Technical Shop air in the sub-tropics

How about some radical ideas for eliminating water grom my shop air? I'm in NE Florida with humidity in the air that most folks could not even comprehend. I'm running two water traps in line, drain them and my tank regularly and still spit water out my hose. My tank outlet is routed up 8 feet to allow the air to cool and condensate before dropping to trap#1. I can literally see the water vapor spraying from an air nozzle 30 feet down line.
Any bright ideas? Maybe an auxiliary tank in line would help cool and condensate?
I'm wanting to do some sand blasting and its near to impossible due to moisture clumping up the sand.
Any ideas?

 

That reminds me. I haven't drained my compressor yet this year, maybe I should?

 

I've been looking to do something similar to this but with individual drain lines and valves on the bottom of each loop. This would require regular draining on each loop. By the time air gets to the third loop, moisture should be just about non-existent. Believe I would add another regulator at the end of the outlet. I would rather use copper instead of black pipe.

 

Do you run a dehumidifier in the room?

 

you might look into a refrigerated compressed air dryer.

budget version

 

I understand about the humidity, that's our favorite saying ("we don't breathe anything we can't see"). Might suggest you take a look at how an a/c system does it, I have a RH meter in my home and it reads normally in the 50% range, turn off the a/c and its 80% in a blink. Might be some a/c guys on this board that might offer some suggestions.

 

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Yep, worth it's weight in Doritos. It'll set you back $1000 or so, installs in seconds. That and that cooling tower and I don't even run desiccant driers any longer except when I paint. I figure I was paying around $300 for desiccant beads, airlifter and sightglass twice a year (more often if I had to paint), now I buy nothing so it has already paid for itself.

 

Lol…Arizona? You may have to add water.

 

Lol….it’s a big metal, non insulated shop… so, no.

 

$$$$$$$$$$$ ouch

 

I had the same problem so I built an expansion chamber on the side of my compressor. It dropped the head air temp from 325° to around 120° when it enters the tank which helped alot.

I then added a soft 3/4" i.d. hose from tank to the wall where I have 2 dryers in line into my main 3/4" i.d. tube.

If it's high humidity and I run the compressor non stop for a couple hours I still get a little in the dryers but not near as much as a year ago without it!

The brass coil line in goes on a 3/4" pipe about 2/3 the way down the 2" pipe on the right and about the same on the other one into the tank. So I have a 3/4 pipe inside a 2" pipe with a 3/4" cross over only on the top so the air has to change direction several times hoping that it will drop some moisture as it goes...

 

Buddy of mine sent me this a bit ago:



I guess there’s a “part 1” as well.

 

In my old shop I mounted a refrigerator condenser [you know, tubes with fins] in front of the exhaust fan that pushed air out the top half of the window [aprox 6'], it had 1/2" tube so from something large. Fan was from 62 Pontiac driven by a 1/2 hp motor at about 2k. Air out of tank up to top tube [tubes horizontal], out bottom tube down to separator, then to regulator. Worked well even in low air use without fan running. AND can use base board heat finned copper tube as long as pressure is regulated to 100# or so before with tubes horizontal looped together with regular elbows and solder.

 

This actually works in western NY, Actually can have pretty hi humidity here...
Get 50' of copper line the size of your line coming off the head that goes to tank, Un coil, get a garbage can or similar, flair ends an put the uncoiled in the can full of water, hook up your flared ends an go...
100% zero moisture!

 

Insulate the shop and install A/C... along with what everyone else has said.

 

When we replaced our last compressor we decided to upgrade to a dryer, dry air is better for everything, expecially the plasma cutter and sand blaster (it was so bad that I'd have to dig the web abrasive material out of the nozzle so I could keep going. I'd bought a Castaire compressor and these folks fitted me with a dryer...and it works great, here is a link to their website.. https://castair.net/air-drying-equipment/air-cooled-aftercoolers/

 

This isn't too bad, but instead of a loop at the bottom, put a tee in the line being fed by the previous tube. Then plumb the previous tube into the right-angle leg of the tee, therefore requiring the air to hit the back of the tee, then flow vertically. Put a drop leg about two feet long with a drain valve on the lower (straight through) leg of the tee. The idea is the air will hit an abrupt 90* turn which will (by impact) drive a lot of the moisture out of the air. There will be a slight amount of pressure drop at each turn, but not too bad. Not as good as a dryer, but it will take out a lot of water!

 

DING DING DING… I think we have a winner folks.

 

Always a smart aleck!

Ben

 

Question:
Currently my shop air is plumbed with 1/2" Schedule 40 PVC which has a rating of 600psi @ 73 degrees F. Its been that way since 2009 with zero issues. 3" schedule 40 is rated 230 psi @ 73F. I see no reason I couldn't make expansion coolers from it, as my max pressure is 120 psi. My compressor sits outside the shop, as will these chambers (filled with copper brillo pads).
What could possibly go wrong?

 

That's a pretty neat idea. They don't show in the picture but I assume there are drains in both legs of the expansion chamber, right?

 

I live in coastal Alabama and the air is so thick with moisture that if you stomp your feet it starts to rain. I have an old dehumidifier that runs 24/7 with the drain running outside the wall. It cuts the humidity enough so that on a hot day there is a very noticeable difference in how it feels just stepping into the shop. My compressor is inside my shop and it does make a difference in the moisture in the air lines. An added benefit is it keeps tools/parts/metal from rusting and the dryness makes shop smell better.

 

PVC pipe is rated for water pressure, not air pressure. The difference is that when it breaks when there's water in it, it just leaks. But when it breaks with pressurized air in it, it explodes, and sharp plastic fragments fly everywhere.

The odds of failure are slim, but you don't want to be around when it happens.

 

I've been meaning to build one mostly because of the excess moisture causes my sand blast gun to clog up. I'm looking at the DIY units using a transmission cooler from a junked vehicle. Maybe check out You Tube for ideas.

 

Yikes! You like to live dangerously, don’t you! That PVC is a bomb waiting to go off! Lots of videos of what happens when pvc explodes, you don’t want to be there when, not if, it happens!

Looks like Jim beat me to it!

 

Condensation filters work pretty good, but if you want real dry air, desiccants are the ticket. The little beads are in a clear filter housing . They turn blue when they are saturated with water. Then put the desiccant on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven. Turns white again and is ready to absorb more water. McMaster 281K93 , 4448K44. Not the cheapest way, but sometimes you need DRY.

 

Not trying to hijack this thread in any shape form or fashion, but when I bought my new compressor I purchased this kit. I didn't need near the 100' of 3/4" line it came with. I have toyed with the idea of stretching the loops out and installing a drain at the bottom of the expanded coils if that makes sense. Any thoughts on if this would work? Or do you have to "legs" for the moisture to collect? By the way, this stuff is a dream to work with!

 

It won't be particularly effective as the hose won't conduct the heat away. That's why copper tubing is typically used.

In the video, the $60 or so Derale cooler (has AN fittings too, part # I can't recall) is fitted between the compressor and tank where the heat is highest.

Chris

 

Yes I put a drain in the bottom of both tubes. Each tube has a separate drain because I had seen guys put a tube on the bottom and tie both big tubes together and just insert 1 drain in the lower crossover but I didn't want any connection between both tubes except at the top. Didn't want moisture from one tube being pushed into the other. Kind of defeats the purpose of 2 tubes if they're tied together at the bottom.


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