The Home Machinist!

I have a a detached unheated garage that had the power disconnected a few years ago for home renovation
the electric was ancient BX cable run thru a heavy wall conduit that connects to the main house,that conduit is
probably plumbing pipe the previous owner used as conduit.
Now I'd like to run new electric wires in the garage, but I'd also like to run a air line into the garage, basically the
electric wire and the air line would share a properly sized conduit for both.
Simple solution is to put the compressor in the garage, but it's one of those expensive oil bath silent compressors
and I'd rather not have it bake and freeze during the seasons.

I've been searching the web for any NEMA regulations against having a compressed air line and a electric line together in a
conduit or pipe, but no luck, flammable gas no can do for obvious reasons, but nothing about compressed air.
Anyone know if there are any regulations about that ?

Regulations aside, how do you plan to enter and exit the pipe air tight?

tornitore45 wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2019 6:55 am Regulations aside, how do you plan to enter and exit the pipe air tight?

I assume that he wants to fish an air line through the conduit alongside the electrical conductors. I doubt that the conduit is air tight.

That's what I understood, too.
When I built the castle, I installed ¼" black pipe inside a 3/4" steel conduit, along with some #12 romex. The gas line was used to provide gas to the gas lights I had installed on the front of the structure. I have no idea if that would be acceptable (by code), but it worked nicely. I had built auto ignition for the gas lights, which operated via a photo cell, turning the gas off during daylight hours.

H

Need to take a remedial reading course. Is clear what the OP meant.

Heh! I can't tell you the number of times I've read a post that was perfectly clear, yet my mind managed to get it screwed up.
I'm guilty of forming a mental image, right or wrong, and once formed, it's nearly impossible to lose. That has made me look foolish on several occasions. (Not to imply you look foolish---you don't)!

H

Assumptions and preconceptions. Although as a scientist I was trained, strive to and spent a lifetime in a lab where we learned to be factual and objective, nobody is immune. I think by images if such a statement makes any sense, and the first one that pops up set the stage.

LOL, when I wrote the post I had to proof read it a few time to make sure it was clear that I wasn't using the conduit as a means to
supply the compressed air, just a sheath for two separate lines.
Every one makes that reading mistake, probably because we need bifocals !

Harold_V - Interesting that you ran a gas line in the same conduit as electric, I assume this is above ground ?

jcfx wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2019 6:28 pm Harold_V - Interesting that you ran a gas line in the same conduit as electric, I assume this is above ground ?

Yes, above ground. While I don't have a picture readily available of the lights after they were installed, here's a picture of the structure on which they went. If you look closely on the left side, you'll notice there's a couple of octagonal electric boxes under the three windows, pretty much centered between the windows, and there's a couple of them above the front door, about even with the top of the arch. They appear as just dots in this picture. That's where the gas lines and romex was installed.
H

Edit:
I had a thought, so I went to the web site and took a look. It's now a B&B (we sold it in '96), but the lights are still there, although no longer gas. Here's a link that shows them. http://castlecreekbb.com/

Disclaimer. I am in no way associated with the B&B. Just provided the link so you could see the lights.

Harold said: "When I built the castle..."
And then the photo...!!!

Tell us more, please?
~RussN

I'm with RussN, when Harold said he built a castle, I had no idea he meant it literally! LoL

Terry

Not much to tell. I had an idea that I wanted to pursue. Didn't have enough money to see it to fruition, but it was the chief reason why I was able to retire at a young age.

Susan and I designed the place, and did a lot of the work in building. We most likely would have stayed, but the area in which it was built went through some drastic changes and went from being "out in the country" to, more or less, the center of town, and it happened in a relatively short interval of time.

The house was built on land that had been targeted for a relocation of the entrance of Creek Road (for reasons of safety), which had been in the county master plan for more than 20 years. We were aware, and purchased the land based on two different properly descriptions, one if the road went in, the other if it did not. Had the master plan not been pursued, we had a right of way to the property, which would have been land locked. Almost immediately after we made the purchase, the county staked the road location, which finally defined our property lines. We could live with that, but there were other changes in the wind, changes we had not anticipated. One of them was the property behind and to the north of the castle. It was 7½ acres in size, and occupied by a single residence.

Not long after we began construction, the owner of that property retired, and it was sold to a developer. It was converted to over 300 apartment units. The pasture on the opposite side of the new street from the castle is now a strip mall. The property immediately to the north now houses a dental office. Harada, who owned a farm south of the structure, at the top of the hill, is now home to a huge high rise hotel (I've been told, I have not seen it).

We had lost the very thing we sought-----solitude. We were not allowed to rezone the property, so it was difficult to sell. We had multiple offers, but the county would not permit the proposed uses. Finally, we found a buyer who was willing to work within the strict guidelines proposed by the county, and the then unfinished two bedroom home was converted to the 10 unit bed and breakfast shown in the link. The original owners have since retired, and it is now in the hands of another owner.

Susan and I found the solitude we sought, and moved to Washington State, where we now reside in the home we built almost entirely without outside help, on 5½ acres of mostly wooded land.

H