Regulator / trap

[irondarren]

Luke normally a standard water trap is fine for spraying. You need to make sure the filter unit is not to close to the compressor. Basically water traps work by allowing water droplets to fall into the trap, if they are to close to the compressor the air will be to warm and the water will not have condensed and be able to be trapped. Incorrect positioning of a water trap often causes problems (so does a horrid damp day where i swear my compressor pumps more water than air). The other common problem is not draining the tank at least once a day.

 

[Luke]

My reg/water trap is about 2.5m of copper pipe away from the tank outlet, how's that?

I know the tanks needs a drain, but it takes a while to drain 300L off.

 

[irondarren]

Personally i would have said 2.5mtrs away from the tank would have been fine. Your still getting water when painting?.

 

[Luke]

Haven't even started spraying yet! It's on the to-do list. Just looking at what's needed to get going.

The water trap hardly ever has any water in it, I wonder if this is down to the copper cooling the air and condensing the water out before it gets to the seperator.

 

[irondarren]

If i remember correctly (and i might not) the water trap should be at the lowest point, thus allowing any water to drain down into it.

 

[Luke]

The regulator definitely isn't the lowest part of the system.

 

[Welderpaul]

Is copper pipe strong enough to cope with the pressure? Every airline system i have seen has always been steel pipe.

 

[irondarren]

That ordinary copper pipe your using luke? ordinary as in 1/2 inch water pipe, if so it holds up to the pressure ok, got me thinking of getting rid of all the rubber hosing i got and doing in copper water pipe

 

[Luke]

Yup, well i've had it up to over 11 bar to test.

Someone somewhere (i remember) found out that its specification was fine.

Compression joints leak over time though, I've got valves straight out of the tanks and turn them off there when i'm done.

 

[Luke]

yup its 1/2" - 15mm copper pipe.

When i can be arsed I'm going to run another outlet down to the other end of the garage. though the hoses are long enough to get out of the garage and to the end of the drive.

 

[Drains]

Is copper pipe strong enough to cope with the pressure? Every airline system i have seen has always been steel pipe.

I bet if the cruddy rubberish pipes i've got can cope, then those copper ones will too!

At a guess though, if copper pipes can cope with mains pressure water (up to 10 bar, or 150psi ish), and hammering, then they should be ok with air.

You get speedfit connections for airlines now. All plastic. Cost more, but dead easy to install.

Tidy set-up btw, Luke.


Jeeze, i'm typing too slow these days, everyone else has answered before me!

 

[Welderpaul]

Fan, computer, telly, bottle of wine, tools. Hmmmm, another hideaway-from-the-missus?

 

[Luke]

That picture's almost a year old, its not so tidy now.

There's a fridge pump connected too, and a winch bolted to the floor for pulling the range rover in and out, range rover roof and wings strapped to the ceiling, and a portamig, and quite a lot of sh!te.

I might take some more pictures, though that would mean having a bit of a clear up.

 

[Luke]

The picture was taken not long after moving in (and setting up), the (crud) bottle of wine was a left-over from the previous owner. honest.

Fan is now black with oil. priceless bit of kit i love it.
Computer is great for manuals, music (its networked) and pulling up drawings etc. It also saves shouting to the missus (msn ).

 

[irondarren]

Makes me think about sorting out the workshop, and getting copper pipe run around, i guess the solder fittings might be better when Teeing off and for elbows. Get the ones without solder on and braze the little buggers on so they can't go pop, saves having rubber hose about the place, which happends to always be in a convient place to trip off the dam stuff

 

[Welderpaul]

Got me thinking an all. Was about to buy a load of steel pipe to save hoses running all over the place. Got loads of copper pipe and fittings about. That'll do nicely.

 

[Luke]

Roger has used solder fittings and they've been fine, I belive. I haven't got a torch.

 

[irondarren]

Could always TIG the pipe up just to make it twice as much work lol. Bit of silver solder would be fine, if i get to clever with it then i will never end up doing it. I guess with 15mm copper you wont get the pressure drop like you do on the standard rubber hose when you get over 10mtrs long.

 

[Wozzaaah]

Luke normally a standard water trap is fine for spraying. You need to make sure the filter unit is not to close to the compressor. Basically water traps work by allowing water droplets to fall into the trap, if they are to close to the compressor the air will be to warm and the water will not have condensed and be able to be trapped. Incorrect positioning of a water trap often causes problems (so does a horrid damp day where i swear my compressor pumps more water than air). The other common problem is not draining the tank at least once a day.

That explains why my water trap has never trapped any water! Mine has always been straight into the compressor outlet, I just thought I was blessed with very dry air

 

[shenion]

I have heard that soldered copper pipes will eventually fail due to the air corroding the solder.

Probably was true in old days, but solder is different now.

I will probably do copper pipe but will use silver solder.