Quest for Dry Air, On the Cheap Options

[jmill]

I'll be painting sometime soon and recently there has been several timely paint related threads. In the Midwest we're plagued by humid weather and lots of water in our compressed air. I figured I'd share my project to rid myself of water so my paint job isn't ruined.

There are several high dollar units out there to separate water from the air but I'm cheap. I decided to design some piping meant to drop the water out of suspension. All you need is 25' or more of piping, some valves, fittings and good old gravity. I wanted to use copper but it would have cost me over $150 in materials. Going with PVC cost me $40.

I still need to finish the drain and inlet/outlet piping but you'll get the idea.

[jmill]

That workers very well. Btdt. If you double the pipe size going up and down vs your other drops, the air moves slower as well and helps.

The risers I have are 3/4" with 1/2" on the inlet, outlet and drain. In hindsight I suppose I could have gone with 1" and it would work even better like you said. One issue is as the piping size goes up the pressure rating goes down. I think 1" is rated for 160 psi whereas the 3/4 is over 400 psi and the 1/2 is 600 psi. My compressor is set at 145 psi and close to the 1" rating.