Clarke sandblaster gun - moisture?

On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 02:50:05 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:



To the OP:

I made a homebuilt water trap, that seems to get the lion's share of the
water and moisture out of the air before it can get to any desiccant type
air dryer.


Done it. If all goes well (we're at 100% humidity at the moment), I'll
try it tomorrow PM. or at least during the holiday weekend - report to
follow - Mike

"Michael Horowitz" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 02:50:05 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:



To the OP:

I made a homebuilt water trap, that seems to get the lion's share of the
water and moisture out of the air before it can get to any desiccant type
air dryer.


Done it. If all goes well (we're at 100% humidity at the moment), I'll
try it tomorrow PM. or at least during the holiday weekend - report to
follow - Mike



If you get tired of your trap fill up, you can get one automatically drains
now at Grainger. I installed one two years ago, and haven't seen water in my
10 HP system since.

"Ramsey" @##@.^net wrote

If you get tired of your trap fill up, you can get one automatically
drains now at Grainger. I installed one two years ago, and haven't seen
water in my 10 HP system since.

chuckle

Yes, I left that detail out. If you put a 1/4" petcock on the bottom of my
big diameter water condensing trap, you can leave it open, just a tiny, tiny
amount. Not so much you can even hear any air hissing, but it will be
enough to let the water out, unless you are really running the compressor(s)
hard, for a long time.
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"Ramsey" @##@.^net wrote

If you get tired of your trap fill up, you can get one automatically
drains now at Grainger. I installed one two years ago, and haven't seen
water in my 10 HP system since.

chuckle

Yes, I left that detail out. If you put a 1/4" petcock on the bottom of
my big diameter water condensing trap, you can leave it open, just a tiny,
tiny amount. Not so much you can even hear any air hissing, but it will
be enough to let the water out, unless you are really running the
compressor(s) hard, for a long time.
--
Jim in NC


True, but after a day or so, they always become clogged with foreign matter.

The unit I bought was only about $20 more, IIRC, and has a float mechanism.
If there is moisture in it, it spits the instant it sees any kind of
pressure change. It will set silently all day, and when you touch an air
tool, or turn the air on or off (morning evening), it has about a quarter
second spit that keeps it empty.

I just wanted to mention them to the group, because mine has been so
successful. I actually bought it thinking it was probably just a gimmick,
but I haven't seen moisture or oil in any of my dozen so air drops since.
Even in the humid summer with some machines intermittently drawing as much
as 20 CFM, I always have nice dry air.

On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 02:50:05 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:


"Ernest Christley" wrote

Get the big, all-metal jobber from HF. It has a drain for any trapped
water. Set you back $20 or so, but I have it bolted to the side of my
compressor cart. The instances where you want water droplets in your
compressed air are few and very far between.

To the OP:

I made a homebuilt water trap, that seems to get the lion's share of the
water and moisture out of the air before it can get to any desiccant type
air dryer. Beware that a small desiccant will be wet and change color and
be used up very quickly at the high airflow that sandblasting requires.

Get a 6 foot length of 1-1/2" steel pipe, (or bigger, and bigger could only
work better) and an assortment of fittings, to adapt it to a configuration
like the following. You want to pipe your air supply into the bottom of the
pipe, which will be used straight up and down. You will want to put the air
into the pipe with a T fitting, so the air will be going into the T and
traveling upwards, but a few inches lower than the T will be a reservoir
area of a few inches of pipe and a drain petcock to remove accumulated
water. I also put a quick disconnect on the inlet and the outlet to make it
handy to hook up.

After the air enters, it will travel upwards, but pretty slowly which will
tend to let water drop out of suspension. Because it is in a big piece of
steel, the air will also cool and condense and let more water drop out, and
run down the pipe to be collected and drained out the petcock at the bottom.


Jim - I don't know if I told you but I took your advice, built the
coalescing filter, and used it today; took about 4T of moisture out of
the air after about :15 of work - Mike

"Michael Horowitz" wrote

Jim - I don't know if I told you but I took your advice, built the
coalescing filter, and used it today; took about 4T of moisture out of
the air after about :15 of work - Mike

Yep, it works like a miracle.

I got the idea after working in a shop with the air supply being distribute
overhead, then dropping down to a quick connect fitting. It only had an
elboe before the fitting, and it would constantly have water blowing out of
the fitting. I changed the elbows out with t's and a piece of pipe below
the outlet to collect the water. That was the start of the development of
my rig.
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:
"Michael Horowitz" wrote

Jim - I don't know if I told you but I took your advice, built the
coalescing filter, and used it today; took about 4T of moisture out of
the air after about :15 of work - Mike

Yep, it works like a miracle.

I got the idea after working in a shop with the air supply being distribute
overhead, then dropping down to a quick connect fitting. It only had an
elboe before the fitting, and it would constantly have water blowing out of
the fitting. I changed the elbows out with t's and a piece of pipe below
the outlet to collect the water. That was the start of the development of
my rig.
*
*
How about gilding the lily with a flow spinner?
If that uptube airflow is spun up with a stainless butterfly inserted
near the base, you get two more winning assets:
1) centrifugal droplet spin out on the tube walls.
2) more flow turbulence near the tube walls, to cool and precipitate.....

Brian W