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Antique Tractor Paint and Bodywork

Another water in the lines question

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hvw

08-13-2006 15:00:43

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I posted the other day about the problem of water in my airlines. I think Rod and CNKS responded with some ideas. I did something that I believe is similar to the suggestions. Now I'm looking for more thoughts.

A friend gave me a fairly large 3/4" finned copper heat exchanger he salvaged somewhere. I can't measure the length because it's coiled in two rows but I believe it to be at least 35 feet long. I read somewhere that finned copper has nine times the surface area compared to smooth wall tubing.

I ran 20 feet of smooth copper pipe between the exchanger and the compressor. I put in two large homemade water traps and a commercial water separator between the compressor and the final rubber air line. It looks like a moonshine still to me.

At any rate I decided to test it today so I painted a good sized utility trailer for about an hour and a half. I couldn't spot any trace of water in the paint. I figured it was all in the traps but there wasn't any in any of them either. I'm sure there had to be water in the lines because the compressor was steady pumping hot air. And there was water in the compressor tank. What gives? Is a heat echanger that efficient or did I just luck out?

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

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Rod (NH)

08-13-2006 18:02:52

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Re: Another water in the lines question in reply to hvw, 08-13-2006 15:00:43

The finned copper heat exchanger should work fine as long as it is needed and provided there is an ability to gravity drain to some low point such as your water traps. The fins greatly increase the surface area and thereby increase the heat transfer, just like a radiator in a car. I don't know how your 20 ft of straight copper is sloped but if it is sloped such that it can gravity drain back to the tank, it may be that most of the cooling (and condensation) is occurring in that section and little, if anything, is happening in the finned exchanger section. It is not preferable to slope back to the tank, even though many do it. It can work, however, especially if the airflow velocity is not great. The finned heat exchanger is definitely more efficient, given a similar temperature difference between the compressed air going into it and the ambient surrounding air, compared to a non-finned section. In fact, the better two-stage units have such a "radiator" available as an OEM option; called an aftercooler. However, if the air is already cooled well by your preceeding straight piping, the exhanger may not be doing much additional at all. Or perhaps it just drains into your straight section and then back to the tank. What you do or do not see in your traps depends on just where they are and how everything is sloped with respect to them.

It can be said in general that for steady state conditions, compressed air leaving the storage tank is in a saturated condition and any further cooling downstream is going to result in condensation and moisture dropout. The presence of moisture dropout in the tank itself would tend to confirm that. That's usually where most of it happens anyway. I therefore don't have an explanation as to why you are not seeing anything in your traps unless the condition is caused by gravity drainage to some other area due to slope.

Rod

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hvw

08-13-2006 18:32:08

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Re: Another water in the lines question in reply to Rod (NH), 08-13-2006 18:02:52

Thanks Rod. I have the straight run sloped away from the compressor towards the heat exchanger. At its end the run elbows straight down four feet to a trap. A tee a little ahead of the trap takes air into the exchanger. On the outlet end of the exchanger I put another trap plumbed like the other one but lower down and then after that a large water separator, higher than the two traps, which is hooked directly to the air hose. I don't know the scientifics of why this has worked out but I sure am happy about it. It may not even work this well all of the time but I expect the month of August is a pretty good test period. I'm thinking the exchanger must be equivalent to about 300 feet of straight copper pipe. Thanks to you and CNKS for your suggestions and help.

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Rod (NH)

08-14-2006 17:16:02

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Re: Another water in the lines question in reply to hvw, 08-13-2006 18:32:08

Sounds like you got it plumbed up correctly. I'm glad it's working for you. It's always nice to be pleased with positive results.

Rod

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hvw

08-13-2006 17:32:28

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Re: Another water in the lines question in reply to hvw, 08-13-2006 15:00:43

Thanks CNKS. I did drain the compressor after painting and sure enough water came out. I guess the heat exchanger is doing its job.

It was given to a friend. He intended to make a still out of it it but was unable to determine what type of solder was used to put it together. He didn't want to take any chances so he decided against using it. Luckily I inherited it before he recycled it.

It's quite the contraption and obviously works well. Much better than either of us thought possible. Fortunately I had about 25 feet of hard copper tubing left over from building my house 24 years ago so the project turned out to be the poor man's air dryer indeed. Believe me I needed a break. Copper prices have hit the sky around here.

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CNKS

08-13-2006 17:16:57

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Re: Another water in the lines question in reply to hvw, 08-13-2006 15:00:43

It looks like it works -- I imagine you have some water in the filter media in your traps, just not in the housing that it drains out of. Although I "drain" my two traps whenever I use them, I never get any water to run out of either of them. My 90 feet or so of line has several drops, all but two unused. There is a drain at each drop, I do get water out of the some of those. And, a LOT of water out of the compressor tank itself. However my painting is only a few minutes at a time, sometimes only a few seconds. But, I have done some sandblasting for longer periods. The sand blaster has it's own filter downstream from mine. I have never seen water in the sandblaster filter. So, you probably have overkill, which is a lot better than underkill.

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