Simple minimal air dryer

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 20, 2023 5:04 pm
I have searched and read with interest air dryer set ups.

so many just go to deep for the occasional car painter. I get it though, a great system as constant painters have is very nice.

so what would be a simple inexpensive no in depth system for the occasional painter?

I just want moisture stopped for one full car paint job for now. seems i'm not alone, lotta folks paint a car every couple of years like me.

thanks
Eric

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 10:48 am
I found my refrigerated drier on Craigslist.
Check out eBay, Marketplace and others every couple of days as these things sell fast.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 11:13 am
I get a lot of moisture in my air so much so I reach for my cordless tools rather than air tools. Recently have took up bodywork as a hobby so I also needed some sort of air dryer.

I’ve picked up one that’s quite big it’s a piece of pipe 36” long that you fill with desiccant. Reading on the net a cheap hack is you fill it with silica cat litter. Pretty cheap. Of course you need to cool the air first then a filter after.

I’ve only tested mine and seams to work and have no more moister.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:58 pm
Having clean, dry air is not just for painting. Just about all air tools hate moisture in their air and a pool of water in the bottom of your compressor's air tank will just shorten its life. So consider an air drying system as an investment in your compressor and everything else that you might do with air.

There are any number of cheap hacks, some of which work, but, ultimately an array of vertical copper tubes with drain taps is the best and cheapest solution short of a proper refrigerated system.

Have a look in this thread for what I did. It was quite cheap and, once mounted the array takes up virtually no room and I've never had even a drop of water in the tank, since. Note that the key is to cool the air between the pump and tank, not after the tank. Slightly more complex to plumb in, but worth it.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:19 pm
Yeah you need the 20+ feet of copper just to cool the air. Do you trap more water in your second one then the first?

Just learning this ,right now with it below zero Im running hose outside then back in to my dryer.Cools the air quickly.

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PostPosted: Wed Feb 22, 2023 5:51 am
myke wrote: Do you trap more water in your second one then the first?


Not really, but not much difference between the two - depends on the weather. Only a dribble from the third one though.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 22, 2023 6:32 am
heres a video of a build similar to what NFT5 built. i had similar when i was doing quite a bit of work involving air with a devilbiss finishline filter at the end. never had an issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6mq_fXbl08

simple can be good.
inexpensive not so good for the topic of clean, dry air.



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PostPosted: Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:47 pm
Thanks for the help.

education here for sure. I had not thought about cooling the air before it gos into the tank.

I have always kept my tools oiled and drain the tank at the end of each day. I actually don't have to bad a water problem but I do get some of course.

I painted my last car using just this water Seperator and a disposable cartridge at the gun and believe it or not I never got any water.

none the less I am going to improve on that for this next current paint job.

I got this new emax whisper quiet 5hp 80 gallon compressor last fall. looking forward to plumbing it after reading this great help here.
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 22, 2023 5:31 pm
You will love that new compressor. Mine lives outside then I plumbed my cooling lines inside.

I added auto-drains at the areas circled in yellow. I hardly ever get any amount of moisture coming out of the third auto-drain

Over where I paint I have my desiccant filter, that I don't ever really need to change out anymore. I don't run my air tools through the desiccant filter.

Other than the compressor itself, it is not really an expensive setup. Especially compared to the cost of materials now!!

Compressor -Polar Air (3).jpg

Compressor - Rapidair Piping - Autodrains.jpg

Auto Drain (2).jpg

Air Wall.jpg

QC3.jpg
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 26, 2023 1:57 pm
Be it good bad or ugly heres what i'm going with for my filter dryer when time to paint.
I will also have the disposable filter at the LPH400 Iwata gun.

The eastwood unit is rebranded but the exact same as the devilbiss unit in above post. Its a water separator but also changes out to the dessicant dryer filter when i'm ready to paint.

I have not had a water problem using just my old water separator and a filter at the gun so regardless this is a big upgrade.

my old one in the pic is 2009 vintage and works but leaks a bit. I remember I paid $69 for it. the eastwood (divilbiss) unit was $125 and the motorguard kit that came with 2 extra filters was $90. never had a motorguard piece, yet another learned about item via this site. very thankfull for all the help here for sure.
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