I think Wayne's idea of bottled gas would be *really* quiet if it's
low-enough volume. :-)
I was going to suggest a dentist's air compressor. I call it that
because my brother-in-law has an air compressor taken from a dentist's
office like nothing I've ever seen. The entire compressor is smaller
than the size of the air tank on the tiny single-horizontal tank
portable Campbell-Hausfield compressors you see at H-D. It's a six (not
a typo) cylinder compressor, with three cylinders each oriented radially
at each end of the thing, perpendicular to its axis. Looks like two
tiny three-cylinder radial airplane engines stuck on either end of a
bench grinder.
It's oil filled, and the thing is damn near silent. It's so
kewl-looking that I asked him where he got it and he said it came out of
a dentist's office (he's the master of finding stuff like that). I'm
not sure how much air it puts out--I'm inclined to think not much from
its size, but then again, there are six cylinders and I'll bet they're
spinning pretty fast. It looks like it's built for action, and it also
looks like it's at least fifty years old, so I imagine it's durable.
I think I'll try to buy it from him, just to have it in the shop. It's
that cool. Like an old Honda 250-6 GP engine.
Anyway, no idea where you'd get one.
Huh. I just Googled it, and I don't see any that look like his, but
Googling "Dentist air compressor" got me several places that advertise
quiet air compressors if nothing else.
Good luck.
Scott
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