What's after your air compressor????

[tigmusky]

hi,all
what does everyone do about water in there air lines?
I have 80 gal compressor. 1" galv.pipe for air lines thur out the shop ,for the most part this has work fine. Impacts, air tools and sand blasting with no problems. I drain may tank and a few drip legs pretty often.
Now I'am thinking about adding a plasma cutter. Sound like the air needs to be super clean and dry air, or you burn up tips and other comsumables. Disposeable in-line dessicant dryer should work fine for the plasma cutter.
For the whole system I don't know if I should get condensate separtor , regulator and filter?
What's the differents between desiccant and coalescing filters?
Do most people run regulators? I know most air tools rec. 90 psi. I always say more is better. 150 psi lets brake those studs off!!
a mist lubricator would be nice for the air tools, but for the plasma cutter or painting not good. Maybe run a line just for the plasma cutter and for painting with no lubricator, just a separator and filter?
Thanks, for the help in advance Daye

 

[tigmusky]

What... everyone just hooks the hose to the compressor and go!!!

 

[MarkH]

Relatively inexpensive and easy to get, Motorguard filters. They have one specifically for plasma cutting also.

Set up, as long as pipe as possible. Wilkerson inital water removal filtration, Motorguard filter, regulator. It will work with just the Motorguard filter you just have to change them which is very easy more often.

 

[rsanter]

I have a water seperator from snap on that is suposed to be for painting applications. after that I added a carteridge type filter that is intended for use with plasma cutters.
I think I have a spare one sitting that I have sitting if your interested

bob

 

[GSSFC]

Eaton air dryer. No water in my air.

Tim

 

[speed bump]

I have a dryer and regulator and another regulator. The dryer and the regulator are for painting, the regulator is for air nailers, otherwise the compressor is set to only go up to 125PSI and I ran everything at that setting no regulator just a piece of hose.

 

[dps]

Mine goes into a Dayton cooler, then a separator that can be seen down by the floor to the left of the compressor, then about 40' of rubber hose to another separator and regulator, used primarily for painting. It requires a lot of near continuous use to get much of anything out of the final drain.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

What's the differents between desiccant and coalescing filters?

Desiccant is a moisture asorbing material, granular crystals usually. The air is passed thru a container of this material, and the moisture is absorbed out of the air. Very effective, but must be occasionally replaced.

Coalescing filters have baffles and such inside and probably a thin "sock" that the water condenses on and drains out of. Can be very effective, but probably not as good as the desiccant.

Forget the oiler in the air line. Not worth contaminating the pipes and hoses. A shot of air tool oil once in a while will keep your air tools well oiled.

Charles

 

[tigmusky]

Desiccant is a moisture asorbing material, granular crystals usually. The air is passed thru a container of this material, and the moisture is absorbed out of the air. Very effective, but must be occasionally replaced.

Coalescing filters have baffles and such inside and probably a thin "sock" that the water condenses on and drains out of. Can be very effective, but probably not as good as the desiccant.

Forget the oiler in the air line. Not worth contaminating the pipes and hoses. A shot of air tool oil once in a while will keep your air tools well oiled.

Charles

thanks, charles that's what I needed to hear. I know what i'am doinig next weekend. Thanks,again Daye

 

[MXtras]

An added note - if the air going into a coalescing filter is warm or hot, the filter has no chance to remove the moisture effectively. There is a pressure drop in the filter design which lowers the air temp, but it is largely ineffective for nearly any substantial volume of air.

Cool the air down before going into any type of moisture separator.

Scott

 

[MarkH]

For your next weekend's work think of doing two sets of taps.

My current set up uses about 40 ft of copper pipe to cool the air. Look through other threads there is many good discussions of design of air systems out there. The bad thing they will cost almost as much as most air compressors but it is some of the best money you will spend.

At the 40 ft mark the there are two legs going down, I could have used one since there is only one user at a time. Going to the left is the clean air line. It has as I stated before a Wilkerson filter to remove most water and particles down to 10 microns it is followed by a 0.1 micron Motorgard filter. The coupler is a 3/8 Milton V The hoses that fit it are only for clean air. A Devilbiss snake desiccant is used in line for painting if needed. The high flow system allows no problem with any HVLP gun and a full body paint.

The other line goes to the right. It is for general air tools. It has a Parker filter/regulator for water and particles that goes to 40 microns followed by a Tee. One line goes directly to a coupler the next goes to a ACO lubricator and then the coupler. These couplers are 1/4 Milton M's. This makes it impossible to mix the air tool and painting/plasma/sand blasting lines and get oil where it should not be.

You may use other brands, most of these I got cheap off fleabay except the Motorgard filter. In fact for the retail price of one filter I got enough of them to have backups in case any of them break. It did take some research to find which filters work correctly at what airflow. Once you have the distance to cool air and the right size filter for the air flow moisture goes away.

So look at the threads out there, they are very helpful.

 

[MarkH]

I forgot one thing from my research. I contacted the filter companies and the biggest mistake they say most people make putting the filter too close to the compressor it needs to be far enough out for the air to have cooled.

The second and they think may be just as frequent is getting too big a filter for the air flow you have. They dropped me down 2 sizes from what I would have originally bought. The filters except the Motorgard canister style work on a pressure drop and if the filter is too big for the air flow the pressure drop will not be enough to extract fluid from the air.

 

[Mezzanine]

MarkH,
Is the motorguard filter you are referring to the oil coalescing model? Do you have a part number on it? Thanks!

C

 

[Vicegrip]

I have a large oil and water trap just after the storage tank and have a auto drain on the tank in the compressor room. Inside I have oil colessing/water trap filters that are built into the two regulators and have a large desiccant based air dryer set up. I have it valved so I can run in many forms such as Regulated undried, regulated dried, free flow dried and more. I don't run floor cleaning air through the desiccant filter as an example. Desiccant dryers dry the air to a far lower dew point than chiller based units can. Neg 40 deg dew point with 70 deg input air temps. The desiccant can be reused many times by heating in the oven at 240 deg until the color change indicators go from pink to purple. The key is keeping oil off of it or it will smell when being recharged. Good setup if you don't need super dry air all the time as in a home shop. Must have for media cabinets and plasma cutters IMO. The desiccant chamber is made from an old 120 CF scuba tank and holds 24 pounds of the stuff. More realistic sized ones can be purchased for under $100. If you keep the liquid water out they last and work well.

 

[Vinko]

.

Forget the oiler in the air line. Not worth contaminating the pipes and hoses. A shot of air tool oil once in a while will keep your air tools well oiled.

Charles

Doesn't it depend upon where you insert the oiler? If you do it right before the drop, and the oil "contaminates" so to speak the hose itself, what's the concern?

I agree about keeping the tools well oiled. I wish people would do so. Unfortunately, the guys who work at our shop do not do so.

 

[pirana]

I built a little portable setup that I use with air tools & for painting using the Motorguard filter. You can use cheap *** (pun intended) 1 ply toilet paper as a replacement filter in the Motorguard. This solved my moisture problems at the tool.