Upgrade - Shop Air - Quality 60-80gal compressors?

It may be time to define terms. An air drier will dry air by reducing the water vapor available to the point where it will not condense in to liquid water for the intended use. Here's the catch, water vapor changes into water liquid when the dew point is reached. Cool the air and the dew point will be reached at some point, the drips on your cold beer can. When the pressure is rapidly reduced at the point of use, cooling takes place. The same system that most refrigerators use. So even if you use a water separator trap there will still be water vapor in the line that will condense at the point of use. Does it matter? Not for many things. BUT bearings in air tools, air cylinders and controls, painting... are all affected, none for the better.
 
projectnut said:
I think the era of pneumatic saws, drills, and such has come and gone. . . . . I think they have been by in large replaced by electrics in production situations, and battery powered electrics at the shop level.
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Yes, No, Maybe.

No, I haven't seen an air-powered circular saw in a long while
Yes, air powered grinders, cut-offs, drills, impact guns, torque guns are still very common. Because air tools can be smaller and more powerful and torque-controlled, they're still very common in shop environments.

In production lines, it depends upon access, frequency and size/speed. If an assembler is crawling inside a car body to work under the dash, he's probably putting in fasteners with a battery tool If he's standing beside the chassis, it's probably an air tool.

We're even still using one old air hoist which refuses to give up.

jack vines
 
Last home built unit had a 4 cyl single stage with 5hp on a horizontal tank.

Worked well but have a need "sometimes" for more than120 psi.

Problem with operating tank pressure in the optimum single stage pressure is the cut in pressure is below good operating pressure for many devices so the speed and power varies.

Wished we would have kept the pump and motor as we could have mounted it and used the tank on the big one, but that would take space and the money was too good to pass.

Other issue with single stage is almost all are built to price point, and that is consumer retail.

Lower grade everything.

Commercial units are built to work, all day, every day.

Price can be close, ours was cheaper as there was local competition and it was end of year sale.

It still looks and works like new at 12 or so years old and will out live us and the grand kids

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
I used two "A" coils from a house air conditioner system to fabricate a water separator. Have not had water in my lines since. Works great. My friend saw what I did and ended up fabricating one for him too, although he got fancy and used a timer to auto-drain his separator.
 
Heres a cheap solution to the tank issue - convert a water heater tank:


Just joking. There isn't a chance on the planet I'd want that bomb in my garage. Holy cow. The compressor tank I have now is scary enough...
 
Keith Rucker hydro tests a tank. Maybe the hot water heater would work, if tested.
 
Larry$ said:
Keith Rucker hydro tests a tank. Maybe the hot water heater would work, if tested.
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Interesting idea. That isn't a bad idea to try. We have a small electric pressure washer. I am not sure if I can adapt it to get it on the tank to pressurize it, but it might be worth a try. I would think any pressure washer would be well over the pressure of an air compressor.
 
I'm not sure I would ever trust a hot water heater. Municipal water pressure is usually in the 65 psi to 95 psi range. When we built our current house we were only the second or third in the subdivision. We were considering having an irrigation system installed so we called a couple vendors to get estimates. They came out and tested the water pressure (we are directly down hill of the water tower), and found it to be 125 psi. They all cautioned they would need to install a pressure regulator and also mentioned the high pressure would shorten the life of the water heater.

We didn't give it much thought, and decided not to go with the irrigation system due to the cost. Things went on as normal for a few years. When we came home from a vacation about 5 years later we found we didn't have any hot water. I went down to the basement to find the tank had a 12" crack about 2/3 the way up on the tank. Fortunately the escaping water had drowned out the burner, and shut off the gas.

The next water heater we installed included a pressure regulator at the inlet. That one lasted over 20 years. We're now on the third water heater, but since the subdivision is now complete the regulator is no longer necessary. Water pressure hovers in the 80 psi to 90 psi range depending on water use.

I like the idea of pressure testing. I have 2 pressure washers. The smaller one is capable of 2,200 psi, and the larger is capable of 3,200 psi. The smallest one I've seen is capable of 1,200 psi. The big difference is in the GPM output. The smaller ones are usually around 1 GPM to 1.3 GPM while the largest commercial ones I've seen can put out over 10 GPM. Depending on output it could take 8 minutes, or 80 minutes to fill the tank.
 
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