Air Tools Clogging

[bpankratz]

Hi, I wanted to see if any of you have experienced this. At work we have a 60 gal upright compressor. Its a cheap one not sure on the name. When using my orbital sander, it will seem to "clog up" and not want to spin. Shortly after that it seems to "shoot" something out the exhaust and continue on normally. My colleague experinced this as well when using the die grinder for extended periods.

We do not have an air dryer, and the air is coming out quite wet. It doesn't feel like it is water clogging it though.

 

[cvairwerks]

Drain the compressor tank first thing. If the drain is on a plug on the side of the tank, the internal hose to the tank bottom has come off and you have a huge amount of condensate to get rid of.

 

[Bruce Amacker]

Probably rust on the inside of the air lines (pipes). Lots of fixes for this but none are cheap (dryers, filters, sediment bowls, sediment tanks). With the main shutoff valve at the compressor turned off (lines not pressurized) wrench out the farthest QD from the compressor, then open the main valve up momentarily. You'll see a massive cloud of rust shoot out of the hole. Use common sense doing this- nobody standing nearby. This might give you temporary relief from the problem and help save your tools.

 

[Milton Shaw]

You may be so wet that the moisture is turning to ice in the tools and then melting and coming out. Get some dryers and use them and get the tank drained of water every day. Long use of air at high CFM's will get very cold and make ice.

 

[redmondjp]

You may be so wet that the moisture is turning to ice in the tools and then melting and coming out. Get some dryers and use them and get the tank drained of water every day. Long use of air at high CFM's will get very cold and make ice.

This is exactly what is happening. If I run a continuous-use air tool (grinder or cutoff wheel, typically) for longer than 10 minutes at a time, my single-stage, 3HP (says 5 on the label) 60-gallon air compressor does the same thing. The air coming out of the tool is so moisture-laden and cold that ice forms at the air tool exhaust.

 

[bpankratz]

Probably rust on the inside of the air lines (pipes). Lots of fixes for this but none are cheap (dryers, filters, sediment bowls, sediment tanks). With the main shutoff valve at the compressor turned off (lines not pressurized) wrench out the farthest QD from the compressor, then open the main valve up momentarily. You'll see a massive cloud of rust shoot out of the hole. Use common sense doing this- nobody standing nearby. This might give you temporary relief from the problem and help save your tools.

Sorry I should have specified, this compressor has a rubber line right at the tank, no metal lines at all. Thanks for the advice though!

 

[bpankratz]

Drain the compressor tank first thing. If the drain is on a plug on the side of the tank, the internal hose to the tank bottom has come off and you have a huge amount of condensate to get rid of.

The drain is right at the bottom of the tank, I have drained it a few times, not much comes out to be honest....????

 

[bpankratz]

This is exactly what is happening. If I run a continuous-use air tool (grinder or cutoff wheel, typically) for longer than 10 minutes at a time, my single-stage, 3HP (says 5 on the label) 60-gallon air compressor does the same thing. The air coming out of the tool is so moisture-laden and cold that ice forms at the air tool exhaust.

This is more so what I was leaning towards as well, I do have an air dryer coming but I don't know if that will help enough....

 

[cvairwerks]

The drain is right at the bottom of the tank, I have drained it a few times, not much comes out to be honest....????

Think I would pull the bottom drain and make sure that there is not a bunch of crud or a ring of crud built up that won't allow all the condensate to get to the drain port. It's also a way of verifying the drain valve itself isn't clogged. I've seen that happen before.

 

[Caterpillar Cowboy]

Sounds like my compressor, lots of water in the bottom cause I'm too lazy to crawl up to where it's mounted and drain it.

I've got one of those fancy electronic automatic air drains inbound, hoping it helps remedy this. Can't be good on air tools even if I add oil to them.

 

[stikman56]

You described the problem in your post. You don't have a filter or a drier and water is coming out. Clean it up get a drier and a filter, end of problems.

 

[Bruce Amacker]

Sounds like my compressor, lots of water in the bottom cause I'm too lazy to crawl up to where it's mounted and drain it.

Use a truck air brake tank drain, I used them for years:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-4-Air-Co...872230?hash=item3ada6ff026:g:nCsAAOSwfVpYpPln