The Home Machinist!

Hey spro,
I been thinking, (don't laugh!) I been having the same problem with the moisture running out of the air hose too. I been gonna run the air line kinda uphill from the compressor with a sort of a reservoir for it to run back down into like the one on a truck with air brakes, it'll handle the pressure if it's fairly good condition. You reckon that'll help? I'm a coward, I never run over 90 lbs. PSI. Most of the younger generation talk about running 150 lbs. on their air tools. I've heard of some of them plumbing their shop with plastic air lines and then have it shatter. Appears like it would be a hand grenade to me. Black iron pipe is for me and they make heavy grades of it that is real thick walled, fittings too. Anyhow, if not a reservoir, two or three drops a few inches long with a petcock like under the compressor to drain them once in a while??? Fred

hello Fred. There has been an entire discussion about the air plumbing fairly recently and definitely worth finding. The moisture thing is one we run into with units that work hard for longer periods than say an impact wrench or those with circular action. Now that I remember, I actually put another Filter/drain at the output from the garage and it was usually dry while the needle scaler was spitting water. It was within that 12' the water was produced by the heat of the scaler and the constant fluctuation of pressure. Your idea is good but someone else knows that it may not be for reasons. i do know that pneumatic equip working on triple filtered air still had their own automatic drain valve to release water.

I would pitch the lines downward away from the compressor so the air flow will help move any condensed water along. Then use traps and driers at the end. One often unrecognized problem with water in air is that it is just vapor until the air cools down below the dew point. So condensing the water by cooling the air is needed before traps and filters can help.

_________________
Don Young

From what I have seen the main horizontal pipes angle tip back to the compressor. Then the vertical takeoffs first go up from the horizontal and then back down with your air takeoff 18" or so up from the vertical bottom. At the bottom of the vertical is a drain valve.

You might also search around for homemade air coolers. The ones I have seen are right off the compressor going to a big diameter 'pipe/receiver'. Maybe 4" diameter and 6-8' long set vertically. The compressor air is fed into the pipe side half way up (I think) and in the pipe there is an elbow that immediately directs the air down. There is a drain at the bottom of the pipe and the air is taken off the top of the pipe and run through a S shaped series of pipes before heading for the main delivery pipes. The S shape is vertical.

Search around this site for particulars and other ideas
http://www.shopfloortalk.com/forums/index.php?

I have a Motorguard filter that keeps my air dry for my plasma cutter. Its the filter that uses a cartridge that looks like a roll of toilet paper. Flows lots of air. About $100.