How to build a copper pipe air compressor air dryer
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2021
- In this video I build a copper tube air dryer for an air compressor. This is for about 38 feet of pipe. 40-50 feet is recommended
4-10’ pieces of 3/4 copper pipe
4 solder on 3/4 ball valves
2-3/4 to 1/2 npt adapters
4-3/4 tee fittings
11-3/4 street elbows
3-3/4 90* fittings
1/2 npt to 3/8 barb fittings
Copper Mounting straps
Wire brush
Flux
Solder
Torch
Pipe cutter
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Great job Jason. I need to build something like this myself. Good for plasma cutting and spray painting too.
I used it for spraying some epoxy primer and I don’t believe I got any water to the spray gun.
Nice one Jason. Interesting and informative as usual.👍
Thank you. I messed up and got all street elbows and later had to go get 3 90’s. I should have made a list before I went.
Dont know why you guys keep building these in the vertical orientation. Build them horizontally and put each pipe on a slight incline and you only need one valve because all the moisture will go to the lowest point. Save a ton of money on valves. A cheap after cooler is worth their weight in gold. If you dont put 300 degree air in your tank you will have very little moisture to contend with. Good job on the craftsmanship of your build and im not knocking your work in any way. But your plan of what you built is off by 90 degrees. Just my take on it. Thanks and yes it was a good watch with good info.
That’s a pretty good idea of hanging it sideways. Thank you for the advice. I appreciate your help and thank you for watching. I’ll look into the after cooler.
an aftercooler is what you need to get water out aftercooler goes between the head and separator to the tank then run it through your dryer system this way you will have cool dry air in the tank. nice video
Nice video. Had not thought about the street elbows. but that does make it more compact.
Also, I noticed that now-a-days most guys who use a soldering torch jump right to MAPP gas. I guess it's bigger, better, hotter, faster.
Thank you. I use the torch for nuts and bolts too so the more heat the better. I’ve heard that the mapp gas is just propane now and not any different, and not what it used to be. I don’t know if it’s true just what I heard. I accidentally got too many street elbows and had to go back for some regular 90’s
Crazy how much i learn from your channel. I dont even need one of these and now I want to make one lol. Good work sir
Thank you. I was nervous about leaks because this was the first time I soldered pipe, but I got lucky. I have a lot of things I didn’t know I needed until I saw it in a video 😁
Nice work. I did something similar, I wanted dry air for my plasma cutter. If you want to throw more money at it put a filter and water separator at the end. That will probably get the last bit of water out before your tools.
I think I’m going to put a separator at the end. I think some of the problem with the left over water is it’s so close to the compressor, and using a sand blaster the air is just rushing through it. I think normal air tools it would get more water out because the air is not flowing through constantly.
Place the copper next to the block wall and it should help with condensation if you have some contact to the wall. The board tied into the joist should provide a little bit of shielding for radiant heat coming from the compressor.
Really good illustration job done well
Thanks for sharing. Keep heat away from the drain valves by soldering a threaded fitting on the cu pipe going to them. Im thinking of going horizontal with one auto drain.
I’ve had quite a few people want to make it horizontally. I’d be interested to hear how it works out.
40 some solder connections without a leak. Pretty good for a new guy.
I wonder if you put a fan or 2 blowing on the pipes if they'd be more affective. Maybe cheaper then adding another row.
Thank you. I was surprised I didn’t have any leaks, I guess It must have been beginners luck. I haven’t ran the compressor that much but a have a box fan I will try when I do.
i am building one kinda like yours as we speak, i have a couple more hours of work to it yet before it is finished, mine does have 2 more tubes, i will be adding a 15300 cooler also between the head and the tank in the future, so between the two it should stop much water i hope, my problem is i am going from 85 or hotter air to a room that is 50 degrees, the problem we have now we just make lots of water and the filters fill up fast, you did put a damper on my hopes of this working, you are the first i heard of this system of getting water to a filter, i will have about 70 feet total in pipe, i hope that helps some, nice job on the build
I’ve heard a cooler between the compressor and tank does help a lot. I guess it depends on what your doing with the air. I was sand blasting and there is almost no time for the air to cool in the cooler. Also it was so close to the tank it ended up heating the first two tubes and I didn’t get much water out of them the 3rd and 4th had more water in them. If I was doing a low air demand task I think it would work better but with sand blasting it’s just ripping through. I have added a section of 30 feet between the tank and copper pipe and I put a regulator filter at the end. I haven’t done any sand blasting so I haven’t tested it, but when I was sand blasting the compressor was running almost nonstop for hours so it’s hard to keep it dry. I have the minimum amount of piping for one of these I later found out, but I think with 70 feet you will have better luck. My compressor is in a basement also so the air had 40-50% humidity to start with. A viewer left a comment to a system he designed in these comments you might be interested to read.
@@JasonTheMunicipalMechanic thanks for the reply, first my compressor at work is upstairs, the air temp inside the building i am guessing is about 85 or warmer, the hoses run into a room that is 50 degrees, my set up would be like yours about 6 feet from the compressor, i have 1 more piece of pipe left yet and i think i will add at least as much as i can of that, the sad part is i did not see your video sooner, i just mounted the pipe to the wood yesterday and was going to mount it today :(, take care and thanks a lot for the reply, we also use a lot of air, maybe this and a cooler will solve the problem, thanks again
That sort of bears a resemblance to something used in the back woods to make a potent potable!
❤ the best is thinning flux ❤
I think the flux is supposed to boil off. If you want prettier solder joint get a wet rag and wipe them off a few seconds after you finish. It ought to work fine.
I should have gotten a rag. All the dry paper towel was doing was pushing it around and burning my fingers. It did wipe up some of it, I looked a few days later and the flux that didn’t come off was turning the pipe green so I had missed some and had to clean it again.
I have seen people use an truck air brake dryer to get rid of moisture.
I’ll have to look into that. It’s not a bad idea.
Wonder if a fan blowing across the copper pipes would help?
It probably would. That first one got pretty warm I think. I would have imagined the water content would have been the other way around with the first pipe having the most and the last pipe having the least.
Jeez. Like 200$ in parts n pipe n stuff.. i paid 20$ for a power steering cooler/ radiator that had 3/8” tube and put my water oil separator after it below the radiator and below the tank inlet.. works for my needs..
You may not have the option however if you can move it further away from the compressor it may help with cooling and stop all water.
I was thinking of maybe running a longer hose between the compressor and the piping.
Hows this setup been working for you? I built one exactly like this out of 3/4 copper tubing but I ended up with the same length of tubing as you. I should of added another vertical. Has it been getting all the moisture out?
I did some tweaking to it to get more of the moisture out. I was getting moisture through when I was sand blasting but I don’t think I can expect it to work too well in that set up because it was really close to the compressor and the compressor was running almost nonstop. Also with the air rushing through so quickly it heated up the first tube and wasn’t cooling the air. I think In a more reserved use like with air tools and such that don’t run nonstop it would work better. It was taking water out I got more out of the last tube then the ones before. I haven’t used it yet except for with the sand blaster. I have recently put a length of hose between the tubing and the compressor that is about 30ft long that I think should help with getting more moisture out because it will give me more distance to let the air cool before it enters the tubing and not over heat the first tube. I also added a water filter separator to the end of the tubing to collect any remaining moisture before it goes into the hose. It was working well at first in the original design when sandblasting but as the tubing got hot I started getting water to the sand blaster water separator. I haven’t tried a fan to keep it cool yet but I’m hoping the extra hose helps with the efficiency of it. All the videos I saw of them everyone said they worked awesome so I think their air demand was less than what I was using. My compressor is in my basement so I might have more moisture in the air than if it was outside or in a garage. With the weather I won’t be doing anymore testing until it warms up so I don’t know how the add ons will improve the efficiency.
👍🍷 I wonder what would happen if you took the air that came out of the air compressor and ran it through the dryer and then back into the air tank of the air compressor and then over to the output regulator. 👍👍
That's what I did with a transmission tube/fin cooler. I also added a water separator before it gets to the tank. There's about a 150deg difference in temp from the pipe at the pump vs the pipe going into the tank now. So far, I barely get any water into the tank.
Good job soldering and laying out. It’s tough to get everything in one plane.
Question: Why didn’t you use horizontal pipes in a switchback fashion from top to bottom? That way you only need one drain at the bottom.
Thank you. Honestly I didn’t think of making it horizontally, all the ones I’ve seen were all vertical. One drain would have saved some money and been more convenient though. I’ve been toying around with it lately, it wasn’t the best for a high flow rate like when I was sand blasting. The air was going through too fast to cool. I put a 30 foot piece of air hose between the tank and the copper air dryer to give a bit of distance to help with the cooling. I’ve been thinking of an after cooler between the compressor head and the tank. I heard it makes a difference. I don’t do much sand blasting so it will probably be a while before I test it again with it though.
@@JasonTheMunicipalMechanic
That’s what I did. The air from the compressor goes directly to 50’ of 3/4” copper pipe in a switchback configuration (each pipe is 5’ long). Then it goes into a double helix of 3/4” soft copper tubing that is in a sealed container with cold water circulating around the copper. Air enters from the bottom, in an 8” diameter helix that’s 15” tall. Then it turns around and comes back down in another helix that fits around the inner one. So I have a drain valve between the end of the hard copper and the chiller. Then another drain after the air exits the chiller. I have it all on power point if you want the design. I have an Excel file that calculates all the helix lengths too.
After the chiller and drain, I go to the tank with flexible hose.
You need 3 flexible hoses. First to go from compressor to aftercooler. This must be able to withstand 400 deg F. Grainger has such hoses. Then another one to go from cooler to tank and another between tank outlet and plumbing.
I also designed bypasses for both radiative and chilled cooler in case I need to work on them. I can bypass each individually or both together. Each unit is stand alone and can be taken out with unions.
Don’t forget that you need to move the unloader valve from the tank and put it between compressor and check valve.
That’s pretty interesting. So your using those as an after cooler between the compressor and the tank? I would be interested in seeing it. Are you able to email the power point? My email is jasonthemunicipalmechanic@gmail.com. I had added a large harbor freight air filter dryer with a regulator to the end of the copper tubing. I was going to make a second video about it later but I haven’t used it more than a few minutes here or there and it really isn’t enough to test it. How effective is your setup? I’d imagine it works pretty well.
@@paulmanhart4481
Would like to see your spreadsheet and anything else to help me plan.
My blast cabinet stopped working. There are lots of air coming out, but it can not blast off any rust. The pressure and flow is good. Is it because of the water in the compressed air?
It’s possible. It’s it a pressure pot blaster or a suction feed blaster? I would look for a clog on the suction side or feed side.
I wonder if a guy could use 1/2" black pipe as well instead of the copper?
I don’t know. The copper is used because of the thermal conductivity of it. I don’t think the black pipe will transfer the heat as well.
I was thinking maybe a fan blowing across the pipes if you're running continuously.
I’ll try that next time. I have a box fan I can tie up to it.
Where are you located, im in Houston and the humidity is real here. I ask because I'm just trying to gage how many loops ill need. Thanks for the video
I’m in Massachusetts and the compressor is in my basement which is around 50-60% humidity. I would do as many loops as you can 50 feet is about the minimum. I added a 35 foot hose in front of the cooler because it was getting overwhelmed with the heat and not working effectively. If you have a high air consumption like a sand blaster I was using you may not get foot results, but normal air tools I think would work well.
@@JasonTheMunicipalMechanic thanks for getting back to me, yeah I'm planning on to work multiple tools but mostly a sandblasting cabinet
I added a water separator/filter to the end of the piping and I have an inline water separator/filter on the end of my blast cabinet. I think The pipe cooler needs to be a ways away from the compressor to help keep the piping from getting too hot. I had a suggestion to use a coil of copper in a bucket of cold water to get a better result. I haven’t tried it but it sounds like it will work. I’ve also had people tell me they have gotten good results putting a dryer between the compressor head and the tank. I think it was called an aftercooler.
You say it’s connected between the tank and the hose reel? That’s not an aftercooler then and that’s why it’s not doing anything. The principal is that you’re trying to form condensate before the air enters the tank, and then separate that condensate, and then put that dry air into the tank. So the correct flow is pump->radiator->separator->tank. That’s why your setup isn’t working.
Your correct but I didn’t call it an after cooler i called it an air dryer. Same thing but in a different location really. It works but not with the high volume of air a media blaster uses.
What type of copper pipe did you use ?k/M/L
I believe it was L. It was the thicker wall pipe
@@JasonTheMunicipalMechanic ahh thank you I’m here at Home Depot in the parking lot was hopping you would respond quickly 👌👌👌👌
You can probably use the m too it just has a lower psi rating it’s 700psi as opposed to the L being 1002psi
@@JasonTheMunicipalMechanic I read somewhere that the thinner copper will shed heat faster so that is what I will use.
That makes sense, less mass to hold the heat.
Couldn’t you just use one ball valve and mount all the pipes horizontal so the air pushes it into the last ball valve? Save the money on all those ball valves
I keep seeing this copper pipe and all those $150 double dryer things... think yall waste $ ....I work on large yachts, the painter has it down with a simple solution.....if your pushing 150 lbs just use 100 to 150 ft of 1" PVC (sch40 good to 270 lbs, if above 75 degrees might go to 215 bursts at 1450) and use a Motor Guard filter. even better the filters are cheap, sounds weird but just use a roll of toilet paper and rip off about 20 layers and use that in the filter..... Think about this....the guys been doing this for well over 30 years, using high end ( AwlGrip) paint spraying 1 or 2 million dollar yachts no problems !!! the filter case is $80 on Amazon, 1" PVC is less than by an easy 80%... you can use 3/4" pvc just ran a little more. has a just less than 10% more pressure and burst factor. My opinion is just too much hype over this whole thing, the yacht paint is no fool and a smart man and well quality is his key to success.
Sure. I’ve seen a piece of 4 inch pipe with a bunch of tee shirts stuffed in it. The idea is really just to cool the air to get the water to collect and drop out of it. I don’t doubt there are other ways to do it. your 1 inch sch40 pvc is 10 per ten feet at Home Depot right not so that would be $100 to $150 in just the straight pipe not including anything else. I think the price would be comparable if you ask me. Either way thank you for the idea. It’s good to know the other options.
Wasted time n money