Finishing up the air compressor room - updated

 "On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by an outright moron." - H.L. Mencken

I'm on "vacation" again, so a project that I had put on hold is finally coming to its conclusion.  This is the air distribution portion of the shop's air compressor system.  A while back, I had:

• Purchased a used and abused air compressor
• Refurbished it
  
• Emptied a room and prepared it for the compressor
• Fancied the room up a little
  
• Fancied it up a bit more
• Added a door to the room

 For quite a while now, I've had most of the materials needed to complete this project, but simply lacked the time to do so.   The time has now arrived, because I'm now on "vacation". 

How I'm setting it up:  The compressor is designed to run until the reservoir is about 130 psig (9 bar), and will cycle on again once the pressure in the tank drops to about 115 psig (8 bar).  The air tank has a shut-off valve so that in the event a leak develops elsewhere in the system, it can be isolated.

A flex hose prevents compressor vibration from being transmitted to the mounting bracket, the regulator, or anywhere else where it could cause metal fatigue and failure.  As I said in one of the previous linked posts, it sounds like an out-of-balance washing machine when it runs.  It shakes the floor to a certain extent.  That's a bit of vibration.

The regulator assembly reduces the air pressure to 90-100 psig (6-7 bar) before it enters the distribution system.  It has a moisture trap to keep any entrained water from entering the air distribution system.

In the image below, the flex hose and pressure regulator have been connected.  I've mounted a MDF board on the drywall on which to install the pressure regulator

It's a pretty nice regulator - with an installed oiler.  The oiler will not be used, because this air will also be used for a sandblasting cabinet.  Oil would foul the blast media.

Below:  The first air station drop with quick connect fitting, to be installed in the air compressor room.  

Below:  The pressure regulator has been installed, along with the air drop - hidden behind the blue tubing that is being fed up into the ceiling.

The tubing goes up out of the ceiling of the compressor room and into the shop's attic, to be run to the other side of the shop.

While I was very deliberately choosing my footing in the shop attic, I found some shoddy wiring.  I'm pretty sure this arrangement was for the previous owner's vehicle lift.  I removed this jury-rigged wiring and tucked the wires back into the box.  I didn't have a cover for it with me, of course.

 

Below: At least he was kind enough to leave a nice set of wire strippers behind!  Standing on the trusses so that I didn't fall to the shop floor, 13 feet below.  It' wasn't fun up there - It was pretty warm, and I should have worn a dust mask.  I was able to use the new headlamp, so that was cool.

Below:  Completed installation.  The pressure regulator is mounted, with the quick-connect to the right of it.  This will soon supply air to the (currently un-assembled) sand blast cabinet.  The Tee fitting near the ceiling allows air to pass through the wall to the right to supply the work bench.

Below:  After passing through the wall of the air compressor room, this line travels along the under-side of the mezzanine, then terminates in an air-drop with a quick-connect about halfway across the work area. 

At the other side of the shop, the long line that was installed across the attic terminates at the hose reel and another quick connect.

So far, so good - there is no leakage.  I pressurized the system to 90 psig (6.2 bar), and then shut off the air supply from the tank.  Over 10 minutes, the new blue tubing system only lost 1 psig - so not much leakage at all.  This seems to have worked out quite well.  

I still need to make a couple of 15-20 ft (3-4m) hoses with quick-connect fittings.  I have a 50ft (16m) hose, but still need to get a couple of the connector fittings.  I'm not sure why, but I started out using Type "T" air fittings, and now everything has to use them.

UPDATE

I've completed the tank water blow-down system.  Long ago, I purchased the blow-down timer valve for the air receiver tank.  However I had never opened the isolation valve for it, nor plugged the auto valve in.  The reason this water blow-down system was never placed in service is that I had not made arrangements for catching the water. 

The air compressor room does not have a floor drain, so it was necessary to build a reservoir for the water and air to blast into.  The first thing that was needed however, was a strainer.  The air receiver tank had quite a bit of corrosion in it when purchased from the previous owner.  

 Below:  Chunks of rust that came out of the compressor tank in the bottom of the deep sink while I was getting the compressor ready to go.  It's very unlikely that I was able to remove all of them from the tank.

These chunks of rust from inside the air tank could foul the drain valve, so I installed a "Y" strainer on the drain line.

Inside the "Y" strainer is a mesh screen that should keep chunks of rust from blocking the drain valve.  It's set to open for one second every 45 minutes, to drain water from the air receiver tank.

Downstream of the automatic drain valve is clear plastic tubing that connects to a 5 gallon bucket.  I drilled a hole in the bucket, and connected a 90 degree fitting to it, facing slightly downwards inside.  The drain water and air swirl inside the bucket.  The water falls to the bottom, and the air vents out a small hole drilled into the lid.

You might have been wondering why so much water develops in a compressed air system.  Here's a great explanation.  Short answer if you don't follow the link:  The process of compressing air concentrates the natural humidity in air.  However, since air can only hold so much moisture, the excess humidity inside the air tank falls out as water.