There are a dozen ways to run a compressed air line across a shop or garage, with everything from PVC pipe to galvanized tubing, but by far the easiest setup I’ve seen is now offered by Eastwood in their Complete Garage Air Line Kit. Consisting of PVC lines and press fittings, it’s a simple cut-to-fit application with more than 100-feet of line. In addition to the lines and fittings, the kit also comes with an aluminum outlet manifold that allows two outputs for air hose attachments and an additional manifold that can be used as either a drain or as an additional outlet. Eastwood also offers an inline moisture separator and lubricator that works perfectly for all those pneumatic tools that need to be lubricated yet kept moisture free.
Since I was setting up a pneumatic system that would serve two purposes, the availability of extra Eastwood distribution manifolds made this very simple. The first line would run through Eastwood’s inline moisture separator and lubricator and run all my standard pneumatic tools such as my grinders while the second line, run through the oil separator and desiccant system I picked up from Zane, would allow me to paint, blast, and run my plasma cutter without any worry of picking up moisture. I also devised a drainage system that would first run out of the compressor and then just before the filter station to try and gather as much moisture as possible.
The resulting system has performed flawlessly with no moisture building up in my tools and leaving my gloves nice and dry, just the way I like them! I still drain my compressor every day, something you’ll need to do regardless, but I’ve found that my drains before the filters have little moisture built up in them, just as I expected.
With this setup, I’m confident that not only will I not get water in the line when painting, but I won’t be ruining my brand-new HTP plasma cutter, nor will I have any problem with moisture in my blasting cabinet. A few hours of work ends up paying off in dividends when it comes to drying out that compressed air, and I did it on a budget restoring hand-me-downs. CCT