I got the compressor from here ...
http://www.castair.net/industrial-air-compressors.html
All of the pictures on their site are of the same side of the compressor. We
will call that that "front" side. On the back side, attached to the outside
of the belt guard in a way that allows the air from the pump pulley will
flow over it is a "radiator". Technically it is an air cooled after cooler
but to most people it looks like a radiator.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/Air-Cooled-Aftercooler-4UJG4?Pid=search
There is a copper pipe that goes from the head of the compressor to the
inlet of the after cooler and another copper pipe that goes from the outlet
of the after cooler to the inlet of the 80 gallon tank.
With my infrared heat gun I have measured the inlet temperature to be over
250 degrees and the outlet temperature to be about 10 degrees above the
basement temperature ... that would make it about 80 degrees.
Admittedly when the compressor is constantly on ... seldom happens but it
does on occasion ... the air does not spend a lot of time in the tank and
therefore the water vapor does not have much time condense in the tank. I
have often thought about building a Franzinator to go between the after
cooler and the tank but just never get around to it. I also have a
refrigerated dryer but again I just have not had time to hook it up. The
desiccant dryer seems to do the job for now and my wife thinks its cool the
way the desiccant beads changes color when she dries them out in the toaster
oven.
If you spend a little time goggling you can find many DIY after coolers.
Most are air cooled, some are water cooled.
At least in my case the air leaving the tank is pretty much as cool as it is
ever going to get ... the temperature of the basement. My theory is that any
water that comes out of the air while it is in my pipes is based on the time
it takes water vapor to condense and not on any temperature change of the
gasses while it is in the pipe. I assume the condensation process is not
instantaneous otherwise my tank would fill with water based on the 150
degree drop in the after cooler. If that assumption is correct then the
water in the pipe is from "it just happened to be in the pipe when it
condensed" rather then the temperature of the pipe.
Anyway, that is my radiator story.
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Hall
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 2:08 PM
To: Arvid Jedlicka
Cc: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Compressed Air Lines, RapidAir
Well tell us about the radiator, man! Spill, take pics! :-)
On 10/18/2011 2:11 PM, Arvid Jedlicka wrote:
> I won't be much help there. I have a "radiator" on the compressor so a lot
> of the cooling and condensing gets done in the tank. Then there is a
> desiccant dryer between the tank and the plumbing so it is pretty dry
> going into the copper.
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