Re: [ihc] Outfitting my shop

[John Hofstetter <hofs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:25 AM -0600 12/18/03, Jim Camery wrote:
> This christmas I'm finally taking the big step of buying a fancy
> sandblasting cabinet from tptools.com and big air compressor to replace
> the fisher-price thing 3hp thing I've gotten by on for years (decades?).
> This should eliminate my last reason for not finishing a '68 truck I've
> been rehabbing for years.
>
> What I want to do, though, is build some sort of manifold system so I can
> put the compressor in a corner and have piping to air outlets around the
> shop - a total of probably 100 feet of piping.	What do people recommend
> for piping and connections and valves?	I will have to attach it to cinder
> block walls.  Do I need a condensation/dirt trap at each outlet?  Any help
> based on experience would be appreciated.
>
> --
> Jim Camery
I have a set up that I built that serves a situation much like you 
describe. I used galvanized years ago, but I see in many modern shops 
that they are using some kind of plastic pipe.

One of the most important things, in my opinion is to run your pipe 
so that long runs "sag" in the middle. Put a valve at the bottom of 
those sags and you will be able to drain the water from your supply 
system. I don't have a trap at each outlet. Instead I have a unit 
plumbed so that if water removal is important in whatever I am doing, 
I "plug" the trap/regulator into the outlet and then my hose into the 
trap/regulator.

Regulators go bad all too regularly <g> so this way I have one trap 
that I keep pretty well maintained that comes along with the 
regulator. For sand blasting and such, you don't worry about a water 
trap. At least I don't.

John

--
John Hofstetter
www.goldrush.com/~hofs