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Air Tool Pressure

1K views 15 replies 14 participants last post by  jasonmt 
#1 ·
Has anyone ran their air tools for over a year at ~ 120psi instead of the suggested 90psi ???

Die grinders, impacts and the like.

Just curious if you started to notice premature failure or what you can report ?

-Todd
 
#16 ·
Static versus Dynamic pressure is a good thing to bring up for the purposes of this post.

In my shop I have the regulator coming off of the compressor set at 120psi and it will maintain ~115psi when you are using a 1/2" impact.

BUT if you throw a pressure gauge on the impacts inlet you actually see ~95psi when the tool is running due to the pressure drop from the copper air lines, a couple of quick connects and 35' of 3/8" rubber hose.

Depending on how you are setup, especially the guys who seem to like running 50' lengths of 1/4" hose the difference between the static and dynamic air pressure can be quite large.
 
#6 ·
We have had some problems with needle scalers that we ran at a higher pressure than listed. However we were using them to abrade concrete floors in prep for overlays. Something like 300-500 sq ft of floor abraded / needle scaller, run wide open (triggers taped on) off an IR 185 screw machine for 30+ hrs. so I guess you might call this "accelerated" wear. We'd wear out the needles them selves in about 3-4 hrs of use. They also saw very little oil as we couldn't afford to have it spray on the concrete, which I am sure also didn't help.

Basically chalked it up to the cost of doing the job as quick and cleanly as posible.
 
#7 · (Edited)
The "on-off" pressures of my shop compressor has been 175/ 190 for the past 20+ years and no issues as a result of running too high of air pressure. BUT I do oil my air tools a lot.
 
#9 ·
My compressor turns off at 175psi. When I rebuild the pump I`ll probably turn it off @ 150 PSI.

I just want to run it at 130PSI so I don't have to adjust it each time I use my air/over hydro bender.

Sounds like lube and go and I`ll be good :p
 
#10 ·
Tool life isn't that affected but compressor life is. Higher pressure = higher temp ,higher workload, higher wear. You will get some extra "oomph" at higher pressures, but dial the pressure switch down to where you have "enough to get the job done" and your compressor will last a lot longer.

If you need too dial up your compressor much over 125 psi just to break torque on stuff then it's time to upgrade to a more powerful tools and larger diameter lines not turn up the pressure. Higher cfm is what you want, not higher pressure.

Just switching to 1/2" air line can make a huge difference. You'll need at least one large I.D. line if you use a 3/4" impact or sandblaster.
 
#12 ·
my old ass single cylinder compressor that was made in the 30's runs at only 850 rpm's and its tough for it to pump past 125 psi so i got it set to turn on at 100 psi and off at 125. I've had it at 150 before and all the tools ran better but my compressor just couldn't handle it.
 
#13 ·
I didn't mean to imply everybody should just turn their compressor up as high as it will go. My compressor is designed to run at such pressures and high CFM so i use it like it was designed.
 
#14 ·
be carefull with die-grinders or anything running a cut-wheel. we had one fly apart on a die-grinder running off 120psi shop air. it cut they guy in the neck and he almost bled-out on the floor before the ambulance got here.

most likely there was a problem with the wheel and he wasn't running a guard. but, at 120psi the tool was operating past the max RPM on the cut-wheel.
 
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