Air Supply to the Man Cave!

Compressed Air Routed Through the Floor

As my air compressor is rather large and noisy, it belongs in the garage...at all times!  My newly confiscated man-cave room that will house my first serious HO scale railroad (Meridian Speedway Vicksburg Terminal) sits directly above the garage.  I used my vacation time this week to take advantage of that positioning and drill a hole.  A simple task...or so I thought.

A 20-foot reinforced 3/4-inch diameter water hose from Home Depot was my conveyor-of-choice to transfer air from the compressor in the garage to the air tank in the train room.  Again I enlisted the assistance of my uncle, Joseph Scorsone, for the project.  We figured we should have this done in about an hour.....not!  

As it turned out there is about 18 inches between the floor of the train room and the ceiling of the garage which meant a second trip to Home Depot for a LONG bit and then a third trip for a bit extension.  I do feel better about the house knowing how much insulation there is around the garage!

Also it seems that the width of the wall of the garage is wider that the width of the wall of the train room. The first hole, and the second hole we drilled down from the train room ended up in the wall of the garage.  At last, the third hole drilled about six inches from the side wall of the train room landed in the garage!  The hose fit snugly to the bit extension and was easily pulled through the floor into the garage. Success at last!

A metal file cabinet used to store indexed photographs fits nicely over the hose's entrance through the floor, both protecting and camouflaging it at the same time.  The 15-foot hose from the tank to the airbrush will allow me to not only easily paint items in the paint booth, but also paint items on the railroad as it takes shape.

The entrance in the garage ceiling is nothing spectacular.  It is directly over some wall-mounted shelves, also camouflaging the air line's entrance into the garage.  This hose was fitted with male Quick-Connect fittings at both ends.  The air tank valve and the air compressor hose are now both fitted with female Quick-Connect fittings so that when disconnected, the air in both the air tank and the compressor will be bottled. 

And the timing of this project while my wife was out of town on a business trip...strictly coincidence!

Chris