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Posted by Chris Case [75.36.35.98] on Thursday, April 12, 2012 at 09:54:50 :
In Reply to: Air Compresssor Advice Needed posted by dave horvath [24.131.120.209] on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 20:49:09 :
Right now I'm sand blasting with two single stage comps tee'd together. One is about 3hp, the other about 4, both single stage. Used. Total investment $135, plus a few hours tuning them up with filter/manifolds, belts, accessible manual drain valves.
I run a pressure pot to sand blast. wouldn't do it any other way, it's 10x faster than syphon feed. Regulate down to 45 psi does it fine. Harbor Freight size pot, about 1 cu ft vertical. .150" nozzle. It out runs the two comps, but refilling the sand lets them catch up.
I'm not a big one for automatic drains. But I do reworr the plumbing on the comps to get easy access to the manual drains. And re-locate the out let so it is not directly under, and not directly attached, to the inlet to the tank. Let the water droplets fall out. And even an automatic is going to have a few drops of water in the tank, so I doubt if they make a real difference in dryness of air. Instead, make an intercooler. Use large diameter (1 1/4"? what ya got?) vertical copper riser on the wall behind the comp, even a manifold with tees. Plumb it so the hose from tank runs up hill, so the water drains back from copper intercooler to tank. Back when I had a real comp in a real shop, I used a tee top and bottom, four nipples, two vertical pipes about 4' tall. 1 1/4" copper, soldered. It really slowed down the air and let the water condense out. NEVER had a single drop out of the hoses.
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