[Oscar]

quadruplets!

[sbaker56]

What size is your compressor tank . I actually keep my cubitron backer and discs on my little 7 amp grinder because it's so much more compact and easier to maintain a light touch with, they're probably the only abrasive I've used that actually lived up to/exceeded marketing hype, yeah, you can't strip several square feet of millscale with a single disc and a feather light touch the whole time, but those things will bite into anything, apart from wearing the very tips of the discs bare from too much of an angle, unlike a flap disc, rust, paint, and worst of all millscale don't instantly ruin the things within moments. I can't imagine actually having one on a 1.5HP 12000RPM air grinder and actually bearing into it for heavy stock removal.

Of course if you can afford the grinder and compressor to power it, you can probably just gouge it away anyway as you've been experimenting with recently

[Oscar]

Of course if you can afford the grinder and compressor to power it, you can probably just gouge it away anyway as you've been experimenting with recently

Yup, lots of options, depending on when/if I need them. Air delivery is as follows

80gal 10HP (38 CFM)
20gal 2 HP (5.5 CFM)
25gal 1.7 HP ( 4.5 CFM)

Total capacity = 125gal 13.7HP 48 CFM @ 90 PSI.

Now my problem is moisture. I have two Ingersol-Rand water separators, and they work.....too well. 30 seconds using one of those babies (the 3M grinder) and they are both full (~ 8oz water collected between the both of them). I am on the verge of ordering a refrigerated dryer, but I'm not so sure. I don't think the problem is getting the water to separate since it already travels down 100 ft of air hose into the garage, it's just the sheer volume of water that is being collected and needs to be expelled, IMO. I need a 20 gallon water separator tank!

[sbaker56]

Jesus, even if you're exaggerated substantially, moving so much air you pull 8oz of water out of the air just from a short period grinding, that's a LOT of air moving. Yeah, I honestly don't know where all the water would go, a refrigerated drier would still have to dump gallons of water a day SOMEWHERE, to be viable, and unless you went particularly industrial even for you, you might still need, want, your Ingersol-Rand water separators to catch the moisture that the other drier might miss due to sheer volume of air. I wonder how clean the water would be, maybe you could make a tig water cooler out of it, not that you don't already have several

I take it due to pressure differential issues you probably simply run different tools on each size compressor rather than linking them together and then running a splitter off that.

All I have is a pathetic capacity 4.5 gallon compressor, it's not too pathetic SCFM wise for a 115V compressor at 5.1 SCFM at 90 PSI. And I've toyed with the idea of plumbing in another larger reservoir tank to get some decent run time on higher draw intermittent use tools. But anything like an air nozzle or die grinder, even if you adjust the pressure down to 70-90PSI, you'll drain the tank faster than the pump can replace it within a minute or two. Also it's only got a 5 minute on 5 off 50% duty cycle, so even if I managed to wrangle up a large tank for it to fill, it'd burn itself up in the process doing so and trying to keep it full.

[tweake]

Of course if you can afford the grinder and compressor to power it, you can probably just gouge it away anyway as you've been experimenting with recently

Now my problem is moisture. I have two Ingersol-Rand water separators, and they work.....too well. 30 seconds using one of those babies (the 3M grinder) and they are both full (~ 8oz water collected between the both of them). I am on the verge of ordering a refrigerated dryer, but I'm not so sure. I don't think the problem is getting the water to separate since it already travels down 100 ft of air hose into the garage, it's just the sheer volume of water that is being collected and needs to be expelled, IMO. I need a 20 gallon water separator tank!

i suspect you have little water being collected in the tank.
the air is cooling down in the pipe to the garage which turns the moisture into water.
so one fix is to cool it down at the compressor and let it fill the tank.
the other is to slope the pipe up so the water drains back into the tank (tho needs to be a big diameter pipe).
typically i have a drip leg fitted before the filter/water separator with an auto drain. that deals with the bulk of the water.
with wet pipe systems you want to make sure its got a good slope and no place for water to accumulate. otherwise it accumulates water during normal use, and the high flow usage picks it up and blows it out. you end up with a weeks worth of water in your separator all at once.

[Oscar]

I take it due to pressure differential issues you probably simply run different tools on each size compressor rather than linking them together and then running a splitter off that.

Actually they're all plumbed together in parallel. They feed a single regulator and then then it splits into the two water separators (that I thought would be sufficient when I built the system, LOL). I pretty much leave the system at about 100psi so that it maintains 90psi when high-flow tools are wide-open and air is actually flowing through. The 10HP compressor has a 175 off/140 on setting, so it will kick on at 140psi. The 1.7HP compressor has a 165 off/125 on setting on it's switch, so if it drops to 125psi it will start to feed the system, and the 2HP compressor has a 140 off/100 on setting, so if it still drops even further down to 100 psi then it will kick on and feed the system in an attempt to sustain the airflow needed.

i suspect you have little water being collected in the tank.
the air is cooling down in the pipe to the garage which turns the moisture into water.
so one fix is to cool it down at the compressor and let it fill the tank.
the other is to slope the pipe up so the water drains back into the tank (tho needs to be a big diameter pipe).
typically i have a drip leg fitted before the filter/water separator with an auto drain. that deals with the bulk of the water.
with wet pipe systems you want to make sure its got a good slope and no place for water to accumulate. otherwise it accumulates water during normal use, and the high flow usage picks it up and blows it out. you end up with a weeks worth of water in your separator all at once.

Yep, during high-flow usage, I don't think any water (newly-ingested) is collecting in the tank due to the needed air volume being consumed. There's plenty of water in the tank during intermittent usage, but then once the compressor kicks on, it's too warm to collect at the tank and just flows right through and cools down in the 100ft hose run to the garage.

I think the drip leg would work if I use a real big pipe. There's no way to set up a sloped pipe in to the garage unfortunately. I don't even want to think about the pricing for steel pipe right now though, lol. Just knowing how inflated the pricing is right now makes me sick!

[tweake]

auto drain on a drip leg works well.
a nice big diameter one so it holds more and doesn't open constantly.

if you get a drier, look at fitting a dry tank after it. the pros say it should be 3x the wet tank, but i just use whatever size i can lay my hands on.

[Poland308]

Line sizing becomes critical with compressed air, especially when you start to talk about moisture. If the velocity is to high you might be able to maintain flow and pressure but the water can’t drop out.

[sbaker56]

All this talk of compressors is making me regret not getting at least a 60 gallon 240V when I had the chance , oh well, not like I'll be gouging with my tig machine or buying 1.5HP air grinders anyway.

[tweake]

Line sizing becomes critical with compressed air, especially when you start to talk about moisture. If the velocity is to high you might be able to maintain flow and pressure but the water can’t drop out.

if air velocity is to high it won't be able to maintain flow or pressure anyway.

its quite surprising how well water will travel with the air flow.
when i first did my cooler setup the air went into the tank and then did a tight turn to go out the outlet.
you would think the water would just drop out in the tank, but no the water still managed to make that turn. moved the outlet to the other end of the tank which helped solve that issue.

[Oscar]

I need to brush up my pipe skills and perhaps make a big ol' upright tank with a timer valve on it.

[tweake]

I need to brush up my pipe skills and perhaps make a big ol' upright tank with a timer valve on it.

timer valve ??

[Oscar]

one of those automatic drains that has a valve operated by a timer.

[tweake]

one of those automatic drains that has a valve operated by a timer.

the timer ones are more suited to setups that run a more consistent load. ie like a shop that runs the same machine all day long at a constant rate.
small shops that use the air now and then are better with float types.

[Oscar]

float types such as? Can't say I've seen too many of those

[tweake]

float types such as? Can't say I've seen too many of those

any automatic drain that doesn't have a power connection.
its the same as auto drain on the filter. they are the cheapest type.

[Oscar]

what is the mechanism that permits the draining to be automatic?

[Oscar]

something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/PneumaticPlus-SA ... op?ie=UTF8

or this

https://www.amazon.com/Pneumatic-Automa ... =8-66&th=1

[Poland308]

these are the ones we use at work. Put a strainer in front. Catches flakes and crap. Then you can blow down when you want. Has a test button to check operation.

https://www.grainger.com/product/SPEEDA ... NPT-13X524

[Poland308]

The two you posted are coalescing filters with floats. There good for inline with air flow. But the one I posted is for off the bottom of a vessel.

[tweake]

something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/PneumaticPlus-SA ... op?ie=UTF8

or this

https://www.amazon.com/Pneumatic-Automa ... =8-66&th=1

they are not " coalescing filters with floats. "

the bottom one is similar to what we have, tho the variable outlet is a neat touch.
the first one is a drip leg rather than a one for a compressor tank. a little odd that it says its 10 mic filter but no filter shown. typically the have a mesh screen like the 2nd one.
just something to stop big bits from blocking the valve.

the mechanism used is simply a float. so it blows water out when there is actually some, unlike a timer which lets out air even when there is no water.
there is air saver versions of timer ones but they are pricey.

[Oscar]

something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/PneumaticPlus-SA ... op?ie=UTF8

or this

https://www.amazon.com/Pneumatic-Automa ... =8-66&th=1

they are not " coalescing filters with floats. "

the bottom one is similar to what we have, tho the variable outlet is a neat touch.
the first one is a drip leg rather than a one for a compressor tank. a little odd that it says its 10 mic filter but no filter shown. typically the have a mesh screen like the 2nd one.
just something to stop big bits from blocking the valve.

the mechanism used is simply a float. so it blows water out when there is actually some, unlike a timer which lets out air even when there is no water.
there is air saver versions of timer ones but they are pricey.

Thanks for the suggestion. These never popped up on my previous searches for water traps, so I didn't really know about them. I will for sure put one on the compressor and also figure out a way to plumb one into the manifold at the outlet in my garage. I think they are exactly what I need. Better yet, I think I might install an fan-cooled intercooler on the pump outlet before it goes into the tank to try to catch as much as I can before it goes down the hoses into the garage. Big thanks Tweake!

[tweake]

Thanks for the suggestion. These never popped up on my previous searches for water traps, so I didn't really know about them. I will for sure put one on the compressor and also figure out a way to plumb one into the manifold at the outlet in my garage. I think they are exactly what I need. Better yet, I think I might install an fan-cooled intercooler on the pump outlet before it goes into the tank to try to catch as much as I can before it goes down the hoses into the garage. Big thanks Tweake!

what some people do is fit a drip leg one after the cooler. even if its a semi-auto one which drains when there is no air pressure, eg when the compressor stops.
but you cannot have any filter in it.
getting the water out early makes life easy for the downstream pipes.
the other plus is if its a piston compressor cooling between pump and tank will dry the air a bit more due to the slightly higher air pressure.

[Oscar]

Thanks for the suggestion. These never popped up on my previous searches for water traps, so I didn't really know about them. I will for sure put one on the compressor and also figure out a way to plumb one into the manifold at the outlet in my garage. I think they are exactly what I need. Better yet, I think I might install an fan-cooled intercooler on the pump outlet before it goes into the tank to try to catch as much as I can before it goes down the hoses into the garage. Big thanks Tweake!

what some people do is fit a drip leg one after the cooler. even if its a semi-auto one which drains when there is no air pressure, eg when the compressor stops.
but you cannot have any filter in it.
getting the water out early makes life easy for the downstream pipes.
the other plus is if its a piston compressor cooling between pump and tank will dry the air a bit more due to the slightly higher air pressure.

Exactly my thought, using the drip leg version immediately after the fan-cooled aftercooler, before the tank. I'm actually still considering a refrigerated cooler, but I think a few of these float type separators in the right places will help out tremendously.

[tweake]

refrigerated cooler is for only after the air has been cooled down and bulk water taken off.
they actually have max inlet air temps (and max ambient air temps) and its not very high.