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Pics of my Homemade Air Dryer

70K views 21 replies 11 participants last post by  jimdi4 
#1 ·
I've tried several different setups (an understatement) for drying out my air. I do quite a bit of DA sanding and painting from my garage at home and have always battled moisture and oil problems.

The tank is an old propane tank. Black iron couplings were cut in half and used as weld-in bungs. Tank was back-purged with argon and mig welded with my little miller 140.


1.25" bungs on top and bottom for easy empty and refill.

takes almost three large bags of fresh step crystals cat litter (95% Silica gel) -- much cheaper than buying bulk silica :D Sink drain Screen brazed to inside of exit nipple to keep the desiccant in the tank and out of my regulator.

I have ZERO moisture for about a month of continuous use and gained a little more volume (which helps my 60 gal IR keep up!)



Feel free to comment, copy, whatever.
 

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#2 ·
I am moving this to garage/tools ..Good idea you have there though some will be a bit iffy about using the propane tank..there are some other tanks of similar capacity though that one could use..the use of the fresh step litter is great if one lives out in the woods somewhere as well..

Sam
 
#5 ·
50bowTie said:
I've tried several different setups (an understatement) for drying out my air. I do quite a bit of DA sanding and painting from my garage at home and have always battled moisture and oil problems.

The tank is an old propane tank. Black iron couplings were cut in half and used as weld-in bungs. Tank was back-purged with argon and mig welded with my little miller 140.


1.25" bungs on top and bottom for easy empty and refill.

takes almost three large bags of fresh step crystals cat litter (95% Silica gel) -- much cheaper than buying bulk silica :D Sink drain Screen brazed to inside of exit nipple to keep the desiccant in the tank and out of my regulator.

I have ZERO moisture for about a month of continuous use and gained a little more volume (which helps my 60 gal IR keep up!)



Feel free to comment, copy, whatever.
Looks like you used Monster tape.
Did you have the tank hydo'd?
Good tip on the kitty litter.

Back in the day a friend of mine was a commercial diver. He refilled his tanks using a home made filter box. It was nothing more than a steel box welded up to hold 40 Kotex pads inline. He said it worked as well as any commmercially available filter at the time. :D
 
#8 ·
I have tried the copper/brass drop leg racks.... made a large one that was cooled with water and air... it worked OK but with the price of copper sky high I wouldn't do it again. It also didn't remove all of the moisture. it just collected it and then I had to remove it manually from the system.


####

I can't stress enough that you need to really know what you're doing If you want to make one of these. Pressure vessels are nothing to fool around with, and welded improperly can kill you. (while welding and after pressurizing).

####


I drained tank, removed valve, set upside down for five minutes or so.. dumped some comet and dawn soap in the tank and pressure washed it out a few times. Took a big weed burner and heated the tank to burn off any excess. and went to hole sawing the holes in it.

Welding...

I put a "Tee" right after my regulator on my argon bottle and ran a hose to the propane tank to back purge it while welding. Used painters tape to seal it up. Black iron fitting weld (OK) but if I had it to do over again I would use a little better grade steel.



tank has seen 135psi many times. full and empty of desiccant. So far, I'm still alive. :D
 
#9 ·
Old Fool said:
Looks like you used Monster tape.
Did you have the tank hydo'd?
Good tip on the kitty litter.

Back in the day a friend of mine was a commercial diver. He refilled his tanks using a home made filter box. It was nothing more than a steel box welded up to hold 40 Kotex pads inline. He said it worked as well as any commmercially available filter at the time. :D

Monster tape FTW!!! :thumbup:


No, the tank was not hydro tested, someday I may make one out of a dive tank to save desiccant, then I'll do it up right :D

that guy's filter idea worked great i'm sure! I always use a cotton media filter at my paint gun to collect any dust from this. (It works well for moisture also).
 
#11 ·
deadbodyman said:
Thats a good tip with the kitty litter.I'm going to have to try that.It costs me 90.00 for about a gallons worth of desicent.
40 Kotex????? another good idea but Dang I feel funny just buying one box for the old lady....
....I got a filter that uses toilet paper.....no sheet....works good too.


yeah the kitty litter works, only difference is it doesn't change colors when its saturated. But it's cheap enough that you can change it out before it's too late.

I might also add that there is a small amount of dust at first until moisture traps it. Using a toilet paper filter after the desiccant is the way to go.
 
#14 ·
LOL ,tell ya the truth it was blue when I got it (used) I never knew it was supposed to change color until I bought the new balls and there was a piece for the window.. Mine turns color right away because its at the bottom of the filter where the water collects...so I dont ever look at it,it would be nice if it had a pitcock to drain off the water though..
That DeVilbis filter cost about 400.00 when I pulled it apart to replace the balls I couldn't believe it was basicly only a canister,very easy to make
 
#16 ·
Aftercooler would help make it last longer

Fab up an after cooler for the compressor. I use a coffee can with a coil of copper tube, or aluminum rolled up inside. Attach a small water separating filter down stream and fill the can with ice and water. This will make your desiccant last even longer. Don't forget to insulate the outside of the can. Desiccant dryers work much better when the the inlet air is cooler. Industrial dryers are sized to work with 100F inlet air.
 
#18 ·
DanTwoLakes said:
An old pressure tank from a shallow well pump setup would have the connections already on it. You'd still have to open the tank up and get the diaphragm out of it, but it wouldn't have to be purged. AN IN-LINE TANK LIKE THIS

Not sure what those tanks are rated for but, I promise you would still want to change the bungs out to much larger. 1.25" is about right. any smaller and it would take forever to fill/dump.
 
#19 ·
testing tanks after welding.

A few years ago I welded a larger bung in an old air bubble. An old welder friend of mine told me how to test it. Stand the tank on end so you can completely fill with water. Then reduce the bung down untill you can screw a grease zert into it. While reducing it down install a tee fitting so an air gauge can be installed so you can check the pressure. Take a hand grease gun and start pumping grease into it while watching the pressure gauge. I pumped my tank up to double what I expect to be the normal air pressure. Water won't compress so if it ruptures all that will happen is you will get wet.
 
#21 ·
coast40 said:
A 2.5 gal. pressure paint pot with 2 regs and hose for $5. Heck, a home canning pressure cooker might be usable.
Hey, I have one, Use it once in a while to paint Latex paint on outdoor projects, I don't care bout moisture when painting the shed or deck.

But it can easily be filled with kitty litter and then sealed up, then opened up and dump out old silica (cat Litter; TiDY cat crystals - Walmart carries it).

I can drop the whole thing into a larger bucket filled with ICE to cool...I have traps after this...or should I cool the air before it gets to the pressure tank?

Its designed for high pressure, plus it has a blead off valve if the pressure gets to high...Only thing to do is to screen off the outlet in side the pot somehow, then maybe put an old tea bag, or coffee filter paper in front of the screen to keep the silica dust out!!

BTW this is my first post...I just painted my buddies Hummer plastic fender flare,,, it fell off when the deer ran into the Hummer,,,the deer lost!...I don't know if i can post any pictures yet... :welcome:
 
#22 ·
50bowTie said:
I've tried several different setups (an understatement) for drying out my air. I do quite a bit of DA sanding and painting from my garage at home and have always battled moisture and oil problems.

The tank is an old propane tank. Black iron couplings were cut in half and used as weld-in bungs. Tank was back-purged with argon and mig welded with my little miller 140.


1.25" bungs on top and bottom for easy empty and refill.

takes almost three large bags of fresh step crystals cat litter (95% Silica gel) -- much cheaper than buying bulk silica :D Sink drain Screen brazed to inside of exit nipple to keep the desiccant in the tank and out of my regulator.

I have ZERO moisture for about a month of continuous use and gained a little more volume (which helps my 60 gal IR keep up!)



Feel free to comment, copy, whatever.

So do you fill the whole thing up with desiccant, leaving no air space in the cylinder? :cool: I want to do the same this w/e although I plan on buying a 5 gallon air cylinder on Craigslist....
 
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