Does anyone have some expertise here?

I have the tiny (crappy) in-line dryer, and it kills the CFM too much to use the sandblaster, and frankly doesn't work very well.

I have the siphon type sandblaster and am using 20-30 green grit (glass).

It works ok until the compressor has to start working to keep up. I have a 60 gallon 3.7HP compressor, that can put out 11.5 CFM at 90 PSI.

Princess Auto (think Harbor Freight) sells an inline dryer for $90, but I'm not sure if that will totally fix my problems here.


Should I bite the bullet and get the dryer AND a pressurized sandblast unit?

I'm going to be trying to sandblast some winter rims (steel) for my wife's DD so I can repaint them. I'm sure I will find a few hundred other things to sandblast after these rims too...

If anyone has some experience here, I'd sure appreciate some advice before I go spending a pile of cash.

 

Your compressor should be big enough. This is the setup I used to sand blast the frame on my 68 pick up. Worked great but I had to section because my smaller compressor would get hot. Once the compressor got real hot I would get moisture past the filter. I rented a 8HP gas compressor and I could run without waiting. With the gas compressor hooked in to my 110v system this catch filter worked fine.

If you can set your compressor outside there is almost no water in the air on a cold Ontario evening good luck

Industrial Air Filter Regulator
Pressurized Sand Blaster

 

I use wilkerson products and they allow 0 moisture in the lines if you keep up on the dessicant changes. Its the same system that i use when i manufacture multimillion dollar oilfield equipement.

I personally have the XO3
http://www.wilkersoncorp.com/9EM-TK-190/9EM-X03-X04.pdf

 

Hey Sudstoy where do you work? I am with Greene Tweed we do a ton of seals for oilfield equipment.

For my highend machines I like the Membrane Air Dryers but they are way to pricey for home use. Most likely cost more then his compressor.

The nice part about sticking the compressor outside is that if no water gets in to the compressor there is none to filter out. As the air temp approchs 30 degs F water in the air approchs zero. Even if he could port the compressor intake to the outside he would get dry air this time of year. The colder air also helps the compressor run cooler when it runs continuously. Most “home compressors” are not rated for continuous operation.

 

Hey Guys, thanks for the advice.

I am going to have to get a dryer of some type, but based on what I am using it for, it's gotta be fairly cheap.

I don't plan on making a living running the sandblaster, but it would be nice to dry out the air for the rest of my tools too.

I like the idea of porting the intake outside, I can't move the compressor out (it's hard wired) but I can move it over beside the window in the shop so it can pull from the cold (way too cold at the moment!) outside air. This won't help much in the summer, but for now it should a bit.

The dryer I linked to at Princess Auto shows that it should be connected at least 25' away from the compressor. Should this be the case for any dryer I connect? I am going to run some iron pipe this weekend for the air anyway, should I put a "moisture loop" in it after the compressor or just before the dryer?

Thanks again for the help here.

 

It would be better to use like a copper coil. Many industrial grade compressor use a copper coil between the compressor and the tank.

The reason for the 25 feet is because it will give the mositure a chance to form droplets. It just a vapor as it leaves the compressor. A small secondary tank some distance away would work as a trap also as long as the tank exit (to the blaster) is on the top of the secondary tank.

 

Lets explore this copper coil idea a bit more...

I have access to a fair amount of copper coil, reasonably cheap (Free).

What if I ran a copper coil outside, say 100 ft or so, and for the winter just left it be, but in the summer submerged in water or even buried it?

I just ran the compressor through a cycle, and at the compressor head exit tube, the temp was 160F, and at the tank fill (10" or so away) it was 100F.

This was just cycling it from 90PSI to 140PSI, so it only ran for a minute or so, certainly not like it would when I am sandblasting.

IF I can get the temp of the air returning to the tank to be as cold as the outside air, this should eliminate a lot of the vapor back to the tank....no?

I still plan on running a dryer, but if a bit of tubing eliminated a lot of the water before it ever gets there, so much the better....

Will this work you think? Or am I WAY off base here... physics was never my best subject in HS...

 

If I understand what you are say you are going to us your primary tank as the catch for the water. That will work fine but your going to need to drain your tank a lot. I would think if the coil was lower then the tank the water would tend to say in the coil. I was thinking just a 3ft section of copper tube to keep the heat from building up around the compressor head. Building a geo-thermal setup might be a little overkill

Like I said the above catch style filter worked fine for me as long as I kept the compressor from getting too hot. Your other hand tools can handle the mositure as long as you keep them oiled. . In one shop I was the Low man on the compressed air line. About once a month the impact became a water fountain. I still have it. I just soaked it with oil after I drained the system.

 

Hmmm...now you have me thinking of even more overkill....

What if I did this, 25' of copper line, run outside, then underground (under the frost line) then back inside about 1/2 way up to the compressor tank....except...I run it to my old portable compressor tank first! Use the old tank as the water vapor trap, then run it the rest of the way to my new compressor tank....

As long as the the inlet was lower than the outlet on the small compressor tank and the drain was on the bottom, this should work? Yes?

Looks like some experimenting might be in order this weekend. The line from the compressor head to the tank is just 3/8 OD tubing. This should be pretty easy I think. (famous last words, I know...right up there with "hold my beer and watch this...)

 

If your gonna run two tanks you should still have an air dryer. The Dessicant dryers are cheap, i think mine was like $150 and it is pretty nice plus came with replacement dessicant. I would run out of the compressor head through some line and into your old tank (wet tank) then out of your wet tank, through a dessicant dryer, then through an after filter to get any dessicant dust out of the system and into your good tank which will then be your dry tank. If you have two large air tanks it will definately cut down on the duty cycle that the compressor needs to run. Just fill them both up and blast until they get down to a level where the compressor turns on and stop for a bit.

I know when i use my glass bead cabinet for more then around 20 minutes my compressor gets smoking hot.