Quote Originally Posted by robinghewitt View Post
If I ever want to off myself then it's nitrogen for me. The thing that makes the nitrogen leak so dangerous is that you don't realise you are dying. It is like turning off the oxygen on a rebreather, you just fade away. This was demonstrated on TV by Jonathan Miller, in the days before political correctness, so we would all know how to off ourselves painlessly. Be sure to leave a note on the door.

I use it for the plasma cutter because it is dry, something that plasma cutters really seem to appreciate for some reason known only to plasma cutters and plasma cutter geeks. Perhaps air guns would also prefer dry? It is also very cheap
I guess the "dryness" is a feature of the molecular sieve removing the H2O molecules as well as the O2 etc. Certainly dry air is preferable for anything mechanical and metal working at fine tolerances, like scuba regulators and PCP airguns.
Even well maintained diving compressors leave the air dry enough to cause students to complain of dry mouths and dehydration induced cramps as they inhale dry air and exhale moist.
Funnily enough, that is another of the advantages of rebreathers: you get to inhale warm moist air as a by-product of the chemical reaction of the CO2 scrubber unit.