[Steve Lefebvre]

Hint, every 7 years is way too long. I have a separate building where I build machines and do my metal working, served by a 10 hp screw compressor. It also has a refrigerated air dryer, but it sprung an air leak 6 months ago. I have not bothered to fix it yet and have just run the compressor a few hours a day without it, a few times a week.

This weekend I had to crate up a V groover so I got my nail gun and the crate parts and laid out the base of the crate and plugged in the nail gun. It did not make the air rush noise that I was expecting, but I let it go. This gun never correctly fires the first nail anyway, so I thought the sound was part of it. I pull the trigger for the first nail and sploosh! The exhaust deflector was pointed almost in my face and my shirt got blasted with a jet of nasty compressor condensate water. Yuck! Without thinking I immediately unplugged the gun. Wrong!!! The gun was half filled with pressurized nasty water and now it was blasted all over my lower half.

I guess I should have checked the air hose because it is at the lowest part of the system. I plugged in an open connector and blew a ton of liquid outside the door. I crawled into the corner and opened the drain and it took about 20 min for the water to drain. Next I poured a ton of oil into the nail gun and went outside to fire off several clips of nails to blow out the insides of the gun. A lot of nasty air came out and I was carefull to stay upwind.

Other than that I had a good weekend. Got to beat the snot out of a brand new 09 Porsche on Sunday to boot. A bunch of us car guys just showed up at the dealer and we all took turns. Cool thing is that I was just handed the keys and Susan and I got in and took off. They did not even know my name or even if I had a license. No salesman with us either.

[Andy Graves]

We have a compressor with an automatic drain. It plugs into a 110 outlet and has a timer with a run time. Every 5 minutes it opens the valve on the bottom of the tank for about 15 seconds.

Depending on your location and climate, you can set it to run more often and set the duration.

I think it was only about $125 with the compressor but well worth it cause you don’t have to deal with the mess or rusted tank.

[John Christensen]

I bleed off the pressure and at the same time drain the tank every night before going home.  I just don’t like the idea of leaving a presurized vessel in my shop while no one is around.

Johnny C

[Eli Polite]

usually once a week

[Brian Stone]

Our stone shop compressor drains automatically. During the summer it can fill a 5 gallon bucket every day.

[Travis Harper]

I am with Andy on this one. I have an auto drain. I set mine for every 30 minutes or so and it drains for about 5 seconds. I live in a pretty dry climate though.

[Big Iron Sales]

Excuse me for intruding, We use the auto drain and I have found that it can get plugged with rust in its little screen filter. You have to check and see if it is still draining. Maybe we went to long without now the tank is probably shot.

[Author]

Posts