My Christmas Compressor

[ckucia]

Got this 5HP 80 gallon two stage IR compressor for Christmas this year.

TSC seems to have them on sale every year. I got it a few weeks ago and have slowly been getting it ready to fire up.

I know bolting it down is controversial, but I thought a lot about it and decided I'd rather be safe than sorry. Built the wooden stand for it yesterday.

My garage gets water in it for now so I wanted off the floor. Plus I needed to clear the little drain valve pressure vessel. The PO of our house left some rubber mats lying around (we have a small rubber manufacturing plant in town) so I used them to make the anti-vibration pads under the feet. The house is detached but about 10' away so I'm hoping to keep the vibration from being transmitted to the house. Eventually, the compressor will sit further away, but there are other projects preventing that.


Hoping to get it wired in tonight and fire it up for the first time.

(BTW, the big green thing is a wooden frame I threw together to hold the pump pressure tank and it covers the area where the pipes from the pump come up through the floor. Foam box lets me heat it with a small space heater to keep the pipes from freezing without having to heat the entire garage. That's also going away eventually, with some future projects...)

(I also know the wiring in the background is not even close to code. It's temporary - winter came earlier than I expected and I suddenly needed it done yesterday. It's the first thing on my list to address as soon as I can live without the foam box).

 

[E430Driver]

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[1Garageman]

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[ckucia]

Six months and I still haven't been using this thing.

Up until a few months ago, I had been concerned about freezing but now there's no excuse.

Made a few minor modifications, all in the pic if it loads.

1) Put an extension and a valve on the drain plug. Now I can drain the oil without it running onto the mount shelf and down the side. I can remove the plug, then open the valve into the container. With the plug still in the end, I don't need to worry about bumping the valve and draining the oil by mistake.

2) Painted the on/off lever red. Couldn't figure how to get it off the assembly and thought better of taking it apart, so I just used a paint pen. It wasn't easy to see before, especially in dim light, and if my wife ever needs to turn it off, it's pretty easy to find it now.

3) Took a plastic electrical box, cut off the tabs, painted it beige and then cut a hole in a blank plate for a hour meter I bought on ebay or amazon. Then bolted it to the mount plate and ran some wires to the controller.

4) Clearly labelled the on/off switch. Not sure why this didn't occur to anyone at IR.

This should be a link to the photo if it doesn't show...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uiaGXnSEtmh6LbzQ9

Working on hooking up a regulator and running a line across the garage to a hose reel I bought this afternoon. Long term I have bigger plans, but I haven't finalized the garage layout yet and I need to use this thing to mount some tires.

 

[sweetk30]

do a 90* street L in the bottom of the tank drain . a length of pipe and a ball valve then a barb fitting to a scrap length of hose to reach up in and over to a 5 gal bucket or other container . then when you drain he water off the tank its not hard to get to and also not all over the shop floor under the unit .