The SMT50 requires it own compressed air supply. It's definitely a bit of a downside with it; it's not like I have a compressor kicking around my place. I suppose one advantage is that I could buy the quietest compressor I could rather than put up with whatever was built-in (which might be noisy). I ended up purchasing the California Air Tools CAT-1610A Ultra Quiet compressor from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/California-Air-Tools-376-Accessory/dp/B008FCSQ1U) for about $200. This might be overkill. The machine is speced for 60psi, but the compressor will do twice that; but I wanted quiet and this looked like the best choice. You can go with a medical compressor which I'm told are virtual silent. That seemed a little overkill given the 5x price tag for things.

You then have to connect the compressor to the machine. This was bizarrely difficult. The compressor has a female 1/4" NPT coupler, so you need a 1/4" male NPT connector to 8mm. This was surprisingly hard to find. Buying a male NPT to female screw connector was easy, but finding a male to 8mm pipe connector was a nightmare. I tried two different Home Depot store plus my local Ace Hardware and the I never found the correct part. What I wanted was a connector where you simply push the 8mm hose into one end, and screw the other part into the NPT adaptor. I could only find such a thing on eBay (like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/260506833459). I believe there are other connectors called "Hose Barbs" and they might work well if you can find the correct size. I never did.

Below are the final connector pieces joined together, then with the air hose from the machine attached, and finally with the hose plugged into the air compressor.