Shop Air Compressor Maintenance Question

[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.