At wits end with water in air.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 9:27 pm
While I am still a noobie at priming and painting with professional materials (but loving every minute of the journey here!), I did learn a lot from setting up my own air compressor system for the shop. I use 1/2" metal pipe (the normal stuff used for gas lines) just about exclusively, save a few short hoses (like your hydraulic hose that attaches to your tank).

I get Zero, and I do mean Zero, water at the end of my setup. I have dry air when I paint, when I sandblast, when I work my tools, etc. My tank is a vertical 60 gallon, 5 HP, 13 cfm, 125 psi IR from TSC. I have been very happy with it although on continuous duty cycle with serious blasting the electric motor gets hot and the thermostatic switch shuts it down.

My run basically goes this way.
1. 2 feet of metal pipe from outlet (at the top of the tank)
2. Rubber GOODYEAR hose from horizontal pipe to 6 foot vertical on the wall.
3. 20 feet of horizontal pipe that slopes down away from the tank.
4. 7 foot drop and valve at the end of the run and a U-turn as well, up about 18 inches off the original horizontal run.
5. 10 feet back towards the tank and another drop and valve and our first water trap (this is where my glassbead cabinet is at).
6. 10 more feet and we are back to the compressor with a 7 foot drop, valve, regulator, water trap, and then a retractable hose (this is where most of the work takes place - I also attach another 25 feet rubber hose to this retractable hose).

NOTE: two differences I can think of from your set up - I have about double your run of metal line to cool off the air and trap the water for drying before it gets to my spray line. I also have the lines running along the posts of a pole barn style garage. In essence, the metal pipes are not against the wall - there is a 360 degrees of cooling going on for most of the length of the run.

Hope this can help you.

Maybe I can take a photo soon. I am very happy with my set up.

I live in West Virginia - very close to the Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia border.
Home of Y Block Ministries
Milford, Ohio



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 8:02 pm
OK if I get water with this...

I
GIVE
UP

It is 5 feet to the ceiling, 17 feet to the front, 10 feet back to the window, and 10 feet back towards the wall, with a few bits here and there I have 38 feet of pipe, all angled, lowest point either drains back into the tank or into the drain leg at the end.

Best of all NO LEAKS


It is running into a 1/2 water trap, then into the 1/2 inch Astro filter, followed into a 3/8th additional filter and finally desiccant.

The branch that goes to the filter is on the upside of the slope so the water can stay on the bottom.

Pardon the mess, I need to clean up the shelves, and the outlet isn't normally like that...I broke the cover today.


IMG_20140810_190334.jpg

IMG_20140810_190415.jpg


Also I may be redoing the mounting system, if I add a 2 more elbows out of the first 1/2 inch filter will that be a problem? Are too many bends bad?
Attachments
IMG_20140810_190344.jpg

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 9:41 pm
looks good...a couple more elbows isn't going to make a huge difference (they generate a little more heat/friction but not enough to make a difference).



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PostPosted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:49 am
Alright!

I am going to add a 1/2 inch union because the setup there is a bit tight to work around. I need to add a elbow out of the first filter towards the wall, an elbow towards the other filters and then one down into the Astro filter, so I can mount the filters closer to the wall.

Also the way I set everything up I can always add another 1/2 inch filter if I need it, but it doesn't look like I will, I let the tank cycle and emptied out half the tank right after the pump turned off with everything still hot, and the second half after 20 min had passed to let all the air cool down and the filters show no moister what so ever. Yesterday was a very dry day, but it looks promising.



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PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:31 pm
So I ran the air compressor through its paces today, it ran for a good 15-20 min and not once did I see a even a droplet of water in the water separator I put at the end of the hose. I don't even have the desiccant beads in yet.

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 13, 2014 9:34 pm
We knew you would win this one :goodjob:



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PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:19 am
So after spraying I have noticed that the first filter has a little condensation in it, but not much, the second is dry and so is the third, yet the desiccant beads are still turning pink. It looks like they are doing their job.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 16, 2014 6:16 pm
Bravo! Job well done! :clap:
Home of Y Block Ministries
Milford, Ohio



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 1:02 pm
Well I officially give up.

I thought I was waterless and I was extremely wrong.

I purchased a 50 foot 3/8th hose today to paint with and put a inline water trap at the end of the hose, the thing is soaked in water, there is water leaking out the vent for the palm sander around the Teflon tape, everywhere.

The 3 filters I have are for the most part dry, yet when I go through the 50 feet of hose, I have water everywhere. So I am lost for words, I don't know what else to do, I have drained the tank, the pipes are complete dry from what I can see, if I open the drain leg, nothing is running out.

I don't understand how almost 40 feet of copper pipe isn't allowing the air to cool down enough. It is 79 degrees today with 55% humidity, so it is not even a humid day.

EDIT****

I put the 25ft 1/4 hose back on and I am back to 0 water in the lines, I went from water actually accumulating in the trap, to 1-2 microscopic droplets, could I have water stuck in the new hose reel? or is it the 50 foot hose is allowing the air to cool down to the point the filters are capturing more?

EDIT 2***

I think we are witnessing the first ever documented case of garage trolling, where inanimate objects want to make my life miserable.. So since my 25 foot hose was giving me bone dry air, I put the 50 ft hose back on, stretched downhill into my driveway, blew 90 PSI through it, put the water trap and a blow gun at the end, and now the hose 50ft hose is giving me dry air too, not a droplet of water is in the water trap... I also hooked it back up to the palm sander and that was dry too. I blew out the sander just to make sure it wasn't back feeding water or oil and the filter is still dry.

So to recap, bought a new 50 ft hose, was gushing water like old faithful, put my 25ft hose back on, went to dry air again, hooked up the 50ft again after stretching it out, was bone dry again...and all this time the primary filters had no more than a few droplets of water in them, so I wonder where this water came from, and why this hobby hates me so much.

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PostPosted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 3:14 pm
New hose shipped or sold with water in it. Not impossible and not the first time I've heard it happening.
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