Fitting a quarter turn valve to the air hose

[badabec]

Hello, my airline goes from the compressor to a water filter (filled with silica gel) and then onto a PCL Dropout. I would like to fit a quarter turn valve in the line before the water filter so that I can isolate it.
Entry to the water filter is 1/2" BSP. Can you think of an elegant way to do this?

 

[tom2207]

fit it to the filter ,,, use a nipple to let you line it up perfectly maybe use a swept 90 to get the hose drop nice too. ,,, job done.

 

[MetalMonkey]

1/2" BSP elbow, pointed down.
Screw ball valve onto elbow, screw fitting into ball valve.

 

[timgunn1962]

Is that not ****-backwards? The Dropout is intended to remove condensed water and drain it off. Silica gel will absorb condensed water and, I think, should also remove some of the water vapour. Once the Silica gel is saturated, that's it until it is changed or recharged.

If I've understood correctly, putting the Dropout first should do the lions share, leaving the final polish to the Silica gel and allowing much longer change/recharge intervals.

 

[julianf]

I don't fully know what you're up to, but 15mm ball valves have a 1/2 bsp thread under the compression nut.

It will be a parallel thread and not have a flange, but that's never really stopped me previously.

 

[timgunn1962]

As said above, 15mm plumbing valves are effectively 1/2"bsp male/male.

A 1/2" bsp male/female ball valve is the easiest way to do it: it just needs the valve and uses the fittings you've already got. Easy to source from ebay, amazon or a pneumatics supplier. One-piece valves have reduced bore. 2-piece valves are usually full-bore. It's worth being aware of, though I'd not expect reduced bore to cause any problem

 

[Slowcoach]

using a swept 90 would certainly put less strain on the input air line.
if you unplug the airline the filter won’t be pressurised would it? enabling changing the silica and draining the dropout.

 

[brightspark]

it is ass first. should be ball valve 1st then the separator and then the silica filter

 

[vw1]

Hello, my airline goes from the compressor to a water filter (filled with silica gel) and then onto a PCL Dropout. I would like to fit a quarter turn valve in the line before the water filter so that I can isolate it.
Entry to the water filter is 1/2" BSP. Can you think of an elegant way to do this?

View attachment 404718

How you stop the silica balls from been blown out of the unit ?

 

[bricol]

I would suggest that having the dropout negates the need for the silica filter anyway.