I have a single car garage that I do basic car maintenance and some wood working in. I have a Sears 110 volt 5hp single stage oil less compressor. The question is what size copper pipe should I use to plumb the garage. I'm looking for two outlets one in the front of the shop and one in the rear. Any suggestions.
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Size of compressed air lines
- Thread starter Falthead
- Start date
Junkman
Well-known member
My rule of thumb is to use the largest sized lines that you can reasonably afford to purchase. There is no such thing as a line that is too large. The larger the line, the less the resistance to the air flow, and the greater the storage capacity of air. Assume that you have a 60 gallon storage tank, and that the air line that you use has the capacity of an additional 10 gallons of storage (hypothetical), then your total storage capacity of the system is now 70 gallons. The two things that you always must consider when using air is the total CFM (Cubic Feet Per Minute), and total pressure at the CFM. Most air tools are rated this way.... ** PSI @ ** CFM. The best tool in the world will not work well, if it is starving for PSI or CFM.
Bib Overalls
Well-known member
I would use 3/4" black pipe with treaded connections. Have you priced copper lately?
Steve in Mi
Well-known member
A good 50 foot 3/8" hose would be the quickest, easiest, and cheapest alternative. If you must (want to) plum it rigid, 1/2" whatever will be adequate for your present compressor.
Steve in Mi
Well-known member
I completely forgot about soft copper coil stock when I replied. I do have a 3/8" flare copper line setup in my attached garage (I forgot about it) that feeds an outlet between the doors. I only rarely use it to inflate a tire and don't know if it would pass enough air (CFM) to operate an impact wrench.
DO NOT hook a hose directly to your compressor, it maybe the cheapest way to go but you will have nothing but problems with water coming out each time you use air, been there done that. I would go either with 3/4" or 1" black pipe and use at least 25' before your regulator with as much vertical as possible and locate ball valves at the bottom of the vertical pipes for drainage. I use 42' of 1" black pipe between my compressor & regulator & get virtually no water in my separator. Running a hose, while it maybe cheap in the short term will trash your air tools since they don't like water & you can forget painting or sandblasting like that. The metal pipe slows the air down giving it time to cool which drops the water out. Also, do not use PVC for air lines, it gets brittle as it ages & will send sharp pieces into anything in the area if it blows. Seems like whenever someone is warned of the danger of using PVC someone else chimes in with "I've been doing it for 20 yrs, etc". If you are going to use plastic line use something that was intended for compressed air.