Air Compressor & Air Tools

[Tom Wells]

Hi Mike,

one month past the warranty!

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be sure to put waaay more than 5 hours on mine before the year is up

Tom

[Ken Greene]

Originally posted by rdorman


But how do I deal with the electical issue?????????????

HELP!!!!!!

Rick

ok what wire gauge did you use?
but most likly you will need to dig a new trench and install a propper sub panel in the garage with new wire from teh House to feed it. Then you can have 240V at a high enough amperage to run a 240v compressor and have lights and 110 plugs.

and while the trench is open lay 2 2inch conduits of "others"
2 Coax cable and 2 cat5e cables to start
but of course I'm doing that

[rdorman]

What gauge should I have used? I will check it when I get home.

A new trench is NOT an option. There is now 50+ of concrete to go under, a drainage system and 125 feet of yard.

Can I take one of the existing curcuit, change it to 220 and then split it to 220 and 110 when it gets to the garage? What about the fact that I buried 4 conductor wire and not 3 conductor wire?

Thanks
Rick

[Ken Greene]

When i put power into my Shop (woodworking) I used 6 gauge wire to run 100 feet from my main panel to install a 100 amp sub panel. I seriously doubt you ran that for what you are describing.

On the New Garage I am planning (hoping) to build myself next summer i will be running the same size wire if not larger for a 100 amp service there. But i will be also Upgrading my main service to handle the higher load.

[zipzip]

If the gage works out (my guess for 20A would be 8 or 10 ga) I'd say split the light circuit off and make it 220, rewire the lights at the garage end and splice them into the outlet circuit (making 20A circuit to cover lights and outlets), then you'll have one wire running 220 and one running 110. Get a 220 breaker and pop it into your panel, then connect to it (hot, hot, neutral, & ground)

This from a mechanical engineer...so proceed with caution.

[Ken Greene]

standard for 20 amp circuit is 12 gauge

[dkoepper]

Air tools are great if you area going to do hte same thing over and over, ie, remove and replace lug nuts if you work in a tire store. They won't give you much advantage for general mechanic work, and they are not as cheap as regular hand tools.

[Jerry Chabino]

Guys,

I have a question. My compressor has a 6 ft 3/8 hose on it now.
I want to increase the hose to either 25 or 50 ft. Should I jump up to a 1/2" hose? My new impact wrench directions say to go to 1/2" with the last part near the wrench cut down to 3/8"

[SkipB]

You might want to check out the CFM rating on any compressor you buy. One of the main reasons people have problems with compressors is they get caught up in HP and GAL ratings and ignore the CFM. Each tool you use has a CFM rating. Make sure you buy enough capacity to run your tools. This is especially true for paint guns! Many HVLP guns need 15-20CFM and it is rare to find a home compressor that has that rating.

In addition, put some kind of water trap on your air line. It will only be effective several feet away from the compressor, but it will help save your tools!

[rdorman]

After much deliberation and reading I have settled on a compressor. Campbell Hausfeld 7 horse 60 gallon 135 PSI twin cast iron pump, 240 volt, 10.3 SCFM at 90PSI and 11.8 SCFM @ 40 PSI. $400 at Lowes. Harbour frieght has a similar (if not the same model) for about the same price.

Sears has what appears to be a good sale now on a compressor. Same specs as the Campbell unit EXCEPT it is a two stage, direct drive oiless unit with 9.6 and 9.0 SFCM respectively. Now $449. The two stage really interested me but the direct drive and oiless did not.

Rick

[rdorman]

Well I ended up buying the Sears 30 gallon, 6.5 horse vertical compressor that comes with a 1/2" impact, 3/8" ratchet, air hammer and one of those stupid coil hoses for $297. It is noisy but not to the point of being painful! For the home garage, if you are not going to paint a whole car and do major body work it will work just fine. Plenty of CFM to run a small paint gun like a HVLP touch up gun for small projects or a small blaster. You do need to watch the CFM rating on some of the more air consuming tools such as grinders, DA sanders and paint guns but over all a very good value. I have run the air tools that came with it, air nailers and a small die grinder and it doesn't really even break a sweat. It is ready to run out of the box the only thing I would buy on top of it is a real hose, air line filter and oiler. The regualtor is built in to the unit so no need to buy one. I may eventually mount a box with some sound deading material (and proper venting) over top the motor to reduce the sound level a bit. I would compare the noise output to a push mower or a roto drill.
Rick

[David Kirkham]

Rick,

I think you will be happy with what you have purchased. We have a 7 hp unit here we use as an emergency backup and for running our lathes and mills overnight when we are cutting aluminum parts. We ahve not had a problem with it, except it is very loud.

You will find the larger air hoses do wonders to make tools work better. They are, however, much more difficult to deal with.

As for air ratchets, we almost universally use the mini 3/8 air ratchet. (The one that was designed for use with the 1/4 tools but with a 3/8 head.) You will not use very much 1/4 drive sockets and such on a car and a 1/4 to 3/8 adapter on a 1/4 drive air ratchet will drive you crazy as it will never stay on.

I know a lot of guys who just mount the air compressor outside their garage to cut down on the noise.

One thing about air lines. I have seen a lot of people use PVC to make thier air lines...that makes me nervous. I wonder if anyone here has ever done it. I just wouldn't want to accidentally hit the pipe and have it shatter. I guess PVC typically doensn't shatter. Anyone have any suggestions?

Congrats on the purchase. You will wonder what you ever did without one.

David

[rdorman]

Thanks David. I bought a 3/8" hose for it and we will see how it does. So far, I really enjoy using it. Now if I could just get the darn house project done (moving the stair case to the third floor), then I could start using it more on its intended use, the garage

Setting it in another room is a good idea. I have an attached storage area that I could place it in. Pipe. I was planning on running black pipe for distribution with traps and upward facing air points at various places in the garage. Nothing fancy, 90's with caps for the water traps, quick disconnects at the compressor before the filter and oiler and at the drops. That sort of thing.

I think the 3/8 ratchet it came with was termed a 'mini' ratchet. I know it only produces about 40 ft/lbs of torque. Now the impact wrench, that is a different story! I think it is rated at 450 ft/lbs.

I wanted to post here to let others know about my experience with the topic. Seems to me that to often some one will ask a question about something, make the decision and the purchase. But then not come back and let the rest of us know how it worked out. I wish more people would take a moment and go back to the thread and let us know the results.

Rick

[David Kirkham]

Rick,

We love the mini ratchet because it is not so noisy and it won't overtorque anything. Because we use lock nuts EVERYWERE I hate running them down by hand. (It works really well on the rusty, crappy bolts as well.) I couldn't live without the 3/8 mini ratchet...so much, in fact, I just ordered 3 more.

MAKE SURE YOU PUT CUT OFF VALVES EVERYWHERE YOU CAN THINK OF--ESPECIALLY ON THE TANK ITSELF.

We plumb the tank so the first thing the air goes through is the cut off valve. We immediately convert everything to 37 degree JIC and don't use pipe threads anywhere we can help it. If you do have to use pipe threads, I really don't recommend the teflon tape as it is useless. Buck up and buy some Loctite, (hydraulic lock works wonders), and put a couple of drops on the threads and never worry about a leak again. Use teflon tape at your own risk--usually that of your sanity. (I even use the stuff on the home water pipes. Never had a leak in 10 years--home or the shop!)

When something blows up, as usually does, having all of that air explode out at once can blow out your ears, so make sure you put in the cut off valve. Any problem and boom, we hit a valve and don't waste all of our air or our brains. We use the knife ball valves so you only have to turn them 1/4 turn to turn them off. I highly recommend the valves.

Congrats and have a great time with the garage...a fun time with the stairs is optional.

David

[ToyCollector]

Since my air plumbing was all done behind the wall and installed by me, I did galvanized pipe with cut-off valve as David mentions right outside the compressor, then into water dryer/filter. All my ends are low points from the main run and will eventually all have dryers on them as well.

[rdorman]

Good thoughts. It never even occurred to me to use flare fittings. I to hate teflon tape. I use the liquid stuff. I also use the 1/4 turn ball shut off valves when I run plumbing but once again, it didn't occur to me to put them in the lines!
Thanks
Rick

[Lowell W]

What is 37 degree JIC?

[trularin]

It is like a 45 only 37 degrees.

I understand that it was either the militery or inudstry that wanted to be different, so they use 37 over 45. You should NOT interchange the two, the connection will leak.

Fastenall carries both fittings.

Hope this helps.

[David Kirkham]

37 degree JIC (Joint Industrial Council) is the standard flare fitting for the military and all Earls, Aeroquip, Russel, etc.

BE CAREFUL

SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) and JIC are NOT interchangable. The threads are the same on some sizes (dash 3) and different on others (dash 12).

We don't use the SAE stuff.

David

[David Kirkham]

Now for those of you who want to really blow your mind...

There are too many fluid fitting sizes.

37 degree JIC
45 degree SAE
Metric
British Standard (still used believe it or not)
Tube (yes, tube flare fittings)
NPT (National Pipe Thread) an abortion which should be avoided at all costs
o-ring boss--really cool, relatively new stuff that doesn't leak.
Don't forget all the inverted male, female stuff...


Yes, all the threads are different and none of them are interchangeable. It is enough to drive you nuts. You get used to it after you work with it.

I highly recommend Carroll Smith's plumbing book to all.

David