Hooking up an air compressor

Well I finally got a big heavy air compressor and now am hooking it up. Looks like it was originally wired with conduit in the cabinet shop but I want to wire it with a 10 gauge 3 wire flexible cord and a connector and hook it into the 30amp drier circuit for right now. I will eventually have another 220v subpanel put it with a couple more breakers so I can hook up the welder/lathe/kiln etc and be able not to have to plug and unplug lots of cords.

The compressor motor is rated at 23.5amps so I believe the 30 amp breaker is plenty for right now until I have an electrician come out.

Currently cleaning it up and going to change the air inlet filter and motor oil and also drain the tank. I'll probably put a solenoid or something on the drain so it is easier to use. I also have to bolt the damn thing to the ground and put down some vibration dampening feet. The damn compressor was in a cabinet shop and the people there used it as a spray test for lacquer so it is covered up by about 1/16in of lacquer. The only thing that will touch the lacquer and not hurt the powdercoat is acetone but I don't really want to use tons of acetone in the garage.

Thanks for any help or suggestions, y'all know I need them.

23.5 amps are probably the 'running' amps, starting amps will be higher. What gauge wire and fuses did they use in the cabinet shop? Starting amps might be too much for 10 ga wire and 30 amp fuses, try 30 amp time delay fuses if they start blowing. If that still won't work use 8 ga. (drier cord OK) and higher rated fuses.

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Thanks for the tip fasted58, just ordered an air filter. Funny thing is that about 10 different makes all are the same compressor but have different HP listings. I guess probably there is just one company that makes compressors and all the craftsman, porter cable. devilbiss, etc are just different labels for the same compressor.

I changed the oil to Amsoil and what a greasy devil that job was. Instead of using a normal drain tube this uses an m8 allen bolt with a crush washer, meaning it will be difficult to find a better drain than the rust proofing the tank and floor and myself, what a mess.

Compressor ratings are all over the map. There was some sort of regulatory flap a few years ago about it. If that's your basic 5hp/60 gallon a 220/30 will be fine. They typically have an unloader built into the pressure switch so they have a couple revolutions before any load is seen.

Regarding Amsoil - Amsoil compressor oil? I don't recall precisely why, but I remember seeing some pretty persuasive information supporting the use of actual compressor-specific lubricants when I looked into what to run in my big, honkin' Speedair 60 gallon/5hp/2 stage/4 cylinder.

I use Mobil Rarus 427 compressor oil and change every year or so. A gallon was $25 from McMaster-Carr.

You know you're getting into serious shop territory when you have to stock a bunch of industrial lubricants and coolants, and there's more gas bottles than you have cars...

Looks like the one I have. 30A is fine. Also, bolting it straight to a concrete floor without pads will make it quiet.

On mine, I used 3/8" rubber hose to run to several corners of the garage and put HF hose reels (like the one in your picture) by the garage doors and the workbench. It's much easier/cheaper than running hard line and it's working well for me. I have a ball valve on the compressor outlet so I can isolate it from the lines, prevents a runaway compressor in the case of a line blowout.

OK, I think I'm going to lose the conduit wiring and just get 15' of 10/3 and use a plug from a drier to hook this damn thing up. Then I'll pump it up and drain the tank. The tank drain looks like a pain to get out so I'll either install something easier to use or take a solenoid valve and plumb it in. The best way to do the drain is to use a solenoid and a relay so when you cut the power to the motor it trips the relay and flips the solenoid draining the tank. Also looking into getting an hour counter so I know when to do maintenance on this beast.

Thanks for the replies, I'm still working out the plumbing situation, I was going to run copper line through the garage but I need to figure out where the compressor belongs before I set it up permanently.

The compressor calls for sae30 non-detergent oil so I figure the amsoil synthetic sae30/40 compressor oil will work fine as it is made for compressors. I won't have to change it anytime soon. I love that the compressor uses a proprietary drain design, it could have just used a 1/2" pipe plug but instead uses some crazy metric allen bolt and crush washer, making drain the thing very messy. I won't mention filling it through the fill tube, that was also very messy. The air filter was very very dirty so I pulled it and am going to clean out as much dust in the intake as I can, if you want your equipment to last you gotta clean it and take care of it.

Take a picture of the nameplate on the motor. Anything else we tell is little more than guessing without that.

Ian F wrote: Take a picture of the nameplate on the motor. Anything else we tell is little more than guessing without that.

Ya beat me to it!

But yeah, all the relevant info should be right there on the motor nameplate!

I read the user manual and it says a 30amp breaker is sufficient but I'll set up a couple of posts of the motor to help clarify. The motor has a running amperage of 23.5amps.

Hope this helps and thanks for the help.

Ok. 30A will be fine.

For plumbing an air system, black pipe is very good. Use drip legs and slope and air tools will last forever.

TP Tools has great info on how.

Thread resurrection time!

Keith wrote: ...bolting it straight to a concrete floor without pads will make it quiet.

Just trying to figure out how to do the best by my new-to-me upright Campbell Hausfeld... I was actually looking for a thread I thought I remembered with a link to some damping feet at McMaster-Carr.

I find myself wondering whether anchoring it straight to the concrete will be bad for either compressor or concrete... (The garage is not terribly flat at this point, and there are cracks here and there; not looking to speed the degradation.)

What's the "rightest" way to do this? Bolt straight into concrete? Is there some kind of isolator a bit like an automotive motor mount where I can bolt the feet to the concrete and bolt the compressor to the feet? Or just put on feet and see whether the compressor wants to wander around?

I just left my old vertical tank Sanborn on the shipping pallet. Always planned on a permanent mount but there was no vibration problem and was easier to hose out underneath w/ the pallet, easier to move too. It wasn't exactly free standing but wedged in a corner, never walked or moved. Over 10 yrs later when I sold it we just walked it up ramps onto a trailer, it's probably still mounted to that pallet.

I was going to pour a 6"-8" concrete pad for the new vertical tank IR then anchor it w/ Hilti bolts but two yrs later the pallet is working fine and w/ the compressor at 600 lbs it's easier to move if need be. I think it's gonna stay like this.

Disclaimer: Installation instructions do not recommend leaving it on the pallet... but hey, it works. Just make sure it's level and doesn't walk.

Honestly I have never seen a large compressor that wasn't still bolted to its shipping pallet. The compressors in the last factory were all that way. The compressors at the new job are too.

Hell even the 25 horse Kellogg screw compressor was still on its shipping skid and it was installed over 20 years ago.

I never thought about whether or not they should be. OSHA never mentioned it on their regular inspections nor did anyone else.

Shoot, now I wish mine had come with a pallet... It's just got the usual legs; formed sheet steel with holes for some kind of bolting down...

make a "pallet" out of some 2X4 scraps and bolt it to it..

In reply to novaderrik:

That is a totally reasonably approach, but for some reason since I actively have to do something, going to the trouble of building (or even finding) a pallet seems like 90% of the work of doing whatever's "correct" just to arrive at the plenty-serviceable-but-probably-not-correct thing that people do in order to not bother doing anything...

ransom wrote: In reply to novaderrik: That is a totally reasonably approach, but for some reason since I actively have to do *something*, going to the trouble of building (or even finding) a pallet seems like 90% of the work of doing whatever's "correct" just to arrive at the plenty-serviceable-but-probably-not-correct thing that people do in order to not bother doing anything...

you could build the "pallet" out of 4 pieces of 18" long 2X4 in about the same amount of time it took you to type that post. it's sole purpose would be to get the compressor off the floor, which is about as far as almost anyone goes into "mounting" their compressors, but i have seen a few people that have cut little squares out of a junk tire to put between each leg and the wood that they mount it to just to isolate the vibes a little more..

In reply to novaderrik:

You're absolutely correct, but it's the principle of the thing; the difference between having a right-enough thing already attached to the compressor vs having to take an action, any action, in order to do it.

In the end, I think I will succumb to your pragmatism, having already attempted an experiment: I bought three "vibration damping" feet from McMaster-Carr. I ran the compressor sitting directly on the concrete on its metal legs with a decibel meter on my phone, and got 88-89 dB. I then put on the special $7/ea vibration damping feet and recorded the sound level at... 88-89 dB. Only now it's 1" taller and on squishy feet, so a bit less stable.

So, 99% certain I'll build it a little pallet just to make it more stable, with a 1% chance that I'll succumb to some ridiculous desire to do it "correctly" (knowing full well that the pallet is fine), and put anchors in the concrete and use rubber sandwich mounts to anchor the feet...

In reply to ransom:

You can prolly score a free pallet, just about anything shipped by large trucks is on a pallet. Ask around local stores. Just find the right size.

pallets are nearly indestructable btw

My 5hp upright runs fine on a 20a 240v circuit. Doesn't overheat or trip breakers etc. it specs a 15 amp circuit. It is, however, rated for 135 psi not 175. It specifies Mobil 1 full synthetic, a quart will last 3 years. In fact, it's about time to change it again...

About bolting it down to concrete: mine has a big warning to NOT do this. The vibration can lead to failure of the welds. They specify rubber mounts. I put a piece of OSB on the floor, set the compressor on that and then secured it to the wall with that plumber's tape. Works fine.