I have my first real compressor now. A 33 gal Craftsman! If I use my compressor 2 or 3 times a week, how often should I drain it? It takes a while to charge back up, and I was hoping I could safely get by with bi-weekly, or something. It is in my insulated garage.

Also is 3 in 1 oil good to use to lube my air tools?

I picked it up so I could wrench on my truck and strut around the garage. Arr arr arr!

Thanks,

Tim (the tool man)

 

Congrats on the compressor and air tools. You will never regret the purchase. You asked " how often should I drain it?". "Drain it" can have two meanings on a compressor tank. One meaning is to completely drain the air out of the tank to zero pressure. You never really have to do that for any routine maintenance. The other compressor tank drain is to drain off the condensation from the tank. This is also referred to as "blowing down" or "blowing out" the tank, or compressor. This should be done at least once every time you use it when you are done for the day. Open the drain valve on the bottom of the tank until the water stops blowing out.

Do not use 3in1 oil. That stuff is only marginally better than WD40 for lubrication. It tends to gum up. Sewing machine oil, electric motor oil or turbine oil is a much better choice. These oils, all about the same thing, will not dry up and gum up. These types of oil are available in hardware stores in small containers, usually a squeeze bottle, often with a long application tube. The air tool oil supplied with some of the air tools I bought appears to be this type of light oil.

The 3in1 brand oil is trying, if memory serves, to lubricate, clean, protect. It's sorta like the racing phrase "fast, cheap, reliable, choose two". By trying to do all 3 somethings gotta slide. In the case of 3in1 it dries up and gets gummy, then you have to use more. The "having to use more" part does not bother the mfr of the product one bit. Light oil from the hardware store that is sold as a lubricant only will work fine. The stuff that is trying to be everything to everybody should be avoided.

(This lesson was learned by me as a small boy listening to my uncle, the Texaco lubrication engineer, fix my mother's sewing machine. Guess what she used instead of sewing machine oil.)

I use the light oil I mention most of the time. Occasionally I give it a shot of ATF to get the detergents in ATF to clean the tool out a bit. I don't know if this is realistic but in 15 years it has not hurt anything that I can tell. One hint I picked up here on FTE is to lube the tool when you are done to chase out any water that may have gotten in it and to make sure all the internals are coated with oil while it is stored.

 

I use Marvel Mystery Oil for my air tools. Keep a ketchup squeezer of it handy and put a few drops into the air inlet each time I use the tool. Seems to work OK. Been doing it for years and never had any tool problems. I think most of the trouble people have is probably from moisture condensing out of the air stream. The oil keeps it from sticking around inside the tool.

 

Yeah, I use the same stuff, an old friend told me about it years ago and he turned wrenches for the city for 30 years, (worked on buses for a living). My tools seem to be working okay and I've been using it for about 6-7 years.

 

Thanks fellows.

I'll pick up some real machine oil Wednesday, and I blew down my tank tonight after rotating my tires. I do want it to last, which is one reason I bought the biggest unit I could get and still run 120V AC. I did have to upgrade my Circuit Breaker because 15A was too small for the inductance motor, it kept tripping.

I think the 3/8" ratchet is going to be my favorite, for turning sockets in tight places.

Ohh I have learned that WD 40 is not the everything lube. It however displaces moisture, and cleans elect. contacts better than anything else I have used, and smells good! Now if I can just find a neighbor with a plasma cutter, I'll be set.

Tim

 

Tim,
One aside on your post about upgrading the breaker, it is important that the wire feeding that circuit is rated for 20 amps. Otherwise you are risking an electrical fire.

15 amp circuits are carried on 14 gauge wire
20 amp circuits are carried on 12 guage wire

Check the wire at the breaker and determine that it is 12ga wire. If not, run a new dedicated circuit for the compressor.

I am not trying to scare you with hysterics, but houses do burn down because of stuff like this.

If you are already checked this out, pardon my butting in on your business and assuming you don't know.

Later,
Ed

 

Don't forget to change your air intake filter yearly and change the oil (granted this is not an oilless) in the compressor once to twice a year depending on use, use synthetic air compressor oil.

 

Amen on the Marvel Mystery Oil. Good for tools. Use a 20Wt, hydraulic oil in your compressor crankcase and change it twice yearly. The two most important thing you can do is to keep the entering air as clean as possible and do not restrict the cooling fan on the flywheel. Allow ample room for air to circulate around the machine. These hardware store compressors are only rated at 75% duty cycle. In other words for every 1 hour of run time it should be off for 15 min.

If you are in a high humidity area then drain the tank at least daily. If in an arid area then drain it weekly.

Do everything possible to cool the air after it is compressed, then water will condense out in the tank and not your lines.

You will find that air tools are the most powerful for their size. They don't heat up while you are using them either.

 

Thanks all,

I'm ok with wiring, but that info may help someone else. I have run 12awg 3 c to a dedicated 20A duplex, so I'm ok there.

Putting together all the great facts from everyone, I have learned to blow down the tank after it has cooled to get the most water out. My unit is oilless, which I guess is good for a newby for light home use. I assume just a couple drops of oil in the tool input is all that is needed.

Thanks

 

Tool Time Tim would tell you to shut the 120VAC off to the whole house and make everything 240VAC. But, to be practical, you only need 240 for your compressor. I suggest running 240 to the compressor, a nice dedicated 240v 10 gauge wired outlet is the way to go. The comp. motor will start, run, and last longer with 240v and actually use less power. The only down side, your friends can't borrow it unless they have a 240 outlet.

I have a smaller craftsman comp. and I haven't done a thing to it in 5 years, except drain the water after every use, and it still chugs along just fine.

 

Im tempted! I have a Square D panel with breakers. Those suckers trip easier than any other circuit I have seen. My little Hobard 125 will trip out a dedicated 20A, and so will the Craftsman, on a different 20 amp. I bet the govt. or NEC has had them derated to prevent even the remotest possibility of overloading the circuit. Maybe I'll just get some big gator clips and strap it right onto the buss, arr arr arrg!

 

I was just looking at my compressor, it says something about using a time delay breaker on the specification label, it is a 5HP 25 gallon. That is something I don't have. I think my breakers are all standard.

Your breaker is seeing more than 20 Amps at turn on probably, especially if you have been using an extension cord. LIke I said, should be 240V 10 gauge wire, 12 gauge will probably be OK, and try not to ever use extension cords, if you are running 120 VAC.

 

regular household breakers are of the time delay varity, if your compressor is a true 5hp, you should have it wired to a 30 amp 240v line.

 

Crash I agree, I now understand that the spec calls for time delay "fuses"
they mean the little round screw-in type that use a wire as a current protector. I have the standard switch breakers.

 

I have and ingersol-rand 2 stage 3 phase motor compressor. This is just a WTF about it. It is a great compressor. With 3 mechanics in the shop it never runs out of air. It is regulated to 160 psi and never drops below 100 psi under heavy use. This thing cost me $5200 about4 years ago. Ever since it was new you could see oil leaking from or near one of the cylinders. I tightened all drain plugs and such to no avail. After hunting and hunting for this dang leak I found it. It was the cyclinder gasket. Of couse there are no warranties on such things of that nature. So I contacted Ingersol-Rand to order parts and asked them about the problem. The stated they never have problems like that with such a new compressor. After telling me that I cannot just slide the cylinder off the compress the rings to change the gasket.....I said I could not see a reason why that wouldn't work. It did work.....just fine too. To my amazement that upon taking the cylinder off. Gasket....what gasket? They never installed the silly thing.

I know it is off topic, but I wanted to share that with ya.