OT - the quest for dry air...
#1
OT - the quest for dry air...
Having recently spent too many hours trying to soda blast with what I thought was reasonably dry compressed air, turns out it was not dry enough. So research got me to the piping arrangement below and a HF refrigerated dry air cooler. Installation done and will try out the soda blaster tomorrow to see if the frustrations are gone!!
#3
#5
I installed the pre dryer pipe work as extra insurance to be sure the refrigerant cooler would do a good job, belts and braces as we say in the UK. The orange thing to the right is a final filter before I use the air for blasting or spraying. I'll add another leg to include a lubricator for the air tools when I get time.
#6
My old boss when I worked at a welding and powder coat place used old refrigerators as dryers. He would take an old freon can and weld a pipe fitting on the top and side. He would then run several loops of soft copper pipe horizontally in the fridge and connect it with the top of the freon can. Another fitting welded on the can exited the air. two holes drilled into the side of the fridge to run the air supply in and out and he had a functioning air dryer. He said he never paid more than $20 for all the parts. The one shelf left in the fridge would keep beverages cold too, unless you were working the air a lot.
#7
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#8
The "pre-cooler" piping should be horizontal, so that condensate is able to continuously flow towards the drip legs. On a humid day, you could get slugs of condensate if you don't keep after the drains.
#9
I like your “pipe air dyer” before the frige dryer.
I kind of did the same thing but no wall room for just piping. Mine was made out of fin tube baseboard to fit on the side of a shelving unit in my first vary small garage. I would use 2 box fans on the shelfs to blow air across the dryer as there was little air flow in the back of the garage and the compressor was next to the unit so it got hot back there also.
I now have a much larger garage and have the unit mounted to the wall. I can still use box fans to blow air across it but so far have not needed to. Then again have not used it much in summer in the new garage as it gets too hot to work inthere.
My fin tube pipe dryer has 2 drip legs and I pull the air off the side about half way up the last leg. The air supply around the garage is a full loop with 5 air hose drops. Each drop also has a drip leg if water ever makes it that far. Come time to do a full paint job I will plug in a final filter / dryer at 1 of thehose drops.
My compressor max psi is 175 and what the dryer is as the regulator is after the dryer. IIRC the fin piping is ¾” copper. The blue piping is 3/4'” and is a kit, took 2 kits and a few extra fittings to pipe my big garage.
I have also seen posted of using a 5 gal bucket of ice water and either hose or copper coiled inside it. It then goes to a drip leg type thing to drain water before it goes to what you need it for. I have not used this so don’t know how well it works but if you can cool the air you will condense the water out.
Dave----
I kind of did the same thing but no wall room for just piping. Mine was made out of fin tube baseboard to fit on the side of a shelving unit in my first vary small garage. I would use 2 box fans on the shelfs to blow air across the dryer as there was little air flow in the back of the garage and the compressor was next to the unit so it got hot back there also.
I now have a much larger garage and have the unit mounted to the wall. I can still use box fans to blow air across it but so far have not needed to. Then again have not used it much in summer in the new garage as it gets too hot to work inthere.
My fin tube pipe dryer has 2 drip legs and I pull the air off the side about half way up the last leg. The air supply around the garage is a full loop with 5 air hose drops. Each drop also has a drip leg if water ever makes it that far. Come time to do a full paint job I will plug in a final filter / dryer at 1 of thehose drops.
My compressor max psi is 175 and what the dryer is as the regulator is after the dryer. IIRC the fin piping is ¾” copper. The blue piping is 3/4'” and is a kit, took 2 kits and a few extra fittings to pipe my big garage.
I have also seen posted of using a 5 gal bucket of ice water and either hose or copper coiled inside it. It then goes to a drip leg type thing to drain water before it goes to what you need it for. I have not used this so don’t know how well it works but if you can cool the air you will condense the water out.
Dave----
#11
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