I recently acquired a decent sized air compressor and have installed it in my outdoor workshop, which is a shed. I would like to use air tools and such to work on my Buicks, but they are around 50 feet away from my shed. While hose is cheap, 50 foot of it looks to be a pain to work with and reels to hold it are expensive. I've done the math, and it would be cheaper to lay pipe in the ground for 50 feet, and then use a 20 foot air hose to get to the cars. Every place I have seen compressed air, I have seen the pipe either overhead, with drops coming down, or on a level line across the building. By going down into the ground and hitting a 90 degree elbow, then hitting a 90 elbow to come up, would I be trapping moisture in my system? Any help would be appreciated.
Yes, it would fill up with water by running it below the compressor tank. When you compress air, your comressing moisture. By running the pipes up over the comressor your allowing the water to run downward. Each vertical run should have a 1/4 turn valve at the base to drain the collected water. Hope this helps a little. A picture would be a whole lot easier to understand. Jason
With running it underground you would trap moisture in the line. I'd work if you dug a pit at the end, and fitted a drain on the pipe or some kind of Catch for it. But then you'd have to get into the pit to constantly drain the moisture out of it. Be sure to install the pipe at a downward angle toward the catch or drain fitting. Shouldn't be that hard to do If you have the room for a little pit. If you have the pipe run up higher than the compressor, then turn it undergound that'll help cut down on the moisture, but some will still get in the line.
Would have to be a fairly large line, considering the distance or you'd have one heck of a pressure drop. Consider a line going into an additional tank in your shop, (they are fairly inexpensive) that tank would then have the drain and also you could plumb the line over head. Just an idea.
I've done it myself. I'm in the sprinkler biz, and we run pipe for a living. A one inch PVC pipe will give you all the volume you need with minimal pressure loss. My neighbor a few years ago made me a deal... relocate his compressor to his shed from his garage, and pipe back to the garage, and I could tee off the line and have free air at my house! It worked perfectly. We had a dryer at the compressor, and didn't worry about air in the lines. I installed a pressure gauge in my garage and everything! Best of all, it was silent in the garage! We had probably 200 feet of PVC underground. Do it! Frank
I think I will install a T on the output of my compressor, with one side of it pointing down to a drain, and the other side up to a regulator/dryer. From that point I will dip down into the ground. Another question about pipe size: If the rubber hose I was going to buy is only 3/8, why should I go with a 3/4 pipe? Wouldn't a 1/2 pipe work fine? Thanks for the advise,
Try the PVC pipe, cheaper and easire to use. I used 1 1/2" pcv in overhead installation. The larger pipe will give you more air reserve. For underground pipe you might think about the black or yellow plastic pipe the gas co. uses. With my pvc pipe i get very little condensation. Jim Schilf palbuick
If you are using something that needs alot of air, like a HVLP spray gun, you will need larger pipe to reduce friction loss so you get as much air at your tool as the compressor can deliver. The pipe is very cheap... Home Depot of anybody will have it. For a 50 foot run, you can't spend 10.00 on pipe and fittings. There is no reason to save 1.00 on pipe just because you can. :Smarty: Frank
Cool. The larger pipe makes sense. I'll pick up a dryer at Harbor Freight, and then be able to do some air tooling. Right now, I will just be using the line to fill tires. But I hope to have some air tools soon. Impact wrench and DA sander come to mind. :Brow:
