Those of you who have air compressors How do you run your set-up? I only have a 25gallon compressor, but dont intend to get crazy with air for now anyway. My intentions are to spray primer, maybe some small parts,(if its not too much of a hassel otherwise i'd just grab a few rattle cans) inflate basketballs etc and to use it for upholstery items like pneumatic staplers spraying contact cement etc. but I know nothing about these things at all. I hearing about seperate gauges and regulators etc so i'm confused... Don't wanna jack it up...
For what your using it for I would say a water/ Air seperator comming off the tank into a regulator with your hose hooked to it should work just fine. Mine is a 70 gal 2 stage comp. w/5HP motor bolted to the floor with rubber isolator pads. I sand blast and run a media cabinet as well as all the other garage related stuff with a simular(but bigger) seperator/ regulator set up. I also have a oiler I can out in line for some of the tools. I never run out of air.
I have a 60-gallon upright. I have a seperate regulator and water seperater that I can plug inline if I need to paint anything. Otherwise it's mostly for D/A sanding, impact wrenching and tire inflation. -Josh
I have a two hundred gallon industrial unit in it's own outdoor shed with full hard lines, 4 quick release outlets with moisture bleeds in my two car garage. Maybe I went too far? o No: :grin:
Definatley use an oil/water seperator, even if you dont paint anything, water will ruin air tools! Make sure you run the seperator at least 12-15 feet downline from the compressor, DONT run it right off the tank, by running it downstream of the compressor tank, you give the hot compressed air a chance to cool and any condensation will be caught by the seperator:TU:
I use an air dryer from a big truck. You can buy one cheap at a truck junk yard, and replace the cartridge. Another option is to use an a/c condensor. Eastwood tool catalogs have some useful info on setting up a compressor.
When it comes to air compressors , buy as big as you can possibly afford and then some more... you wont be sorry.... but something is better than nothing... there is a lot of smaller compressors out there that will get you by... and you can hook them to a larger tank to keep from working them to death... and it is easy to build plastic lines and water traps in those lines... it takes at least 90# to run air tools with at least a 20 gal tank... but once you start using air tools there aint no coming back.... remember , initially buy untill it hurts like a kidney stone....:Brow: :laugh:
anyone use a DIY Franzinator water separator? http://z6.invisionfree.com/ToolBoxTalk/index.php?showtopic=1461 curious.
Yeah me too, next time I need to paint something I'm coming to your place! :beer I have a craftsman 6hp 30 gal. does everything I as of it so far. Ive been thinking of getting a air plumbing like Garage Pak http://www.garage-pak.com/ Kits seem reasonably priced too. I have friends that have run soldered copper lines and that seems to work well too. Ive heard to stay away from doing it with white pvc pipe as if that ruptures it can splinter and be pretty dangerous.
Except when you get a leak or crack.Then you have downtime to fix.:af: I've allways just used goodyear hose,it's never failed & you can move it if needed.
I made the mistake of buying a Sears oiless type compressor some years ago, fortunately I was able to sell it, you could hear the thing a block away!!
Back in the day we'd poach a compressor out of mom's worn out refrigerator; hook it to a couple of old purged propane tanks; turn on the compressor and go watch cartoons for a 35 minutes while the twin five gallon tanks filled. Return to tha garage to run a die grinder or impact wrench for two or three minutes. Return to cartoons for 35 more minutes while the tanks recharged. Damn, those were the days...
haha funny you should mention that. growing up I remember that's all dad had too. That thing would blow up a tire on the car, blow up balloons, blow the pipes out of the cabin when closing it down for the winter so they would not freeze and more.
