Question about air tools with air tank

[MoreCowbellAz]

I know almost nothing about air tools so bear with me............I have a Craftsman 5 gallon 135psi air tank to use mainly for inflating car/motorcycle/bicycle tires. My question is, can you use light duty air tools such as a blow gun with this, meaning do they use a special hose and will it actually work? The stuff I would do is really light duty, such as occasionally cleaning carbs on mowers and motorcycles, blowing water out of crevices after washing, etc. I won't be doing sanding, ratcheting, chiseling, painting, etc.

Any info is appreciated. Take pity on me, after the beat down our Cardinals took yesterday. Ouch.

 

[RooflessVW]

Your 5 gallon tank will work fine for your intended use. The only thing it won't be good for are the things you don't plan to use it for.

As long as the tools' chuck matches your hose you'll be all set. Most tools don't come with the chuck so you can install the one you plan to use.

 

[bubbatime]

Blow guns use a lot of air, so it will work fine for a short period of time.

 

[JHZR2]

The real question is how many psi are you planning to push through the blow gun? One cubic foot of air is like 7.x gallons. So a 5 gal compressor has less than one cubic foot of volume...

But the number of atmospheres of air is another story. The lower the pressure, the more of the stored cubic feet you can remove.

Ive used a portable 10 gallon air tank to blow out dust and dirt from places around my home after certain projects. It works well enough... if it truly is light duty, Id say youre set. If you find wanting for more, buy a small portable tank (There are US-made Jegs ones on Amazon) and plumb it in series at say, 110psi, and use a regulator (if you wish) to make the output of that to be your desired pressure. Then you get the storage within the compressor tank, the connecting hose, and the secondary tank, which is all accessible.

Also use hearing protection even with a blow gun. The pressure wave can be noted if you have sensitive ears.

 

[6starprez]

I have a 6 gallon 150 psi Porter Cable pancake compressor that I use for the same things. A blow gun will work fine. I also use my 24" air blow gun at about 70 psi to blow the sand out of my cars' engine compartment. Especially on the Subaru with it's flat engine.

 

[MoreCowbellAz]

I never thought about a regulator, am I correct that it would reduce the output through the blow gun to be only what I need and thereby prolonging my air supply? Or maybe that's overkill.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: bubbatime
Blow guns use a lot of air, so it will work fine for a short period of time.


++1

 

[SZR48207]

Originally Posted By: MoreCowbellAz
I never thought about a regulator, am I correct that it would reduce the output through the blow gun to be only what I need and thereby prolonging my air supply? Or maybe that's overkill.


On my Craftsman compressor, the regulator only limits the psi in the tank (and therefore the psi at the tool). Once pressure drops a certain amount, the compressor kicks on.

I think you may be assuming that the tank fills to full capacity and then the regulator acts like a restrictor?

 

[EdwardC]

I think your compressor would be perfect for light duty use you describe. I have a small 4.5 gallon compressor for the same thing.

Your compressor output likely has a regulator and knob on it already. Lowering the output pressure should use less air and prolong the use between re-fills.

The connections should all be the same standard quick connects. You should easily be able to run the blow gun, and even other small tools like pneumatic air nailers (that's what I use mine for mostly). Air tools are quite convenient.

 

[6starprez]

Originally Posted By: MoreCowbellAz
I never thought about a regulator, am I correct that it would reduce the output through the blow gun to be only what I need and thereby prolonging my air supply? Or maybe that's overkill.


Wait a minute, you said "tank" as in portable tank? I thought you were talking compressor. I don't know if you could put a regulator on that

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: MoreCowbellAz
Take pity on me, after the beat down our Cardinals took yesterday. Ouch.

Did you loose money on a wager?

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: 6starprez
Originally Posted By: MoreCowbellAz
I never thought about a regulator, am I correct that it would reduce the output through the blow gun to be only what I need and thereby prolonging my air supply? Or maybe that's overkill.


Wait a minute, you said "tank" as in portable tank? I thought you were talking compressor. I don't know if you could put a regulator on that


Sure you can. Just go buy one and thread it on and then leak check...

OP, the thing with a regulator is this - lets say you really only need 40 psi air to blow out your jobs. If you fill the tank, either main and/or supplemental to, say, 135psi, the first air that comes out of the gun is at 135 psi. Then what comes out is consistent with tank pressure. So youre wasting air to start, and then using really low air later on. If you used a regulator, you would get consistent 40 psi air until the tank pressure went below that. This would provide better, more efficient use of your stored air when the tank is at high pressure.

This can be observed, if not calculated, via the Hagen–Poiseuille equation, and/or the Darcy–Weisbach equation. Essentially, these relate pressure with flow (with a variety of other factors like viscosity, pipe diameter, etc.

So the flow with Pin=40psi and Pexit=0pis is different than the flow with Pin=135psi and Pexit=0psi, if you observe the equations.

What that shows is that if you regulate down the pressure, youll waste less at the start. For the sake of argument, lets say your tank has 10 atmospheres of pressure. per my post above, one cubic foot is like 7 gallons, but to make the math easy, lets say you have one cubic foot of air in the tank... at one atmosphere.

Then you really have ten cubic feet of air in the tank if it is at 10 atmospheres. Assuming you slowly bled the quantity of air out at atmospheric pressure.

What limits you is the outlet pressure, you can only really access with the blow gun the delta in pressure between the tank max, and what you need the regulator to provide.

But regulating it, despite the regulator's intrinsic losses, will maximize your usage, especially if you add a supplemental tank...

 

[Eddie]

I have a 5 gallon 135PSI Portor Cable and use it for blow gun, airing tires, running a 1/4 inch air ratchet, and a 3/8 inch impact AFTER breaking nuts loose on my John Deere mower blades. normal operation pressure is set by me at 60 PSIG and 120 PSIG for the ratchet & impact. Ed

 

[MoreCowbellAz]

That's good info, thanks all.

Originally Posted By: CT8
Originally Posted By: MoreCowbellAz
Take pity on me, after the beat down our Cardinals took yesterday. Ouch.

Did you loose money on a wager?


No I don't take it that seriously, it was just ugly ugly ugly. I never like seeing good teams totally implode like that. Between those guys and Green Bay I feel like I need to self medicate.