Air Compressor Set-up

[jpearson]

I need a little help with an air compressor set-up. I just got an Ingersol Rand 5 hp, 60 gal, 2 stage compressor. I have never had a compressor before and this is all new to me. I am getting more and more involved in a car project and felt this would help things along. I will be using the compressor to run a small blast cabinet and eventually painting.
The compressor is located in a small shed off the back of my garage. I am not planning on an elaborate plumbing set-up. My thought was a high pressure rubber hose coming from the compressor, through the wall into the garage and connected to a regulator/filter and dryer then to a quick connect.

1. What I am very unsure about is the sizes of fittings. I was thinking of using 3/4 inch high pressure hose from the compressor to the regulator - should that be adequate?

2. I have looked at a few cheap regulator/filter combos at HF. My concern is that these have 3/8 inch intake/outputs and their inline dryers are 1/4 inch intake and output. Are these going to constrict my airflow too much? I don't want to loose too much because the compressor by itself is going to be barely adequate for blasting. Any recommendations on filter/regulator/dryers - I don't want to spend much more than $150 for these and less would be better.

3. I am going to plan on 1/2 hose between the quick connect and the blast cabinet - sound good?

My other concern is air intake for the compressor. The shed that it's located in is rather small (6x8 footprint with a sloped ceiling that is 7 foot at the highest point and about 4 foot at the lowest point) - way less than the recommended 1000 cubic foot per hp - so I am considering running an air intake for outside air. This would be about 6 feet long. What is the best air intake set-up? What type of pipe and what diameter? Is there a flexible pipe I can use to keep the set-up simple?

Thanks in advance for the help.
Josh

 

[Zeke]

Most air tools are set up for 1/4" fittings. 1/4" is good for all your free lines. 3/8" is industrial strength. No particular reason to use that in what you describe, but no reason not to either. but once beyond the dryer and filter, I'd stay with all 1/4 lines and fittings.

If you decide to some day put in some hard lines, 1/2 is great and fed with 3/8ths soft line. 3/4" is outrageously big.

 

[sberry]

I got to agree, a 1/2 feed from the comp to a reg is sufficient, will allow to drain that unit quite quickly with sand blast or good size rotary tools. Only reasons to really have 3/4 is unusually long runs or heavy shop where there were hi burst demands, 1 inch impacts etc. You put a DA sander on that with a common 3/8 air line from the reg and see how long it takes before that comp is trying to **** wind, will quickly deliver more to the tool than it can recover.

 

[sberry]

About 4 cfm per 6A of current draw. As for ports and filters the 3/8 stuff will be adequate. I have a couple regs where the taps are 1/4 and they work fine. The fittings are short, reduces overall line friction and a separator that is too big is as good as none at all. The air velocity going thru is too slow for them to work right.

 

[sberry]

You could feed this 3/8 hose from the comp to the regulator and to 3/8 hose and not loose a lick of performance due to the 3/8 right from the tank. Its coming to the reg at higher pressure, if you want to avoid restriction in all this regulate at point of use (like LP gas) and shorten or up size line after the regulator. Thats what I do, plug a 1/2 hose in at the reg if I want to blast or run heavy impact. By the time the hose size between the tank and the reg becomes any kind of resistance of any significance the tank pressure has dropped and you are out of air anyway. Comp will be running and cant make it fast enough.
Here is the simple of simple, feeds a hose reel out doors. Added a chuck so it could be tapped inside the building if needed, have a hose reel that reaches, have used it about twice.

 

[sberry]

Here is a little more sophisticated version. If you enlarge the second pic you can see that the black hose is incoming high pressure, to the filter which has a chuck you could potentially tap hi tank pressure, then to regulator that feeds several circuits. 3 hose reels and 2 drops/whips down each side of hoist.

 

[sberry]

Then I have this addition, a reel for paint, fed from the reg in previous to a small reg and filter where I can reach it with paint gun in hand, I think I added a tap eventually in the second pic, can plug in a whip for some reason.
I think I went from one scheme to another in that and after I did it I realize I could have used about half the beam clamps but it was all out of the way nicely. I would modify a bit if I was doing it again, but it works and wont make me no more money. A great thing about plumbing and electric, you can CHANE if it it doesn't work right.
I see a couple business guys with shops, a tire shop comes to mind, Great place but the utilities **** and just grind men to a bone. The air hose and the water hydrant must have been there 20 yrs ago when he bought it, same limp, dim joint behind a good showroom. Even at low labor prices it still takes an extra man just because the air and a couple tools they use constant ****.
I realize it doesn't have to be poster perfect but its so obvious that you would think college type smart salesman owner guy would realize what a drag a couple infrastructure items are.
Its hard to comprehend the actual fear of moving some machine to make it easier, I have fallen in to the trap of thats where it always was but electric and air isn't one size fits all, I spend a few extra minutes or an hour tailoring it for convenience, some business use it at levels that its beyond inconvenient but if I can figure out how to pipe or wire my way out of a repetitive problem I am all over it especially if it represents some kind of permanent solution.

 

[sberry]

This one has since had a couple plumbing changes but the principle is the same, when the door is open for summer work it swings outside, feeds inside.
There is a second one, hose is stiff but works great for the place it is at, about 50$ at Walmart one day and there is a chuck before it that one can always hook nicer whip on. With the manual rewind like that rapid reel get a 100 ft reel and put 50 ft of good rubber line on it. You don't have to be fussy about ****** it up to get it all on, I just as soon have a manual as a retractable really.
I have a Bud in the auto biz that tripped over a lot of air hose in his day all for the price of not taking the time to install a reel and a couple hydrants in the right place.
I got about 3 whips I use plumbed in, one for my bench and a couple for the hoist. They are the right length to hang up and I don't like plugging and unplugging hoses in hydrants, I like to plug the tool into a line.
For longer hoses,,, well you can hang them up in a minute too but even if its only psychological reels are nice, nothing worse than a pipe of twisted air hose on the floor because it didn't get put away. I finally came to the point one shiny day and realized it was time to round up half a dozen reels and quit fighting about 75% of that battle by plumbing the problems out of it. Until a guy has them he doesn't realize what a difference a reel or 2 makes. I use a couple dozen air tools regular and check half a dozen sets of tires weekly. The convenience adds up in a hurry.

 

[jpearson]

Thanks for all the input it was very helpful. Any thoughts on air intake for the compressor?

 

[J Persons]

Thanks for all the input it was very helpful. Any thoughts on air intake for the compressor?

If the air intake filter is one of those cheap plastic foam filters, you can usually change it out for a better Solberg. On my CH compressor, the intake port was threaded for 1/2NPT, so a better filter was easy to adapt. I used this filter from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001538IJG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[GarageEnvy]

You don't have to be fussy about ****** it up to get it all on,.

We have very different ideas on what to use your air compressor and hose for. Is that even legal?