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[quote=”richie00boy” post=33077]I keep reading about people saying that a filter/seperator at the compressor output is no use. But my own experience – although in a DIY environment – goes against this. The water collects in the at compressor filter/seperator and I get nothing whatsoever in the filter/seperator regulator further down the line. When air is compressed inside a vessel and it is released from a small orifice and vented to a low pressure environment it cools down rapidly. I learnt this at work as we make high pressure air systems. So I say put the filter/seperator at your compressor and keep your pipes clean.
scoobycarl, is the surging more like the gauge reads say 40 PSI then when you pull the trigger it drops to 30 and stays there? Or is it that you pull the trigger and it rises then falls?[/quote]
hanging your trap off the compressor is the biggest waste of money i have ever heard of… thats like relying on the moisture ta all stay in the bottom of the air tank save the trap for at least 50 feet down stream of your compressor plus putting a dirtleg before the trap dont hurt either not only is clean dry air good for painting your airtools last alot longer when the air is dryCarl, 15 feet from the compressor is no good at all, but one cheap trick you may want to try is something I’ve done myself and it worked well. I’m also pretty sure Nelson (Bobwires) had something similar and it worked well for him too.
Hunt around for a dead compressor, you only need the tank. Place it right outside the booth where your airline comes in and plumb it in series. The air will come from your compressor and into the new tank, then out of the other end of the tank to your airline in the booth, through whatever filter / trap you have.
Firstly you’ll get a bit of extra storage capacity from this new tank.
Second you’ll get the cooling effect Rich mentions as the air comes out of the line and expands into this tank.
Thirdly it’ll act as a big heatsink cooling the air a bit more.
All of this should help to condense out as much moisture as possible, and the tank is like a massive water trap too. Probably not as good as a dedicated dryer but for how cheap it is it’ll pay for itself the first time it prevents a rework.
You might also want to consider the Devilbiss Whirlwind traps that fit onto your gun/regulator. They are a bit cumbersome and reduce airflow a little but they take out every last drop of moisture. I’ve used them and had absolutely no water coming through the gun but it’s been dripping from the quick release connector, showing how much water was coming through the lines!
Well I did a small test.. I removed the moisture trap from the compressor put it down the line and ran a full 2 cycles. Marked the water amount.
the second test was the trap was directly on the compressor..
The results were:
in test 1: less water
in test 2: more water collectedFurther down the line [45ft] I have a gun filter attached..
In both cases there was absolutely no water/dirt/oil in the gun trap..
I measured the temp of the air and in both cases it was 28deg Celsius around 85F.. It never goes more than this. This was the temp in the piping..
The temp outside the gun was 19deg celsius around 58F.The Sharpe system diagram is good practice.. but my garage isn’t just big enough..
The water traps are all made from Prodif which here is quite cheap.. Only the high volume production shops here use desiccants..
I personally like to reuse stuff and not throw away money.. so desiccant is kinda expensive for me..I might give it a go on a condenser from large AC systems and give it a cold treatment and cooling with additional fridge that can be left outside..
Also few years ago I came up with filling water traps XXL size one, with silica to get them to be more effective.. and they worked perfectly..
Maybe my solutions wont work in a high production environment but they certainly suite what I do in my free time..
@Scoobycarl I’d say go with the video and try to build a cooler from an old AC condenser.. It can be a car or truck type.. it will be fun and will be cheap for your boss too.. so I’d put my money on that.. followed with additional water trap.. and a gun trap.. and I think you will be in the ball park for dry air..I think that is the cheapest way you can get by..
Martin mk,i wish we had time to test run things like you can,we are rush rush rush ! I give up trying to get through to my boss and think whatever,wrong attitude i know but im tired of hitting my head up the wall.
Andy t,you must have read my mind mate,we have 2 old compressors lying there in the way and i did think whether you could link one of the tanks to our one.also is it better to use copper pipeing as we just have air line hoses at the mo which does nothing to help cooling i imagine.
We called a compressor guy we know out today and he is pricing up a cooler and propper filter system,think he said around £700 supply and fitted my gaffer nearly had kittens lol !i do like the 2nd tank idea as its something we already have.Has anyone used the camair qc3 filter drier and where can you buy these type of filters in the bloody uk ! Everytime i google them there all in usa and delivery would be loads.carl.
I have my compressor setting outside of the garage in a corner and my air line leaves the compressor and goes up through the soffit of the house and runs along the rafters. This goes all the way up to the peak of the roof and then comes down from there into a cheap 50 micron filter. From there it goes into a sharpe 606 5 micron filter and then from there into a devilbiss qc3. I get a lot of water in the first separator and a little in the second one. I really need to run a larger solid pipe but this is doing ok for now. Those qc3 filters are quite expensive.
Copper would be better. In fact any hard lines would be better than a hose as you won’t lose so much pressure.
You can get the fittings from Toolstation if you have one nearby. They look just like plumbing push fit connectors but are designed for compressed air use. Regular copper pipe and you’re away. I used 15mm as it flows up to 40CFM which is more than enough for a single gun.
Well.. now this is interesting..
I did a stress test with my compressor on the water separators.. and you were right..So it is a waste of money to send hot air through water separator close to the compressor.. after 15 mins of pumping the water separator at the compressor was dry.. and further down the line the inline gun filter was gushing…
I would definitely do a air chiller like in the video I had posted earlier.. Then add the water separators.. I cant have tubing in my garage..
I can add the chiller/condenser before it enters the tank.. and on the exit of the tank I will add the water trap..[quote=”martinMK” post=33095]
So it is a waste of money to send hot air through water separator close to the compressor.. [/quote]
I hate to say it, but most of us probably knew that already 🙂
Without going too technical and talking about dew points and the like, warm or hot air can hold much more moisture/humidity without it condensing out. So you could have hot air that seems perfectly dry, but cool it down and that moisture comes out.
So get the air as cool as possible before your water traps 🙂
Not really interesting at all :blink: Just one reason why the people that have years of experience get frustrated when people that dont, think they know more :cheers
Just proving the point.. although last night I got the dew point etc stuff from physics 101 🙂
What Andy t has described is what I’m building although I find the air con rad idea interesting although I think it would need be matching diameter and I would prob be looking a new one possibly out of car/lorry etc I looked up what pressure they take and according to a quick googling they run about 250psi so fine for std compressor.
Although if space is an issue for a run of pipe you could make a large run of copper pipe fit into a much smaller space by coiling it around into a large spring style thing which is essentially all a condenser coil/rad is anyway.
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