Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[Rock Crawler]

Yeah the air is just going to go from my big compressor to my little blaster

I run up the wall, turn and down the wall to make a U as I turn horizontal to a drain valve and then turn back up for the second vertical of the U and have a T fitting with 2 quick disconnects.

 

[Ford850]

Don't bother me at all. I look at the coupons as 'icing on the cake' and nothing more. Their non sale pricing is excellent for value received without any coupons. For example, tell me where you can buy a 1/2" drive micrometer adjusting torque wrench that torques both clockwise and counter clockwise that is proven accurate to within 4% clockwise and 6% counterclockwise over it's entire range for 100 bucks, I dare you....

Just one example. I look at the coupons as only an incentive, not a must do.

Menards sells one that checks all those boxes, including a lifetime guarantee. $59.97 everyday price for their Mastercraft brand. I've found more tools at Menards that appear very similar to HF, and are sometimes at much better price unless you use a HF coupon to make them similar. I compare both places now, looking at features and overall quality (along with price).

 

[bcp]

Menards sells one that checks all those boxes, including a lifetime guarantee. $59.97 everyday price for their Mastercraft brand. I've found more tools at Menards that appear very similar to HF, and are sometimes at much better price unless you use a HF coupon to make them similar. I compare both places now, looking at features and overall quality (along with price).

But HF is 10 miles away. Menards is 1000 miles away. The trip would for the savings wouldn't be worth it.

Bruce

 

[Ford850]

But HF is 10 miles away. Menards is 1000 miles away. The trip would for the savings wouldn't be worth it.

View attachment 633896

Bruce

Not worth the road trip for you, but might be for others who have a Menards in their area. I was really just using Menards because that's where I've found comparable decent quality tools, sometimes very similar, to the better HF tools. Obviously they are having them private labeled in both cases, so there are probably other stores doing the same thing.

 

[hunt4570]

I run up the wall, turn and down the wall to make a U as I turn horizontal to a drain valve and then turn back up for the second vertical of the U and have a T fitting with 2 quick disconnects.

Interesting. My “big” compressor is a gas powered wheelbarrow styled compressor that I need to be mobile, when I get done with the sawmill for the day I wheel it out to blow all the stuff off it. But I guess I could plug it in if I needed to, how but a couple pics please?

 

[Rock Crawler]

Tough to photo because I run from a lower level garage where the compressor is and up through the concrete pad into the second level shop area, the black pipe spans both levels. But in the end, you just use black pipe and make a U, you can easily do it in a single level shop. I didn't come up with that concept, I saw it online somewhere and used that concept as we were building this 7 bay addition.

The nice thing with black pipe is that I run to ball valves to isolate. I never cut power to the compressor, but when I'm done with air there is no rubber line seeing pressure as the valves are isolated. With air line you need to worry about blowing a line and the compressor going into thermal runaway and burning your shop/house down.

 

[Fallon]

Interesting. My “big” compressor is a gas powered wheelbarrow styled compressor that I need to be mobile, when I get done with the sawmill for the day I wheel it out to blow all the stuff off it. But I guess I could plug it in if I needed to, how but a couple pics please?

There are lots of DIY options out there if you Google around.

Hot air holds moisture but cold air doesnt. Combine that with air heating when compressed & cooling when it expands & you dump moisture in your lines & implements.

There are basically 2 options, cool the air & dump the water somewhere or run it through a desicant to absorb the moisture.

The cooling option can be as simple as a run of metal pipe sloping towards a trap with a drain or something refrigerated. I put a transmission cooler between my pump & tank. Cools the air down & dumps it with the water into the tank I drain regularly. I have a big desicant filter after the tank as well, but it has yet to need a regeneration.

Desicant is just a material with a high surface area that absorbs moisture. All those "dont eat" packets in anything you buy. The granules can be regenerated by heating them up in an oven at low tempatures (the packets may melt, but the granules themselves will be fine if you do them seperately). The granules are white. Some are coated on materials that change color when wet or dry for an easy status check. You can also regen them with dry compressed air. Semi trucks have a desicant system with an auto-regen using the compressed air from time to time.

If I remember "the franzanator" or something is a popular DIY setup out of plumbing parts that uses some cool physics of a pressure drop & gravity to cool & dry the air.

Most dryer options are overkill for a lot of mobile needs. But just put a QD on the input & output of your dryer so you dont need to haul it around.

 

[crazyal]

To cool the air all you need is a rubber hose and a large trash can. Put the hose in the trash can and fill the can up with cold water. Just don't let the hose clump together at the bottom. It'll cool the air down. Anther option is to bury 100s of feet of air line in the ground. It'll also cool it down. From there getting the water out is much easier.

 

[Alan W.]

Rigged this up one day when it was humid and the water was killing the sand blaster.
And I got the parts from HF. Fill the bucket with ice water set the valve to bleed slightly
and no more water issues in the sand blaster.

 

[Grumpycat]

View attachment 634076

Rigged this up one day when it was humid and the water was killing the sand blaster.
And I got the parts from HF. Fill the bucket with ice water set the valve to bleed slightly
and no more water issues in the sand blaster.

Drain the compressor tank first. So few ever do. Water accumulates then boils back into the air when tank is vented to blow sand or fill a tire. Even then that might not be enough to spray paint.