Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Compressed Air Cooler - very 'home made'!

Getting ready to Epoxy prime a fair amount of stripped metal I'm sorting out my Paint Spray system. I've read the air needs to be cooled as much as possible to minimise the water content in the paint-spray. So I've created this 'Heath-Robinson' system of 15mm copper pipes, compression fittings and valves to help cool the compressed air coming out of the compressor.

What I should mention here ofcourse is why I've made the whole system on a portable MDF mounting board. Most people would probably just fix all their pipes on the wall of their garage - but as it's my father-in-law's garage and I'll likely be moving the car to a new garage soon...you can see why I didn't!  

All-in there's about 30 - 40 ft of pipe which I reckon is the least I can get away with - copper pipe ain't cheap after all! So the air is warmed as it's pumped through the compressor which increases its water content; the air needs to be cooled before it reaches the Spray Gun - the water condenses on the inside of the cold pipes and runs down into the 'traps' where it can be bled through the ball-valves.

I've also got a £10 water-trap fixed to the gun itself to help further...

Here's the front...with the filter/regulator, input from the compressor (bottom right) and standard outlet valve/connector(top right)...






Here's the back...the pipes obviously pass through holes in the bottom of the mounting board. Ofcourse I've had to put ball-valves on each of the uprights (both sides of the board) to be able to drain any collected water..


That's it...it'd be a shame if it doesn't work!! Took me a fair amount of time to make and cost a fair bit too!






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