I considered a sink drain snake. But, the access opening is about 7 feet of the floor. I'd have to rope up a step ladder, and not sure I've got enough space to open up a ladder. I'm going to be standing on a stepstool reaching towards the sky, as it is.
I'll have to ask about the brush rig, that could be useful.
I did consider a snake. Either standing on a step ladder to get at the top. Or kneeling on the roof to get at the bottom. Could work. Hope it's not a live waspnest, though. And if I snake too far, I could ream the evaporator coil, and make more work for myself.
The hose (air or water) has the advantage that if it's a wasp nest, it will blow out at the other side of the wall.
I have a number of 20lb CO2 tanks that were meant for soft drink dispensers. The tanks are quite handy and can often be found abandoned in closed restaurants. I've found several in dumpsters and set them up for friends to use for inflating tires and blowing debris out of things. I get them refilled at the local dry ice/CO2 dealer. I purchased a high flow regulator at the HVAC supply house and use the CO2 to run air tools, inflate tires and clear clogged pipes and coils.
TDD
If I end up blowing more drains at work, I may very well do that. It's an excellent idea. Is it a bit heavy to haul up a ladder, or do you rope it up?
I've seen a fire department use a SCBA tank with regulator to run an air chisel, for car extrication. Much the same, I'd guess, for you. Don't want to get suffocated by the tool's exhaust. Inflating tires would work fine. Most liquified gasses work fine for tires. Propane is too flammable, but there are some non flammable halocarbons that work nicely. In emergency, you can also invert a halocarbon tank to feed liquid, and reseat a tire on a rim.
In an emergency, I've used R22 to inflate a flat tire.
TDD
To prevent over-snaking, measure the length of the pipe, then measure the length of the snake and mark the snake to the max distance.
As far as wasps go, a rag stuffed in the pipe would probably prevent them from exiting in your direction.
Nah. You'll smell the bleach for only an hour or two.
Not with a constant trickle of water. Unless they're waterfall wasps (only found in Micronesia and Vermont).
Wink, wink. Of course, I'd never admit to that.
Of course, that would work. Or, I could snake it from the indoor end, and work the snake out to the opening.
Thanks, didn't know that. Could blanch the drains some evening, I guess.
The AC only runs a day or two during the week. Plenty of time for the nest to build.
-snip-
Why run your tools on CO2? What is the advantage over just filling from your compressor, or the local gas station?
Jim
The 20lb cylinder is filled with liquid CO2 which flashes into gas when the pressure is let off of it. It boils at
-70 deg F and the 20lbs of liquid CO2 will produce a lot of gas. Think of it this way, your car runs on the fumes or vapor of gasoline so why not have a tank of vapor? It wouldn't last very long would it? One pound of liquid CO2 will produce 8.741 cubic feet of gas.
TDD
Bleach works, they also have some tablets you can put in your pan that keeps the crud from growing. We have a couple of HVAC units at work that never get clogged. I have often wondered if it is because of the copper drain lines, everything else is PVC.
Jimmie
Probably. Copper is a natural biocide (fungicide? herbicide? algaecide? cantdecide?)
Hmm-- Never thought of that. I get along fine with my 10gallon air tank, but . . . .
If we can go direct from a gallon of 'air' to a gallon of CO2- then your 20lb tank makes about
20*8.741= 174.82cu ft 174.82*7.48=1307gallons. . . Is that right?What is the maximum pressure you can get for your air tools?
Will it run high volume using tools like sand blasters or rotary cutters?
Thanks Jim
Gotaride? You can come and help intheside.
A 20# cylinder will produce about 174 cu.ft. of gas. A sander can use 15 cfm, so you can run it for less than 9 minutes. Not a great idea, IMO.
Not unless you have some sort of heat exchanger. A lot of trim carpenters use them for air powered brad or stapling guns. I use it with my pneumatic pop rivet tool and air ratchet. The problem with higher volume is that the line and regulator get very cold and icy unless designed for the job. One day I'll come up with a gadget that will flash high volume cold CO2 into nice warm high pressure gas.
TDD
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