A cooling mod for those OG Aldi airbrush compressor kits from a while back and/or any of the other clones out there.

While there is a reservoir of air to use the pump still turns on frequently to replenish tank, so it ends up getting quite hot.
Not enough to trigger a thermal shutdown but wow does it get too hot to touch...

This thing will add a place for a 60mm PC fan on the Piston end and motor end of the air compressor. One good thing about the piston cooling shroud design is it won't be messing with the screws holding the gasket down. And overall design keeps everyhing neat and concise apart from the wire coming out and in from the piston end fan.

MAKE SURE ALL POWER IS DISCONNECTED BEFORE WORKING ON ANY OF THE ELECTRONICS!!!
iF YOU'RE NOT COMFORTABLE MESSING WITH MAINS WIRING - DO NOT ATTEMPT!!
And certainly don't blame me if something goes up in smoke! You've been warned.

Now take apart everything!

• Remove the pump from the tank,
• The metal pipe from the pump to the tank,
• The two plastic end caps on the pump
  • you should see the electrical innards

Piston End parts needed:

• 12v 60mm PC fan - connectors removed
• 60mm fan grill
• 4x Fan screws or M5 8mm screws
• 4x M4 screws
• Print the Piston Shroud and 2x Clips

Piston End Assembly:

• Install the PC fan and Grill into the Piston Shroud
• Slide on the shroud onto piston end heatsink
  • Make sure your airbrush compressor has the same fins otherwise this part might not fit - check the photos
• Screw in the side clips
• Feed through the fan wires through the side slots until it makes it though the other end of the aircompressor pump housing. This will connector to AC-DC board in the pump shroud.

Pump Shroud and Cradle parts needed:

• 12v 60mm PC fan - connectors removed
• 4x Fan screws or M5 8mm screws
• M5 screws and nuts
  • I ran out of really longs ones so had to make do with 8 shorter ones
• 200mm+ stainless-steel pipe OD=8mm ID=7mm
• smallest AC to 12v DC converter circuit you can find
  • You only need up to 5w possibly even less as long it can power up to 2 PC fans
  • You can grab cheapo ones from AliExpress or similar
• Print the cradle and pump shroud.

Optional:

• Air pressure regulator
  Search for a "1/4NPT air compressor regulator" if you want one
• Rubber from an old bicycle inner tube

Pump Shroud and electronics Assembly:

• Drop in and attach the PC fan to the shroud
  • airflow will blow into the pump (or out, I haven't tried this way tho)
• Feed the wires through the hole
• Connect your AC to DC converter to the existing Mains wires
  • Ensure the PCB is insulated with some electrical tape or heatshrink!
• Solder the Fan to the AC-DC converter
  • And the Piston end fan as well
• Make sure everything is electrically isolated with tape or heatshrink
• Attach the Shroud and one of the original plastic end cap to the pump with the M4 screws
  • Plug it in and test!

Cradle and extended pipe Assembly:

• Get the tank, cradle and pump lined up and measure out the require length and cut the pipe to size.
• You can stick done some rubber on the tank before you attach the cradle if you want
• insert the all the bits and pieces for extended pipe at same time as cradle and pump.
• Put in the M5 screws and nuts and tighten down everything!

And that should be it!
Fans will start spinning as soon as you switch on the pump and provide constant cooling.
Should be the final design - unless someone has other sugguestions or improvements.
Post a Make if you made one!

Note:
Adjust any cuts for screws/pipes to your air compressors dimensions!
For the AC-DC converter I ended up with an AC-DC 5v@700ma little board which was then wired to a DC-DC buck converter to 12v.
PC fans I had were 60x60x30 [email protected] - so total power was about 2W and maybe <= 0.5w from the DC-DC buck converter.

Edit:
01/09/2024 - Typos and corrections - M3s were suppose to be M4 screws
08/09/2024 - Update summary and added the piston end cooling instructions. Turns out you really need two fans to keep this thing cool.