I'm in the market for in-line water separators for the garage air supply. Can anyone tell me a good source? Are there any I should avoid?
any help is appreciated

Water seperators are good to an extent. Make sure you have connections above the run, or have connections above the end of a drop, with a way to drain moisture from the end of the line. A good seperator/desicant is what you need if you plan to do any painting or have a blasting cabinet. I have an expensive seperator right at the blasting cabinet here at the school. I ordered it from AirGas and paid somewhere around $50 for it, and it does not give me dry air, I stil have a clogging problem when the students use the cabinet for more than about 10 min. I will be ordering a desicant drier for it soon.

If you run that 3/4'' black pipe and three F88 filters, and put in in right you won't need an air dryer, I bead blast all the time, zero moisture.

Rod, if your a technical instructor, why don't you get your students together and lay out some decent airlines, then when there out of school they will know how to do it, I will help you with it if you would like.

Its all on my website, have them read it and then have them draw it out, and test them on it.

I don't think your teaching them right, (only as far as this is concerned) you're just putting a band aid on it with an air dryer.

I'm also thinking, once your students get a good drawing, you can put it on the forums, and everybody can use it.

Don't take this as I am telling you that you are not a good teacher, you might be one of the better ones.

Rob

Regardless of what dryer / filter you use you must have a minimum of 30 feet of pipe between source and filter to allow air to condense moisture, otherwise no filter will work well. One trick that helps ALOT in water reduction is to put a fan blowing directly onto the compressor head.

Usually its a minimun of 50 feet.

Rob

If you run that 3/4'' black pipe and three F88 filters, and put in in right you won't need an air dryer, I bead blast all the time, zero moisture.

Rod, if your a technical instructor, why don't you get your students together and lay out some decent airlines, then when there out of school they will know how to do it, I will help you with it if you would like.

Its all on my website, have them read it and then have them draw it out, and test them on it.

I don't think your teaching them right, (only as far as this is concerned) you're just putting a band aid on it with an air dryer.

I'm also thinking, once your students get a good drawing, you can put it on the forums, and everybody can use it.

Don't take this as I am telling you that you are not a good teacher, you might be one of the better ones.

Rob

I appreciate the help. I have wanted to do what you suggest for along time, however with Cal OSHA and all, not to mention our maintenance's union would have a fit if we fixed something on our own. My biggest problem is that the air fitting that I am using is directly off of the compressor, not the recomended distance. We have a VERY small shop and that is the ONLY place we can put the blast cabinet. I have a 15' air hose trying to get to that distance, however I have put in to have this remidied and told that it is not something they will fix as there is air there, and the fact that it has moisture contamination is not their concern. So I have to put the band aid on it untill something changes. I do understand how air lines work and the need for condensation, drops and seperators. In my personal shop I have used copper tubing and the first thing off of the compressor is my main regulator. The main line runs across the top of the wall. Each drop goes up from the main line first about 6 inches and then dropps down and a "T" put in where the connection is 6" above the end of the pipe. The end of the pipe has a ball valve to release any condensation or contamination. I then have a seperators and regulators at each of my 4 connections. The main line has a total of 6" of drop from the front to the back of my shop with a ball valve at the end of it. The only desicant I have I install when I use my spray gun. But at school it isnt an option if I want dry air for now. Again, thank you for your offer, I still may take my students through a lesson in compressed air.

Rod, just trying to help out, we have had some criticism on here about body shop technical schools, and I thought this would be an opportunity to shed a little different light on it.

You mentioned you run copper pipe and a desicant filter on your spray gun.

Don't want to sound like a jerk, but if you run the right length of pipe and put some F88's in the right place, you won't need that extra desicant filter. Also copper pipe is questionable.

Running airlines is not easy, I had to keep changing mine, I learned the hard way, but I still think it would be a good project for your students, and to put something together like that coming from a tech school, you might change some attitudes on what tech schools are putting out.

They don't have to build it, just do the paper work.

My neighbor was in a class of about 25 at body shop technical school, probably 5 years ago, he's about 26 years old.

He was number one in his class, so he says, anyway a couple of months ago he called me to go over and look at his air lines, he had some problems with his painting.

I was really surprised at what little he knew about the whole concept, and he is a bright young man and pretty good at body work.

We made some changes in his setup, and he's good to go.

But, he should have been taught the concept.

Another thing that bothers me, he came over one evening, and I was going to rattle can some parts in my paint booth, quite a few parts, and he said he wanted to spray them, I said okay, and said I'll fire up the supplied air, heres the hood, he said no, I'll be okay.

So, I said, at least let me get you a respirator out of the cabinet, and he said no, I'll be fine.

Well, it makes you wonder, did they go over all of the health hazards in body work.

Anyway, thanks for your response.

Rob

A good discusion about how to get rid of water but my Questions are atill unanswered. about any to avoid or where is a good source to buy.

A good discussion about how to get rid of water but my Questions are still unanswered. about any to avoid or where is a good source to buy.

The sharpe F88 filters are user friendly, if you want to clean them and change out the filters, however if you run three of them, it would be a rare occasion that you would have to unscrew the bases and clean them.

They have a like white stone filter in them, I changed mine out when my compressor started blowing out some oil.

The first one was dark brown, the second one was a little brown, and the third one was almost white, I do have a fourth one at the end of another 40 feet of pipe going into the paint booth, and that one was pure white.

If I recall right Dave, I mentioned those F88's at another time with you, but old age, I might be wrong.

Rob

As far as finding a place to buy them, your closet body shop- paint supply should have them in stock, anyway the three places that I buy supplies from all stock them, around $60.

Rob

I was hoping for more opinions. Where would I find them? I was going to run up to Menards for the pipe. I'm not sure where to look for them besides a auto paint supply store.

Dave, if you go to google and type in sharpe f88 filters, there are a bunch of them from on line body shop stores.

A little more on filters for what its worth. I had a run of three different types of filters before I bought the sharpe type, and they had a rubber o-ring that sealed them, and I had a hard time finding the o-ring, and I also had problems when I screwed them back together, the o-ring wouldn't stay in place, where the sharpe has a gasket on top, when you change them out, get a new gasket with it, but as I said earlier it would be rare to change them out if you run three of them.

I didn't know my compressor was blowing oil, but at the end of the day I
always unscrew the wing nut on the bottom of the filters, and drain them out, and I felt some oil on my finger tips, I was lucky I found it before my airlines were saturated with oil.

Rob

Also copper pipe is questionable.Rob


Why is copper questionable?

thanks Rob. That is what I was looking for.

Rod, copper tubing is easily damaged, and soldered joints can come loose under pressure, (safety hazard), and I guess the cost might come into play.

If you go to
http://www.tptools.com/

And look under there tech tips they explain why they use black pipe.

Rob

Your welcome Dave, good luck.

Rob

tptools.com, $100 for a decent filter and regulator. I have yet to have a drop of water come out of my hose over a year.

ss boy, I just looked your web site over, you do some pretty nice work, plus you can do the mechanical part, not bad for a youngster.:thumbsup:

Rob

All this posting has me tired out, I'm gonna take a hour or two nap, then go out and attack the beast. Stock market is going up on the feds cut, I'm makin money while I'm sleeping, this retirement isn't bad at all.:)

Rob

I have yet to have a drop of water come out of my hose over a year.

Damn buddy....get yer prostate looked at.

Rod, copper tubing is easily damaged, and soldered joints can come loose under pressure, (safety hazard), and I guess the cost might come into play.

If you go to
http://www.tptools.com/

And look under there tech tips they explain why they use black pipe.

Rob

Cost was not an issue for me, as my dad gave the pipe to me from leftovers when he did some work at his house. However, when i did my research, copper pipe was more than sufficient with the correct tinning, and connections let alone the pressures that can be run through the pipe. The following link gives all pressures that are acceptable with different types of lead. I wont argue with someones prefrence, but this happens to be mine, However Every thing you have told me I will and do take into great consideration. The easy damage that comes with the soft wall pipe is not an issue with me either, I have a steel building and all pipe is run on the inside of gerters, posts or trusses. It is my personal garage and as with my Chevelle, I dont go around beating on metal.. :noway:

http://www.copper.org/applications/plumbing/techref/cth/tables/cth_table4.htm


Here at the high school I have talked with the other Auto/AG teacher and we are going to basically make a "temporary" black pipe circuit that is connected by hose between the main feed and this loop of metal pipe. We are planning to just run the pipe around the shop, with the drops and filters correct for what is needed as suggested by you. But no hard connections to the existing plumbing.:hurray:

Rod, when you can get pipe for free, a mans got to use it.
Sounds like you got a plan, good luck.:thumbsup:

Rob