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.

[bobhasissues]

John,
As a supplement to your system, I have a big desiccant dryer I bought at Harbor Freight a few years back. I used it as a stand-alone drying system and it worked great. It's a large steel tube about about 2" ID x 36" long. Air enters the bottom travels up through the desiccant material and out through the top. Between gravity and the desiccant it is very effective. I have 1/2" fittings on it so it won't reduce airflow downstream. I can no longer find one on the HF website, but you are welcome to borrow mine. I'm in LaGrange, but can arrange to get it as far as Gurnee where a friend of mine would be happy to hold it for you. PM me if you are interested.