Printable View
Hey Gang,
Still getting my compressor plumbed. The outlet on my compressor is 1/2", would I benefit from keeping the diameter 1/2" all the way to my sandblasting cabinet. My gun is 1/4", but I guess I could see about getting a larger diameter gun.
Thanks for the help.
Trent
in my experience it dosent matter i have half inch to quarter inch now and seems to work fine
With no professional opinions or data to back this up............ I say YES, keep it half the whole way. I'd think it would make a difference.
Just my 1st gut feeling
Are we talking hose or pipe? How many CFM does your blast cabinet need?
I like to go big with a restriction and then expansion right before the air dryer. The expansion cools the air and condenses the moisture out of it, instead of in the blast cabinet.
I didn't think it made much of a difference until I started to use a pneumatic cut off wheel. The 1/4" slowed it right down and in a blasting cabinet you would be using at least that much air if not more. We had 3/4'' then a length of coiled 1/4'' and that little bit of 1/4'' just killed the speed of the cutter. 1/2'' may not be enough.
I plumbed the air compressor with high pressure poly line. The 1/2" was only rated for 90psi, while the 3/8" was rated for 160psi. So that's what I used. Previously I was running 4 50' 5/8" hoses to the driveway to work on the cars. After the switch of the 200' of 5/8" to the 50' of 3/8" I can tell the difference. Like a DC, there is a lot more pressure loss incurred with the smaller diameter. There is a significant loss in both CFM and pressure by dropping that 1/4". I can hear the air line recharge after I take my finger off the trigger.
Go as big as you can, and you won't regret it.
+1. For some reason this topic is often debated as much as Sawstops! Similar to Chris, I have experienced notable differences in equipment performance due to the size of the air hose feeding them. Tools that utilize a relatively high volume of air - such as die grinders, blast cabinets or large impact wrenches, will all perform noticably better if I feed them with a 1/2" id air hose instead of a 1/4" or 3/8" hose. For small volume tools such as nailers, the smaller hose is fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Parks
Interesting thread, but I'd like to 'hijack' it with a slightly different question... is there any DISADVANTAGE to using larger piping. If I had a 1/4" outlet (pancake compressor) but planned on upgrading later, would using 1/2" or larger piping be a problem? I understand the condensation issue, but I want to do the piping ONCE when I build.
I think if you used a larger pipe on a small compressor that it would increase the storage volume so it would be better.
You may find that the outlet can be changed to a larger size as they are often screwed into an adaptor. The big difference between a small and large diameter line is air speed in the line. It slows down as the diameter is increased and this means the air has time to cool off in the line a bit more and it encourages the moisture to drop out in the line as cooler air supports less moisture. This means the system design must allow for the removal of the water by either traps, slope of line etc. I never saw any moisture in the traps until we started using the above mentioned cutter and then the water could be seen coming though the line into the glass trap, absolutely amazed me. This compressor has two auto drains and the water still gets in the lines.