The Project Pad

Let's post things that we do to our garages/workshops/etc. that help us do the things we love, wrench on cars!

Feel free to post:
-Pictures of your garage/workshop
-Any projects/advice for any aspect of your garage/workshop
-New tool acquisition
-Seeking advice for anything garage/workshop releated
-Anything else that you think belongs!

I'll start...

Here's my compressor project I started last week. My 26 gallon Speedaire compressor wasn't quite cutting it for sandblasting parts (90 lb pressure pot blaster) in preparation for powdercoating. It put's out a measly 5.5cfm at 40psi. It's been a warrior though and has held up much better than expected, but I've been in desperate need of an upgrade.

So this popped up on craigslist last week for $250. It's a RAND 4000 2-stage 175 psi 80 gallon compressor (lower end IR actually made my Devilbliss). 5hp champion motor with magnetic starter and aluminum pump with steel linings. These were actually sold under a lot of brands with varying configurations of motor/pump. This should put it somewhere around 18cfm at 100psi. The previous owner said the motor was acting up, but included another working ~5hp AO Smith motor. Plan is to redo all the wiring and investigate the Champion motor. If it is indeed bad then the AO will go on.

It was pretty ugly when I got it so I decided it needed a paint job. Wanted something bright to add some color to the workshop so I chose Rustoleum "Sunburst Yellow", which is surprisingly close to DeWalt yellow.

When I got it:


Primered:


Painted:

Nice! Nice air for a garage!!

I may have to do something similar when we move mine. Nice work alex.

Everyone else too busy working on cars to post pics of their shops?


Still need to order some wiring stuff this week and remount the pulley on the compressor. I've been delayed a bit waiting for a new left-hand bolt to arrive. Didn't realize the bolt holding the compressor pulley on was left-hand until my impact broke it! Picked up some new regulators/filters/lubers from Ingersoll Rand on closeout, going to mount them on a panel or something on the wall near the compressor. Also need to get a desiccant filter or try and find a good deal on a used refrigerated dryer.

Just a tad bigger than the old Speedaire

Looks good man! I don't have a garage- per-say, I just have a car-port. LOL I don't think my work counts.

Picked up a Hankison HIT-25 refrigerated air dryer today for $100 on CL (these sell new for $1300). Should work great with the new compressor when it's up and running.

85oceanic wrote:Looks good man! I don't have a garage- per-say, I just have a car-port. LOL I don't think my work counts.

In college my buddies did all kinds of work (engine/trans/suspension swaps) in apartment parking lots. If the weather was too bad and you could get the work done in a day, they would just take it to one of the school parking garages and do work there. Several times cops came by and asked if everything was alright, but never made them leave even though it was obvious they weren't just fixing something that happened while it was parked there.

umm... that air dryer is ridiculous! Does it work? Probably overkill for anything I'd do... but the tool collector in me thinks that's absolutely amazing and I want one of my own

how many amps does it draw?

Im liking that compressor/tank and drier!

I keep promising myself ill get a better one than i currently have but it only really needs a larger tank to make it plenty more usuable than it is.

Im of the opinion that a guy can never have enough tools in his armoury.

jretal wrote:umm... that air dryer is ridiculous! Does it work? Probably overkill for anything I'd do... but the tool collector in me thinks that's absolutely amazing and I want one of my own

how many amps does it draw?

Yep, works great. Guy I bought it from is an HVAC guy so he made sure it was charged and functional.
Pulls 6.9A at 115V/60Hz Handles 25scfm at 175psi which is more than enough for my compressor. Not overkill if you are doing any painting, which I plan to do soon. And it helps with media/soda blasting which I do a lot of. Don't have to worry about refilling desiccant either.

I'll have some things to add to this thread soon

I just got rid of 8 stored cars at my shop so now its time to get crackin' in there and get it set up

Ugh, I just added another two parts cars to the eight I already had... I told the scrap metal guy he could have my two B4s and my early B5 a couple of months ago but I've been too busy to strip out what I want/need. Plus I have had two different OCD customers offer to come by and help me organize my parts inside the shop, so it must be pretty bad.

alxdgr8 wrote:

jretal wrote:umm... that air dryer is ridiculous! Does it work? Probably overkill for anything I'd do... but the tool collector in me thinks that's absolutely amazing and I want one of my own

how many amps does it draw?

Yep, works great. Guy I bought it from is an HVAC guy so he made sure it was charged and functional.
Pulls 6.9A at 115V/60Hz Handles 25scfm at 175psi which is more than enough for my compressor. Not overkill if you are doing any painting, which I plan to do soon. And it helps with media/soda blasting which I do a lot of. Don't have to worry about refilling desiccant either.

If he happens upon another one, let me know... lol. Seriously. I might be in the market, esp for $100. Shipping would be kind of painful, but hell, I spent $75 on my $hitty separator that does a half decent job keeping the water out of the system.

Here is what I work with.... its not the biggest (only a two car) but thanks to my severe OCD I have maximized the space. It supports the Audi well and other projects around the house. Its nice because it has a sink in it and I cant tell you how much I love that one thing about it. I also ran the air reels and cord reels overhead for convenience.






Lots of good times in this garage

Compressor is up and running! SO much nicer for sandblasting, no more waiting for pressure to build back up.
Waiting on a few more pushlock fittings to setup the autodrain, but other than that it's complete.

Lines are all 1/2" pipe, but I still need to upgrade all my quick connects to at least 3/8" instead of the 1/4" I have on most of my air tools now.
Filters/regulators/autodrain are all Ingersoll Rand ARO series that I got on closeout for ~$10-15 each (STUPID CHEAP!).

Layout:
Compressor -> 5 micron main filter/regulator -> Refrigerated air dryer -> SPLITS TO a.) 5 micron filter/regulator/luber for air tools OR b.) 0.3 micron filter/regulator for painting/blasting/powdercoating

Autodrain (float activated) also has a regulator in front of it since it's a poly bowl with a max input of 150psi.



Next up is to modify my blast cabinet to accept my pressure pot blaster with a foot operated pinch valve so I don't have to use the crappy siphon feed gun.

You don't still have access to the stuff on closeout, do you? I finally got the panel in the house upgraded, so I can start planning to run 220v to my garage so I can get the compressor up and running. WOuldn't mind having snagging this stuff while it's cheap!

Looks awesome though, I'm envious of your setup! Esp the air dryer!

jretal wrote:You don't still have access to the stuff on closeout, do you? I finally got the panel in the house upgraded, so I can start planning to run 220v to my garage so I can get the compressor up and running. WOuldn't mind having snagging this stuff while it's cheap!

Looks awesome though, I'm envious of your setup! Esp the air dryer!

I'm not sure how much they still have left. Looks like they still have some filters/regulators but you really have to spend some time to figure out what you need.

http://shop.ingersollrandproducts.com/

Here's the ARO-Flo Catalog
http://fileserver.ingersollrand.com/Doc ... atalog.pdf

And a quick overview of the series are (my small ones are 1500 series, the larger "main filter" is a 2000 series):
1000 Series - "Micro", 1/8" and 1/4" ports (59scfm)
1500 Series - "Compact", 1/4" and 3/8" ports (113scfm)
2000 Series - "Standard", 3/8", 1/2", and 3/4" ports (222scfm)
3000 Series - "Heavy Duty", 3/4" and 1" ports (368scfm)

The numbers in the model all stand for various things:
Filter type (0.3 or 5 micron)
Bowl material (metal or poly; poly has a max of 150psi)
Drain type (auto or manual; I went manual)
Gauge (I'd get no gauge and add a 1/8" NPT, the built in gauges are TINY!)
Inlet/outlet size
And probably a few more things I'm forgetting. Take some time to study the brochure then try and find them on the site and hope they aren't sold out!

Awesome, thanks for the info!!! Much appreciated.

Will do a little homework and see what I need. Will probably snag 3/8" stuff, as it's always easy to neck it down to 1/4" if I need to.