"I am already freaking out about soldering all those joints up and not having any leaks.
Still trying to how to hold it while I solder the joints and keep everything lined up.
Got to get busy on it tomorrow as the compressor is supposed to show up tomorrow afternoon."
4 2x4s should support the whole rig and elevate it high enough off the ground to heat the joints. Use mapp gas as opposed to propane to heat the joints. It is hotter and you can invert the bottle. I used acetone to flush out my lines after soldering, a surprising amount of crap came out.
Steve
I would suggest a roll or two of emery, and actual conduit clamps to hold that copper to a 2 x 4 frame. You spent so much already, why not some clamps.
I still dont get the design, with all the ball valves that look to just be blocking the air from going in circles.
I still dont get the design, with all the ball valves that look to just be blocking the air from going in circle.
The ball valves are for draining each loop. When the ball valve is closed - it forces the air to go through all the loops before it gets consumed by the blast cabinet or the drops for the air hoses. I made the tubes above the valves long as I am not the most disciplined at draining my compressor so I figured the longer tubes would give me a little more time to remember.
I am close to being done with the soldering. When I am done, I will pressure check it before mounting it on the wall. I do plan on using clamps and some form of stand-offs to allow air to get all the way around the tubes.
Here is a progress picture
Last edited by cstmwgn; January 22, 2019, 03:46 PM.
I am not known for my reading comprehension, so you may be on point.
well - what I got from it was that metal was better than PVC to draw the moisture out of the air. I live in Florida so we have LOTS of humidity. I also got that the longer your air line runs, the more moisture will condense in the lines. I don't have a big shop and my blast cabinet is 3 feet from my compressor. I am hoping that this simulates 50 feet of air line between the compressor and the blast cabinet. Believe me - I am hoping this isn't another one of my "fools errands" as it isn't going to be cheap to implement.
Now that is a bad ass water trap! Looks like it should work to me.
I'm not sure you can get all out under heavy constant use, but it should make a big difference. Keep up posted.
I don;t have enough wall space to mount that bad boy LOL
well - what I got from it was that metal was better than PVC to draw the moisture out of the air. I live in Florida so we have LOTS of humidity. I also got that the longer your air line runs, the more moisture will condense in the lines. I don't have a big shop and my blast cabinet is 3 feet from my compressor. I am hoping that this simulates 50 feet of air line between the compressor and the blast cabinet. Believe me - I am hoping this isn't another one of my "fools errands" as it isn't going to be cheap to implement.
At one of my old shops I built the same exact system from pvc, it and the compressor were outside. It was very surprising how much water I drained out of it weekly. I'm also in Florida but we also had five guys working all day.
2011 Drag Week (unlimited) 5th place 10.89 avg.
2012 Drag Week (unlimited) 5th place 10.55 avg.
all time best 10.27 @ 127
not sure I am going to like the answers I get but here we go
How long should my moisture trap contraption hold vacuum?
At this moment in time I have plugged the two threaded ends with either a ball joint or a teflon taped plug. The other opening I took a tapered rubber plug that I drilled a small hole in and pushed in a 3/16" tube (brake line). I hooked up my hand pump vacuum gauge to the tubing and pumped it down to 15.
How long should it hold vacuum before I start trying to rig up a pressure tester to look for leaks?
When I do AC work on my car I want it to hold for at least 1 hour before I add the gas. Had a guy pressure test the HVAC unit in my shop he pumped it up fo 24 hours.
When I do AC work on my car I want it to hold for at least 1 hour before I add the gas. Had a guy pressure test the HVAC unit in my shop he pumped it up fo 24 hours.
Yeah - it looks like I am going to have to build a pressure tester as there are 47 solder joints that I need to check/test for leaks.
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