 oz tank was good for only about 60-80 nails (not 675 as advertised). That got me through all the base board and 1/4 of the crown molding. I’m using a Porter Cable finish nailer with 16 gauge 2.5″ finish nails, at about 80 psi. Still new with the tool, I think I lost a small amount of pressure hooking up and unhooking the setup. It didn’t seem like much hiss at the time but 3-4 times (the initial playing around with a new toy, and then initial setup, breakdown overnight and set up the next morning) must have added up. Still it seems like too few nails. My lesson and recommendation is to preserve the gas and treat it like the finite resource that it is. Set it up quick with minimal pressure loss! (Also the instruction manual recommends a process to bleed the air out of the system prior to switching tools, and I did this for the overnight breakdown, but I must have lost at least 5% maybe 10% of capacity doing this!) Its probably a good idea to get two tanks and always have a full one as backup. Another observation is to watch the pressure. As you use the tool the pressure drops slightly and after ten nails you went from 80 psi to 60 or so and you have to dial up the regulator again. If you don’t notice the regulator then the half-sunk nails will remind you. A compressor will automatically repressurize. I seemed to do a lot of clean up with maybe 25% of the nails needing to be punched in with a hammer after I was done with the nailer. Lowes was helpful and switched out my tank easily when I ran back in the middle of my project. A new 9 oz is $25, and taking in the old one I got a rebate of $19, so it will be just $6 for a new 9oz tank in exchange from here on. They don’t refill it, they just swap it out. The new 20oz tank is $32 I think and so I might just switch up to that one next time. The size of the 9oz was OK and comfortable but going up and down a ladder with a rig swinging on your hip can be awkward in tight corners, especially with a nailer in one hand and a piece of molding in the other. At the end of the weekend I realize it is not quite all I hoped for but works well, simpler, quiet, and convenient as long as I have enough gas. I’ll definitely keep it and use it for finishing or furniture projects.

By: George F. Stiefel

George F. Stiefel — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:53:24 +0000

I bought one about a year ago and have found it indispensable for interior finish work (moulding). The only problem I have had with the unit is that the blue air hose blew out one day last week while just sitting there. I am now trying to find where to get another one. It works great and improves mobility 1000%. Getting the tanks refilled, though, is another issue. Here in Texas, Academy Sports refills the tanks. I just bought 8 more large tanks so that I don’t run out of gas before I get back to Academy. It sure beats the heck out of hoses and air compressors and it will run practically any air tool.

By: Something Better

Something Better — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:37:17 +0000

The Lowes unit is a nice little unit for the DIY user. I have one for research (already broke it though). The inexpensive regulator inside the plastic housing is a basic single stage diaphram design. They work well as long as they are working. The typical problem is that there are two main areas that fail; the seat weak seat assembly or the diaphram. Usually the seat assembly failure is due to minute debri contamination and often causes the daiphram to blow or it will blow the weakest downstream part (hose, tool, pressure release valve). A previous blogger mentioned his regulator not holding pressure. He has a bad seat assem. Once this happens your regulator must be exchanged or thrown away. Power Tank now offers a construction version of their popular automotive SuperFlow regulator that fits all CO2 bottles with a #323 (paintball style) bottle. We do NOT use a diaphram and our seat assemblies do not hold debri. There is also a built-in pressure release valve to protect any downstream components up to 200 PSI (typical max pressure of nail guns). http://www.powertank.com/products/sfID1/34/productID/223 Our Construction Series is truly designed by builders for professional builders and come with a limited lifetime warranty on the regulators. The link shows a hard case for our Sidearm Kit. This is now being replaced with a nylon tool bag which makes put-away time faster, lasts longer and fits easier in the Knack Box. It’s not as cheap as the Kobalt but will work like a Rigid.

By: Damon

Damon — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 04:38:18 +0000

Ok… this unit is designed to eliminate hauling a compressor around for projects or to sites, where a hundred shots takes care of business. It hold a lot more power than compressed air. I have moved my compressor hundreds of times, my back hurt just typing that, when I only need it for 30 shots. The co2 tank here is lighter than the combined weight of the three guns I bring with me…. You can probably get a 100 gallon tank for it but defeats the purpose of what this specific unit is all about. This is a compliment to a compressor!! If you are at a site for weeks, bring your compressor! If you are going to a site to do a days worth of trim or such, use your new co2 tank. It is similar to a cordless drill battery, sometimes I take one battery to a site, sometimes two, if I am going to do a lot of work with it I bring the charger….. (the charger would be your compressor in this case for those of you not following me) If you are dealing with heavy demand, bring that old plug in drill that can handle anything. Don’t expect to be sand/bead blasting or spraying a house with a freaking hip mounted co2 tank!!! This is an awesome addition to my two compressors, one is huge, one is small and now this! But it has it’s place! Embrace it’s particular beauty if you are tired of moving a compressor for a day of work!!!

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 04:56:40 +0000

Actually you could use ANY scuba tank the same way for much less. You could go anywhere from a 5000psi interspiro spun composite tank that holds 100cuft which are incredibly light, or scuba tank from 120 down to 13 cuft at 3000 psi. Both first stage regulators can be easily detuned down to 75 - 100 psi for pneumatic tool usage.

It’s what I used when I first set myself up in the trim business. I had just quit teaching scuba and same shop where I taught to this day (8 years later) gives me free air fills which is nice. But to buy would be around $6. A standard 80 would last my 18 gauge nailer all week. Air leaks are a definate killer of any such system.

BTW, the 5000 psi system mentiones would have to be filled at your local firestation. Most will do it as long as the tank has a current hydro and visual inspection for just a small donation to the department.

By: James

James — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:47:49 +0000

environazi, #### you. Plants need CO2 to live. You have no evidence to support your statement. CO2 is a naturally occuring compound, you dumb ####. If you’re so concerned with someone’s CO2 output, go kill yourself. And don’t post crap like that on benign websites. There’s some material for your blog.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:08:45 +0000

I’m new to the C02 idea, but it sounds great. I only use my compressor on occassion, and was wondering if I just unscrew the cannister from the regulator between sessions, or if it needs to stay connected? How long will the C02 last, or will it leak out once you’ve used it to nail a few things?

By: Stuart

Stuart — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:58:07 +0000

Free air swaps is a pretty convincing way to get more people to buy the CO2 system! When I checked my local store a few months ago, they had an offer to bring back empty tanks for a ~75% discount on a new one.

By: Donald

Donald — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 14:32:02 +0000

I’m getting the Kobalt Portable Compressed CO2 Regulator in a few weeks. Was check specs at Lowe’s, and cost of re-filling tanks. Our Lowe’s will swap the empty tank for a full tank at no charge! I was very surprized, the manager said it was an option all Lowe’s had, but only the smaller ones were doing it.
Another thing to keep in mind - air tools need oil. Might be good idea to attach a portable oiler at the end of the air line. I can’t wait till I have one. It will help a great deal around the farm.

By: nick.r

nick.r — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:48:09 +0000

i also play paintball and am suprised nobody has mentioned the hp nitro tanks that eveybody uses in paintball nowadays. i use a 68 cubic inch carbon fiber tank that can be filled with compressed air or nitrogen and will hold 4500 PSI of air, alot! you get no liquid in your tools and can be filled for free or at the most $3 at any scuba shop or fire dept. it is regulated at the bottle to 700 psi, same as co2, same threads as co2. its the way to go.

By: Seth.R

Seth.R — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 06:27:34 +0000

for all those wondering about spray painting.I don’t think it would have the volume and probably would freeze up the gun and paint.

By: Nismo812

Nismo812 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:14:49 +0000

I help run a paintball setup at a summer camp. This would be a great addition for anyone who doesn’t want the combersome use of luging around a compreaasor for medium to small jobs.

To fill our paintball tanks we lease a 50lb tank from a welding supply co. for $80 a year then buy the contents (the CO2) for $20 each time we need it refilled. with this all I need do is refill the small tanks myself for the paintball guns. Same thing as the nailgun tanks for this kit.

CO2 is different than compressed air because it shrinks alot when compressed and expands alot more when released. Therefore you get alot of shot from one 20oz tank (around 1500) and the same number of nail shots with the nailgun setup.

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 22:33:35 +0000

Hey guys… Has anyone had any trouble with the regulator not sealing all of the way. I have had two of the regulators do this and i am very conserned. The first time an in-line pressure gauge read over 160psi which is the max pressure the gauge read to and the regulator was supposedly closed. I returned it and got a new one but is starting to do the same thing only slower. If you havn’t had trouble with it i would suggest using a pressure gauge st some point in the line so you know the exact pressure. Other wise this is an extreamly cool product. I have three 9oz tanks and a 24oz tank the i can have filled at Academy Sport and Outdoors for $2 for the 9oz and like $3.50 for the 24oz. I’m using it with pneumatic potato cannons and it works great.

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 03:56:27 +0000

I work at a welding shop which also has a fire extinguisher and paintball line of items which I deal with. We have been using CO2 for a long time on 15-20lb CO2 tanks with our framing nailer. It works great and it is so much more quieter. These new systems are pretty slick looking. We have smaller cryogenic CO2 tanks at our shop. We use these to mostly fill smaller 100, 50, 20, 15, 10, and 5lb CO2 tanks. When filling CO2 is transferred in a liquid form. So therefore it is done by weight. Weigh the cylinder you are filling when it is empty, add the tank size weight and that is the weight you fill it to.

By: Voice of Reason

Voice of Reason — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:38:48 +0000

CO2 is taken from the atmosphere hence there is no net gain or loss from the atmosphere. It’s also reasonably easy to obtain so less energy is used to obtain it than other gasses as Stuart suggests.

Just goes to show that people who have no grasp of science and/or engineering should just shut up about the environment before they break something.