A bit of a dilemna happened at work the other day. I needed air on a job and both the compressors were broken. So like all Cruiser drivers, time to once again think inside the wagon..
I can say that I never expected to use the compressor in my rig to run a nail gun. But yup, if you look close in that one pic you can see the hose running out the back of my rig and up into a boat.
Just why did this happen. I have a couple of compressors at work but unfortunately they both failed within days of each other. And it was only a little device called a pressure regulator that caused the problem.
So why is this little part important? Yes your compressor will run without it but it would be possible to over pressurize the system with possibly dangerous results. This little marvel is the only thing that tells your compressor motor when to shut off. So just what does this have to do with my wagon? It brings up that little thing called maintenance.
Not long before this whole adventure the pressure regulator on the compressor in my rig failed. Why? Just so happens that the regulator managed to get some water down in the mechanism, a bit a rust and muck jammed it up to the point it would not work. And this could have been easily avoided with a bit of preventive maintenance.
For the most part all the preventive maintenance is nothing but letting the water out of the system. Water forms in pretty much all compressor systems. Large industrial stuff frequently has air driers built in to solve the problem but its just not practical for the small compressors in our rigs or on the portable compressors you may have at work. So where does the water come from? It’s actually just a byproduct of compressing the air around you and sadly it collects in the air system and for the most part does not come out with the compressed air. And from there it finds it’s way into places it shouldn’t be. Like pressure regulators.
This is why air tanks have drains. Don’t forget to open your’s on a regular basis to get the water out of the tank or you will find yourself replacing the tank when it rusts from the inside out. But remember to stay back a bit as the water in there isn’t going to come out clean.
It won’t hurt to pull the safety pop off valve open once in awhile either. This way you know the valve part of it functions.
My pressure regulator is mounted inline on my system and due to clearance reasons it is mounted with the electrical parts below the air line that passes through it. It would probably be better to mount the sensitive parts above the air line so water doesn’t collect in it. Gravity is a good thing when it works in your favor.
Something else to think about is how you store the air hose in your rig. For a long time to keep dirt out I would hook the ends together. Bad idea. Often water will collect inside the hose, usually not a lot but I found that the ends were starting to corrode and the movable parts were starting to not move….
But I did learn something in all of this, my rig is the biggest portable compressor I have ever used and yes it will run a nail gun quite well….
