Air Prep For Painting

[Spokerider]

Since having spray painted the inside of my Samurai, I see that I need to get the air prep on my set up dialed in. The air started out nice and dry, but by the end of the spraying session, [ HVLP 1.5 liters of paint ] I had some water blisters in the paint. I can live with a few blisters on the floors as this is a DD / exped rig 4x4 after all. Hoping the exterior goes a little nicer tho.......

My set up;

Compressor, 5 ft 1" rubber hose, 5 ft 1/2" hard copper pipe, Sharpe water separator, 25ft air hose, pressure regulator with small globe air filter on it downstream, another 25ft air hose, 18 CFM refrigerated air dryer, 3ft dessicant snake, 50 ft air hose, another small 3" inline globe air filter, pressure regulator attached to spray gun, spray gun.

I am running the compressor in my basement and spray painting in a car shelter 60 ft from my house.......thus the "stretched out" set up.

As mentioned, the air started out nice and dry, but me thinks that the air dryer just cant keep up to the volume I was spraying, and the 3' ft long, inline-dessicant snake is just too small too. Thinking of adding a larger air dryer, downstream of the refrigerated dryer, like this instead of the snake

http://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/air-dryer/A-p8055757e

followed by this Motorguard air filter; http://www.weldersupply.com/P/499/MotorGuardM26PlasmaAirF



Will this work?
I need to do this on the cheap as I already have WAY too much $$ invested in this one-off painting project.

Thanks guys.

 

[Larryjones]

At the far end away from the compressor, use a 6 ft or longer piece of 2 inch pipe. Air in the bottom, out the top. Add a drain at the bottom. It worked for me once.

 

[sberry]

How much comp do you have, how long is the spray time? The operator has a lot to do with this in the sense the "on time" of the gun may have a lot to do with it.

 

[DenisG]

If the compressor is in the basement then you might be compressing moisture-laden air. You didn't mention periodically draining your compressor tank or system, but that might be something to keep in mind. Another cheap fix might be to keep basement windows open to try to keep the source moisture down. There are also "regenerative dryers" where there is a window in the trap and you can keep an eye on color changes in the desiccant and you can reuse desiccant after you cook it out. You could probably fabricate a desiccant trap yourself, but putting a window in it might be more work than what you want. The last "cheap" suggestion is to try to make sure that all the lines flow downhill back towards the traps that you have set up to collect moisture (and to check them frequently).