Ramblin' Dan's Workshop

Not quite a stand alone tool so I was uncertain under what classification to place this article. Since the use of air is a part of many of the shop tools I use, this section is a good fit.

I gave some consideration to publishing this article in the THMS site but obviously here is where I decided it belonged. Any workshop with shop air is a great place to work.

The picture shown here at the top is the air pressure filter and regulator I purchased several years ago. You see I have it set up with a barbed outlet so I intended it for use with my high speed (400,000 rpm) hand rotary tool. The large filter section made it awkward to use as I had no stand to properly hold it. 

I replaced its function for use with the rotary tool with a much smaller and compact unit shown in the picture below it. No filter but the air is clean and dry by the time it gets here. The large silver foot pedal in the white case further regulates and starts/stops the hand tool. That rotary hand tool is a story for another day.

Since I had this beautiful air station just laying about, I figured it is about time I put it to some use.The air compressor is near the power outlet about the middle of the shop. To adjust the air pressure at the work bench, Taig mill, the X3 mill and the Lathemaster lathe required I run around to the other side of the high back bench. With my legs that is a long hard trip.

The project described here is how I devised a way to mount this device using features built in for the exact purpose. The metal brackets are 3 inch by 1 inch aluminum channel I had left over from my first CNC machine design, the HB1.

Two pieces were band sawed to a length of three inches each. The center section of both pieces were then cut out with the band-saw. I didn't spend a lot of effort to make these parts pretty, just functional.	Here is the flip sides. you can see one center notch is deeper than the other and I labeled it with an "R". The notches at the edge are necessary to clear a flange.
This shows the large hole in the "top" side while there is a smaller hole in the "bottom".	Looking at this end of the pressure regulator, you can see there is a flange molded into the body.
The air filter has the same flanges and you can see they are on both sides of each component.	Here is how one of my brackets fits those flanges. I did a slight bit of edge taper filing allowing for the heavy paint in the grooves. When the far end is clamped down, the air filter fits to the top of the notch.
The flanges are actually intended for this type of bracket. I had seen the factory mounting system years ago.	Now you see why I made the larger holes in the top bracket angle. The top edge provides some strength.
This close up shows why I used the board. It just makes it easier to mount than fooling around with brackets mounting directly to the wall (or the bench here.)	This shows how the clamps lock in the air components. I will be changing the barb to something more appropriate.
Here you see where I located the air station. The compressor is on the other side of this bench as you can see in the next picture.	This is a DeWalt oil-less compressor, It has good capacity and I have been running it for long periods when doing CNC machining and especially when misting.
I will run 100 pounds on this regulator and the step it down with the new air station to what I need for the work at hand on the other side of the bench.