Take my air along with me

[Ken Garlock]

Last week as I was working on a set of garage cabinets, I wanted to use my Senco brad guns. Not having air in the garage at the house, I went looking for a portable air container and found a nice C&H 10 gal. tank at Tractor Supply. It is a pretty nice unit that was setup for only filling tires. A couple minutes with a Crescent wrench and I had a quick-disconnect installed. I put about 100 psi of air in it and went to work with the nail gun. It worked quite well and my Senco 15 ga. gun was still working well even with just 65 psi air in the tank. After setting around several days, there was no detectable loss of air. I bought lock-on style tire chuck and installed a male quick-disconnect. Now I just take the tank into the shop and connect the tire air chuck to the shop air and the shradder valve on the tank and walk away. After a couple minutes, the tank has equalized with the supply system at 100 psi. The whole setup was less than $50

[Jim Becker]

Excellent idea, Ken...and useful for when you need some air where there is no power, too!

[Don Baer]

I have a neighbor who installs cabnetes. He has a high pressure bottle he takes along with CO2 in it. He has it filled at Airgas to 2000 PSI and then has a 100 lb regulator that he uses. He says he gets about a months worth of installs out of each refil. No noisy air compressor to mess with.

[Marcus Ward]

I had a buddy that had a huge welded tubular steel bumper on his truck that was welded airtight and had an quick disconnect on it. Held tons of air, one of the smartest ideas I ever saw.

[Tyler Howell]

Did a test when this subject came up years ago. Now I don't always have to drag the compressor with me.

[Ken Garlock]

I have a neighbor who installs cabnetes. He has a high pressure bottle he takes along with CO2 in it. He has it filled at Airgas to 2000 PSI and then has a 100 lb regulator that he uses. He says he gets about a months worth of installs out of each refil. No noisy air compressor to mess with.

Don, I am curious as to why your friend uses CO2, and not nitrogen? There might be a signifcant price difference. I would think that there might be a danger for CO2 buiding up in the work area.

On the other hand, nitrogen might cause the same problem -- forcing out the oxygen. Any chemists around to straighten me out on this

[John Lucas]

You would have to use an awful lot to have any effect. CO2 can be less expensive than N depending on where you get it. I think the N might be drier but both are used in industrial applications a lot. I used to have a CO2 bottle for air brush work and a N bottle for blowing dust off negs in the darkroom. It helped to have a friendly welding supply distributor.

[Brad Olson]

You would have to use an awful lot to have any effect. CO2 can be less expensive than N depending on where you get it. I think the N might be drier but both are used in industrial applications a lot. I used to have a CO2 bottle for air brush work and a N bottle for blowing dust off negs in the darkroom. It helped to have a friendly welding supply distributor.

Here at MSU we get dry nitrogen tanks for $5, plus $2/month tank rental
and IIRC CO2 is about $10 per fill plus $2/month tank rental

Seems reasonable to me. Tank purchase isn't fun

Both are quite safe for use in installs. We use them in a sealed cold room all the time without worry

[Rob Russell]

I had a buddy that had a huge welded tubular steel bumper on his truck that was welded airtight and had an quick disconnect on it. Held tons of air, one of the smartest ideas I ever saw.

Sounds like a bomb attached to his truck at bumper height, if you ask me.

[Troy Wilkins]

Sounds like a bomb attached to his truck at bumper height, if you ask me.

I am not sure if you are serious or not, but I hear comments like this about compressed air quite often. For example, guys will worry that their compressor tanks might explode if they see a little rust. A normal air compressor won't create high enough pressures to be a real concern. Especially when concerning rust. I have welded several air tanks that had pin holes rusted in them and I have never seen a tank actually burst. In fact, I doubt that a normal compressor could cause a dangerous burst if you tried to intentionally create one. When you start dealing with high pressure compressors (over 4000 psi) then you are dealing with some potentially dangerous situations.

[Norman Hitt]

Sounds like a bomb attached to his truck at bumper height, if you ask me.

Rob, out here in "Oil Patch & Ranchin' Country" they have been using those bumpers (front/rear/sometimes both) for years and I've never heard of anyone having any problem with any of them. They are usually made of 4" for front or 4" or 6" for the rear, made from heavy wall pipe, and are used on both ranch and some oilfield service pickups, normally filled to about 150 psi. I've even seen pickups totaled and no damage to the bumpers. They sure are handy after a rain, (when we ever have rain anymore), because all the thorns from the Scrub Mesquite always seem to float into the ruts of the road, and even if the tires have sealer inside, you can lose a lot of air before they seal, and carrying the air is almost a necessity when all 4 tires are trying to go flat at once. Also, when you are stuck in the sand, you can let some air out of the tires, and get out then air them back up for the long drive back to civilization. Overall, it's been a pretty effective system that has never seemed to have any safety problems.

[Chris Giles]

Norman,
I like the idea of the airtank bumper, but will it really withstand the impact of a rear-end collision without rupturing? What might happen if it did explode during such a crash?

[Keith Outten]

I am not sure if you are serious or not, but I hear comments like this about compressed air quite often. For example, guys will worry that their compressor tanks might explode if they see a little rust. A normal air compressor won't create high enough pressures to be a real concern. Especially when concerning rust. I have welded several air tanks that had pin holes rusted in them and I have never seen a tank actually burst. In fact, I doubt that a normal compressor could cause a dangerous burst if you tried to intentionally create one. When you start dealing with high pressure compressors (over 4000 psi) then you are dealing with some potentially dangerous situations.

Troy,

Several years ago we had a guy in our County whose garage was totaly destroyed by a 125 psi compressor with a 20 gallon tank. I was working at Langley NASA at the time, we implemented a major inspection program to check every air compressor at both the NASA site and Langley AFB.

Always respect a pressure vessel, even 90 psi is a bomb that will do more damage than you may realize. Check the welds that attach the compressor to the tank for stress cracks, this is the real area of danger not external rust.

.

[Marcus Ward]

Norman,
I like the idea of the airtank bumper, but will it really withstand the impact of a rear-end collision without rupturing? What might happen if it did explode during such a crash?

All the air will get out.

[Troy Wilkins]

Troy,

Several years ago we had a guy in our County whose garage was totaly destroyed by a 125 psi compressor with a 20 gallon tank. I was working at Langley NASA at the time, we implemented a major inspection program to check every air compressor at both the NASA site and Langley AFB.

Always respect a pressure vessel, even 90 psi is a bomb that will do more damage than you may realize. Check the welds that attach the compressor to the tank for stress cracks, this is the real area of danger not external rust.

.

Keith,

I don't mean to be argumentative, but it seems like there is a lot more urban legend at work with this topic than actual facts. After an admittedly quick Google search, I was unable to find an example of a regular compressed air tank that caused any serious property damage when it ruptured, much less having enough energy to destroy a garage. However, I did find examples of ruptured tanks so I stand corrected on that point.

Regarding rust, I was talking about internal rust caused by condensation. On our farm trucks that don't have air driers, condensation/rusted tanks are a common problem. Without exception, when these tanks rust through they develop a small leak that is easily repaired. And these tanks routinely hold 150 psi which is higher than "most" shop tanks.

Which brings up my next point. If the air filled bumpers were a danger to the driving public, vehicles with air brakes should be banned from the roads. Next time you are close to a tractor trailer rig count the air storage tanks that you can see. Then consider that there are usually more inside of the truck frame that are not visible. Also all of the big radial tires on these trucks are filled with close to 100 psi. I could once again be proven wrong, but I am not aware of these pressurized vessels causing any additional problems in the event of an accident. Personally, I would be more concerned about all of the cars next to you carrying tanks full of 'explosive hydrocarbons'. Gas tanks are a whole different topic, but they are a lot safer than Hollywood likes you to believe also.

I doubt that I am smart enough to figure it out, but someone here can surely provide us with a formula to determine the actual amount of energy stored in an air tank. Out of curiosity I would be interested in knowing the physics involved.

See, I told you that I didn't want to be argumentative! That's what I always tell my wife also.