Thread: Air Compressor Problem

After a bit of searching for materials to use for the vertical air drier I found just what I wanted.

The support pole holding up my shed! There is one right next to the compressor position. 2 inch diam galv pipe. Top is welded to roof bar. Bottom is buried in concrete.

So a little playing around with the angle grinder and welder and I get a multipurpose unit.

Have I mentioned yet that I am a bit tight with the folding stuff?

Dean

Originally Posted by nearnexus

You can also use a condenser from a car air conditioning system (the thing in front of the radiator) in a similar way, with a drain off point and trap.

I agree that a condenser would be a good project idea, but sometimes it can be an overkill, here's an example I found on the internet...

aij.jpg

I think I may go with the simple cold pipe set up.

LOL.

You don't actually need a fan on a setup using a car condensor.

Passive cooling and convective air flow does it nicely - from what I've read.

Rob

Originally Posted by nearnexus

LOL.

You don't actually need a fan on a setup using a car condensor.

Passive cooling and convective air flow does it nicely - from what I've read.

Rob

Possibly not, but it would dramatically increase efficiency. It would be even better if there was a shroud around the fan. Water to air would be the best efficiency though.

He has all the heat wash going back onto the compressor - LOL

Should be turned 90 degrees to get it away.

Rob

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

After a bit of searching for materials to use for the vertical air drier I found just what I wanted.
The support pole holding up my shed! There is one right next to the compressor position. 2 inch diam galv pipe. Top is welded to roof bar. Bottom is buried in concrete.

I don't know if that is all that wise. The water that condenses out of compressed air has a lot of dissolved gasses in it including carbon and nitrous oxides and is more corrosive than regular water so even galv pipe will eventually corrode.

Originally Posted by nearnexus

He has all the heat wash going back onto the compressor - LOL

Should be turned 90 degrees to get it away.

Rob

Yes but its better than no airflow over the compressor

all that air is coming off the condenser is still at a lower temp than the discharge temp the compressor temp its self....this in turn will help keep the compressor cooler and including a lower continuous operating temp

Originally Posted by BobL

I don't know if that is all that wise. The water that condenses out of compressed air has a lot of dissolved gasses in it including carbon and nitrous oxides and is more corrosive than regular water so even galv pipe will eventually corrode.

yeah...left unchecked he could find his roof a tad lower than normal one day..after all its only galv on the outside (meant to reply to that a few days ago)

all that condensation and other impurities is actually acidic....not much at first but it does increase if left alone

Originally Posted by Karl Robbers

P Water to air would be the best efficiency though.

water to air would be better efficiency....not best

a refrigerated air dryer would be best...but then we aint talking about economics of it all

water aint cheap either these days so static air to air heat exchange is best from an economic point...then would come forced air to air...eg a fan blowing over a condenser

forgot about geothermal...but that means a lot of diggin

Originally Posted by BobL

I don't know if that is all that wise. The water that condenses out of compressed air has a lot of dissolved gasses in it including carbon and nitrous oxides and is more corrosive than regular water so even galv pipe will eventually corrode.

See? Thats why this is such a great forum. A good point Bob. Thanks for pointing it out. I did not consider that aspect. The shed has been standing for about 60 yrs now and with luck will get quite a few more years.

Bob and Eskimo. I was thinking of making a section of round with a tapered hole then drill and tap into the side for a drain tap so all water was expelled. I think this pole would last as long as I needed it but I am not about to do something that will affect the shed structure.

yeah...left unchecked he could find his roof a tad lower than normal one day..after all its only galv on the outside (meant to reply to that a few days ago)

all that condensation and other impurities is actually acidic....not much at first but it does increase if left alone

Hmmm. If you could only see my implement shed. Stringybark support poles X 28. Some over 300mm low. About 20 different heights. Damn white ants. Another chore! The first problem is to find one pole that is at the right height, maybe. One of the stuffed poles has my lifting beam made from 100mm X 6mm SHS with a reo bar triangulated across the top for extra strength bolted to it. I used the base of that pole as an anchor for winching some time back but stopped because the pole moved not the winched item.

Dean

I made the following on Sunday...I apologize for the poor picture quality.

I have since put it up on the shed wall up against the cold metal structure. All copper made. Brazed all of the joints.

Air enters from the left, goes up, then down to the first exit, the bottom is for expelling the water.

All works well, but have not used it long enough to trap any moisture. I will be adding another pneumatic air/water filter to it (when it eventually arrives).

I was limited to the amount of pipe I could use, but this is about 2 meters tall.

P73063000.jpg

Bill

I'm jumping on board this thread seeing as I've just gone and got a compressor. It's portable, so ideally I don't want a fixed solution. What about something like a Davies Craig Ultra-Cool tube/fin oil cooler:

http://www.daviescraig.com.au/Oil_Co...4-details.aspx

It's tested to 150psi so all good there (an older document from their website says 300psi). It isn't too restrictive like their plate/fin coolers:

http://www.daviescraig.com.au/Oil_Co...8-details.aspx

The plate/fin coolers are more efficient at removing heat, but I came across some stats page that showed pressure drop at certain flows, and they were all at < 10Lpm whereas I've got ~380Lpm. I think the tube/fin design wouldn't be too restrictive and I could combo it with a fan that turned on with the compressor pressure switch.

My only issue is that it's only about 2m of tube all up - is it big enough to be worth it in terms of condensing out the water? The catalogue says it can cool 12,000Btu/h, or roughly 3500W, which seems like quite a lot to me.

And where would I put it - after the tank and before the filter/regulator? Or after the compressor and before the tank?

If that's not big enough, Derale make some bigger ones with 10 passes made of copper/aluminium. Their website doesn't say what pressure they are rated to.

In case you didn't see my setup in the other thread, here it is.
Not sure how much copper is in the coil, it was about half of a large pack from Bunnings, so maybe 5m worth.
Filled with sand (slow, slow job), bent around a large diameter tube (laborious) and fitted in place (A bit touch & go).
The separator is the main bit - if you put a condensor before the tank without any way to bleed the water, it's a pointless excursion in my opinion, there'll still be a mist present. Might be able to get away with a small tap on a low point instead of a separator, I just wanted to go overboard at the time

Before doing it, I was having issues with moisture affecting the operation of my plasma cutter. The little separator/regulator 3m away from the tank just wasn't able to pull its weight it seemed.
After the setup, it's been perfect.

If you do go for one of those radiators, I'd consider putting a fan on it if it is used before the tank, because the entire coil does heat up after a few cycles on my setup.