For Christmas my son got me a small retractable air hose reel. 30' Craftsman model. So I am looking to hook it up, at the same time I am looking to plumb the garage which is 80 feet from the compressor. The
100' works out by the time I put the connection up on the wall.
If I cheap it out using 100' of 3/8" hose will the pressure drop be too great to run air tools.
My other option was to run either braided 1/2 or 3/4 black pipe.. but the cost of those is quite a bit more.
My wood shop is in the basement right near the compressor.
Tue, Jan 1, 2008, 7:55pm nospam.nospam.com (tiredofspam) doth sayeth: I am looking to plumb the garage which is 80 feet from the compressor.
Well, my first thought was why not get another compressor? Second though was, what exqactly are you planning on using air on in your garage? If it's only for inflating tires, I'd just get a portable tank. Details, you left out details.
Filling tires, running an air ratchet and 3/8 impact.
Spraying outside when I am too lazy to setup my shop for spraying. I don't worry about overspray in the garage. I do worry about bugs getting in the finish... but hey I'd rather spray in the garage then the house.
Filling tires, running an air ratchet and 3/8 impact.
Spraying outside when I am too lazy to setup my shop for spraying. I don't worry about overspray in the garage. I do worry about bugs getting in the finish... but hey I'd rather spray in the garage then the house.
I have more or less the same situation. I don't think you'll have any trouble inflating or running an impact wrench or even spraying. The long pipe/hose length actually acts as additional reserve.
If it turns out you have flow trouble with some high volume whatzit, then do what I did. Add a portable air tank in the garage. It's normally tied to the compressor (in the basement), and I just plug into it if I'm working in the garage.
If I need air out on the drive or in the shed, I just disconnect the tank from the line to the compressor and carry it to where I need it.
MY T-shirt John ran 1/2" sched 40 PVC pipe round his shop for years. At every outlet, he ran a vertical section with a petcock at the bottom
He never had any problems with air powered tools or spraying - thought we never did any "classic car paint jobs."
The tubing acts as a storage tank extension. Pressure, at any outlet should remain constant - flow, I would assume would be the first variable to be affected by reducing the "pipi" to th 3/8" i.d. of standard air hose.
Impact guns and like air tools will probably work fine as long as your compressor has a decent delivery rate to start with. They are not high volume tools.
If you're thinking of an air sander (DA), or similar tool, you'll regret this approach. Then again - a lot of your tool choices are going to be limited by the compressor in the first place, so the plumbing is only a secondary factor. For spray painting it also depends on the delivery rate of your compressor, but you will be paying more attention to the pressure drop in a 3/8" line. You can figure it out by trial and error, and set your regulator higher at the compressor to compensate, but that's not what I would do.
Not for 100'. Go price it - that isn't going to break the bank. If I were plumbing my garage all over again, I'd use copper, but the black pipe I have plumbed in currently has presented no problems, and is really not all that expensive. Just make sure you plumb in drain drops to drain your lines before doing things like spraying paint, etc.
You should probably tell us a bit more about your compressor. If it's a pancake compressor, we shouldn't even be having parts of this discussion.
You could use polypropylene (rolled plastic, not PVC) pipe for your
80' run. It's cheap, easy to install, and safe. Resist the urge to go with 3/8 hose. Someday you will want to use a high-volume tool in the garage, and you will curse the day you went cheap.
DonkeyHody "Every man is my superior in that I can learn from him." - Thomas Carlyle
I sort of got around that by using a 25 or 30 lb propane tank (forget which for sure) when we lived back in Chgo, as a second tank in parallel with the main 33 Gal tank. I might have had to stop once in awhile if I was spraying a large surface non-stop, to wait for the compressor to cacth up, but ... I had only used 3/8" hose to get out to the garage, which was too small. But, I could do most anything I wanted to with it, including run a hammer wrench and metal cutting. I always planned to put in a 1" line out to the garage but moved first. It worked reasonably well for the do it yourselfer; probably too hard on the compressor I had for daily use, but it's still chugging away out in my
*attached* garage. I'd say never use 1/4" hose for anything but tires etc., and maybe a brad nailer or stapler kind of thing. IME at 100', it's no good for hvlp spraying. But those auto-coiled hoses can be nice to have. At my compressor I have three hoses: 1 to the 1/4" coiled hose, one to the reel of 50' of 3/8" hose, and a 50 footer that goes into the shop, along with a 12 footer that hangs nearby. It pays to never throw anything away! One way or another I can usually get things done.
Good point: The water vapor in black pipe would be a rust nuisance and maybe hard on the tools, too. You'd need an extra air cleaner for it, if it would even work that way.
A lot of the shops (garages) I've worked in (including Mack Truck) used hard copper pipe to plumb the air around the shop. And like some one already posted, the air is taken off at a T. The copper pipe goes about 6" further down with a petcock to drain any water. Just like regular plumbing, it was mainlined with 3/4 and reduced to 1/2 at each port. Your operation may not need the 3/4.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.