Shop Air Compressor Maintenance Question

[WinterDeere]

I have a 60 gal 155 psi rebranded “Mega” compressor that I can’t drain.. it has a hex screw on the bottom that when u “think” you back it out, the screw would come out and u could drain it or adapt the hole to something more manageable.. but NO.. the screw stops turning, comes to a dead stop..
& if u screw it the other way “up” it just screws until it reaches the bottom of the tank and stops..
It’s been that way since new..

Drill the old plug out, and install an auto drain, or at least a decent thumb-screw drain.

I generally use left-hand twist drills, when drilling out old buggered plugs or rusted fasteners. Probably 80% of the time, the fastener or plug will spin out of the threaded hole before I'm even finished drilling, negating the need for the dreaded extraction tools. Left-hand drill bits are stupid expensive, but there are some cheap sets out there (fractional inch sizes) that work plenty well enough, for this occasional purpose.

 

[ultrarunner]

Drill the old plug out, and install an auto drain, or at least a decent thumb-screw drain.

I generally use left-hand twist drills, when drilling out old buggered plugs or rusted fasteners. Probably 80% of the time, the fastener or plug will spin out of the threaded hole before I'm even finished drilling, negating the need for the dreaded extraction tools. Left-hand drill bits are stupid expensive, but there are some cheap sets out there (fractional inch sizes) that work plenty well enough, for this occasional purpose.

Left Hand bits have saved me several times... I bought my set through the snap on tool jobber 40 years ago.

 

[grsthegreat]

I have a 60 gal 155 psi rebranded “Mega” compressor that I can’t drain.. it has a hex screw on the bottom that when u “think” you back it out, the screw would come out and u could drain it or adapt the hole to something more manageable.. but NO.. the screw stops turning, comes to a dead stop..
& if u screw it the other way “up” it just screws until it reaches the bottom of the tank and stops..
It’s been that way since new..

Weird, usually on bolts that dont come out, have a hole in it that allows the draining. Mine is that way. It wont come all the way out, because the air pressure would make it a missle.

 

[thepumpguysc]

That’s what I was thinking grs.. but it doesn’t leak in either direction..
So I haven’t drained it in 5 YEARS.!!! Lol
I have a nice set of Strap-On LH Drill bits and extractors..
They sure come in handy..!!

 

[ponytug]

That’s what I was thinking grs.. but it doesn’t leak in either direction..
So I haven’t drained it in 5 YEARS.!!! Lol
I have a nice set of Strap-On LH Drill bits and extractors..
They sure come in handy..!!

Generally, the bolt has a hole part way up where it intersects a cross hole for drainage. I wonder if yours was defective from the factory. I would give Mega a call for advice and I would fix it, or buy a new tank, if it were me. I've seen the result of tank failures and it is not pretty. I certainly would hate to be in the shop with it if it let go.

All the best,

Peter

 

[thepumpguysc]

I never thought of it that way..I assumed the screw came out..??
Thank you Peter.. I’ll give it a gander..

 

[Panik]

LOL, I'd love to say I've followed up on the many suggestions in this thread.... there've been some good ones. In particular, putting an auto-drain/purge on the compressor. For better or worse I've been spending too much time using the dang thing for work to accomplish much else around the house or in the way of projects.

For what it's worth I bought a Fortress Oil-less 27 gallon compressor from Harbor Freight & maybe this post should actually be in the Harbor Freight Tools That Don't Suck thread. I've been pretty darned impressed with it. It's been my first foray beyond pancake compressors - no leaks, and it's much quieter than I ever would've expected & has all the umpf I need. Doesn't hurt that somehow it fits, without and planning, perfectly under the stairs that lead to the shop loft space..... dunno how I got lucky on that one.

We are renovating the natural resource education center I work at and unfortunately, while those renovations mean I will eventually get a dedicated shop space - the work involved in modifying our facility has meant that the "new shop" space hasn't been available so I've been working from my shop at home. That work has largely involved everything included in building 11 new cabinets for the current animal exhibits we have and the bulk of the time spent in building those has been tasked to spraying multiple coats of water-based gloss polyurethane on something like 1,200 linear feet of 4" rough cedar trim with that compressor and the "Green" Harbor Freight HVLP gun.


I've been really pleasantly surprised... the specs on the Fortress compressor are supposedly right on the edge of supporting using that HVLP gun. The combo has worked flawlessly with the compressor keeping up just fine. Haven't had to stop once while spraying to let the compressor catch up.

As an added side note, If anyone is interested in a cheap HVLP gun I highly recommend skipping Harbor Freight's purple gun and spending the $30ish dollars for the green gun, which is the next step up. After drilling out the tip the Harbor Freight "Green" HVLP gun (I forget what size) it handles water-based poly (oil-modified), Watco Wipe-On oil based poly, and oil-based Rustoleum Hammered Black paint just fine with absolutely no thinning. I suspect with just a bit of thinning it would handle thicker latex-based paints just fine.

I say that, however in truth the Hammered Black paint sprays more like cotton candy being spun and if I wanted I could probably justify thinning that paint just a bit. Can't be bothered because after a few moments the paint lays down in a slightly bumpy texture that fits really well with the "hammered" aspect of that paint and it fits really well with my purpose - spraying the outside of light reflectors for 100w heat bulbs that will go on the enclosures.

.... I realize I'm rambling a bit, slow post Thanksgiving morning before heading into work & I thought I'd follow up with things since this thread has been getting some appreciated attention.

 

[masscity]

When I bought this in 2014 the first thing I did is put a 1/4 turn valve on it. I would get on my knees and blow it into a

bucket. After having knee surgery I couldn't do that anymore, so I would reach down and open the valve. Problem was my

arthritis kept getting worse, so even that was getting old. Not too long ago someone posted putting on a hose with a spray

valve, I hooked it up and man do I like it.

 

[5030]

Much less tedious to add either a timed drain valve or a differential drai8n valve that dumps every time the compressor cycles. Myself, I use a timed valve, a Tsunami (made in America) valve. It also has a built in strainer that keeps the unit from getting fouled from any rust in the receiver. Compressors Direct sells them both. My reciprocating compressor discharges into an IR refrigerated dryer and then into my air system in the shop and I also have a back up Sulliare rotary screw compressor but it only runs during times of high demand like when the CNC plasma table is running and the Sulliare has a built in condensate dryer. No matter wjat you do, you will still get some moisture in your air lines, it's a fact of temperature drop and condensation and why I run Motorguard cannister filters on the inlets of my plasma cutters. The Motorguard's get what is in the whip hoses before it gets in the plasma cutters. Any moisture in the air supply on a plasma unit, spells a quick death for the consumables.

You always want to remove any and all condensate from your compressor receiver simply because if you don't, at some point the condensate in the receiver will rust it out. I used to drain mine manually as well, but a timed or differential pressure dump valve eliminates me forgetting to drain it.

 

[bigtiller]

When I bought this in 2014 the first thing I did is put a 1/4 turn valve on it. I would get on my knees and blow it into a

bucket. After having knee surgery I couldn't do that anymore, so I would reach down and open the valve. Problem was my

arthritis kept getting worse, so even that was getting old. Not too long ago someone posted putting on a hose with a spray
valve, I hooked it up and man do I like it.

Maybe it was post #9 above.

I'm glad it works as well for you as it does for me.

 

[nyone]

Dont over think this.

I have family that had a machine shop and used blow guns alot. They had a 20gal compressor in the attic that rarly turned off for 15yrs. we went to take it out of the attic one day and had to drain at least 10gal of water out of the tank. It still worked fine for another 5-7yrs running air nailers on a construction site.

He also dosnt remember the last time it had a oil change.

 

[5030]

I actually have 3 compressors in my machine shop. My main compressor is a Quincy 10 horsepower QP (pressure lubricated reciprocating compressor mounted on a 150 gallon vertical receiver as well as a Sulaire screw compressor as backup when air consumption exceeds the output of the Quincy and a portable Campbell Hausfeld pancake compressor I hardly ever use.

The Quincy has an automatic timed condensate drain and so does the Sulaire and both feed trough an Ingersoll Rand refrigerated air dryer in front of the shop air system, which is all plumbed in black iron pipe. I keep my static air pressure in the system at 130 psi, not 175 as the higher the static pressure is, the shorter life the compressors have and the higher static pressure also produces more condensate and contrary to popular opinion, air tools operate just fine on 130 psi because it's the volume of air delivered and not the static pressure that determines tool efficiency. To that end, I only use high flow fittings on everything plus I have 'point of use' condensate and dirt filters on all my plasma cutters as well as my CNC plasma table.

It's not a hobby shop, it's a working commercial operation, though I do pursue my 'hobby' as well.