There’s something to be said about how you get your point across regardless of that point’s validity.
I wouldn’t drag chat GPT into the debate.
It often tells you what you wanna hear while playing 4 dimensional chess and balderdash at the same time.
Normally it’s caught up in its own statements.
like this one. When refrigerant is in its gaseous state it can be hundreds of PSI. Copper pipe was not designed for air specifically it definitely is designed for gases.
I think you should tee your air line and run those two smaller desiccant cells that you already have then tee them back together. then you will cover all 3 bases effective, cost effective, and safe
While using a water filter for compressed air may be low risk it is a high consequence risk.
This goes for any future people reading…
A water system failure = a leak.
A compressed air system failure = an explosion. “explosive decompression”
That’s why using a water filter housing for compressed air is extremely dangerous!
If a proper desiccant filter is too expensive for you, then CNC plasma is way out of your league
Geez mass attack, to some people all the square pegs go into the square holes, I guess some would have a problem with the hot water tank I used for a air reservoir on my air system for 30 years at least without failure, it was rated at 150 PSI max pressure and was for water use also, point is some people think outside the box and some don’t like kwikfab, the comment about CNC being out of my league implies I’m not rich enough to be in your league kwikfab—that is not a good attitude to have on a forum meant to share ideas and help others with the same interest, just so you know I also built my own machine from scratch which involved thinking outside the box !!
Granted I am not a model to emulate so I don’t share all of my deviations for fear others may follow. As Knick said:
I know that those that are speaking toward safety aspects, they really just want people to be safe and are concerned that some may follow a suggestion made by others without truly understanding the risks.
I am sorry you feel attacked. Those attacks come not from anger but from concern.
Brief example: I know a guy with a Ferrari. He was a Formula One race mechanic and an outstanding body man with cars. He modified the rear wheel wells so they would accommodate 11 inch wide tires. He said he had to really search for a wheel fabricator that would make the wheels due to the speed potentially reached with these wheels. He found one and the results were phenomenal. The owner of the car realized this adaptation came with risks. There is no way he would have gone on a forum and suggest that others should follow in his footsteps. He even told me that he had his own concerns.
As Tin said:
And
I am happy you shared your thoughts and experiences here as it did create more discussion to fully flesh out the issues. I hope that you continue to share. Most people here have strong opinions but they harbor no malice.
Final thoughts: Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes often reveals how opinions are formed. (Obviously, I paraphrased and destroyed the original saying)
I am sorry you feel attacked no one means anything by it. You do have to look over how some people talk that is just who they are. I don’t always agree with what everyone says or how they say things …( That wasn’t directed at anyone person that was a general statement.)
We all appreciate thinking outside of the box. We just always encourage thinking. I was grew up on the poor side I had all I needed. ( My dad was crippled in a mining accident when I was 8). Disability doesn’t pay great. So I grew up making due with what I had.
Pressure vessels are absolutely nothing to play with. We have a pressure vessel factory close to where I live . Just recently neglect lead to a explosion costing lives. A car tire rupture at the right time can kill.
It is similar but much different. A couple weeks ago a coworker was cleaning parts with starting fluid. We do this all the time and have for years. He cleaned his parts and machine with starting fluid and threw the rags away in a trashcan near where I would be working. 2 hours later literally that long I went to feather a weld start. Some sparks made it into the trash can that had no lid. The trash can lifted over 20 feet in the air and hit the ceiling… I do understand there is a lot of difference between compressed air and starting fluid. The point is never let your guard down.
As long as you weigh your risks and consequences. I am happy for you we are genuinely concerned for people and their safety.
Just a few months ago a water separator/air filter in the air system in my shop “grenaded”. It was a unit made by Norgren, the acrylic plastic bowl type. This was a unit I had purchased through Mcmaster-Carr about 17 years ago. It sounded like a .300 WinMag going off, shrapnel just missed one of my guys who was about 10 feet away. No more plastic in compressed air systems for me thank you!!
I put my money where my mouth was and bought one of these. I haven’t installed it yet but it is very nicely made in the USA and comes with a gallon of desiccant.
I installed the two little ones I had. One of them leaked. I am going to replace the leaking one with that Speedaire PA-1. I didn’t like the way @Kwikfab said it, but he is right. Getting the proper equipment is not too much of an expense. In the long run, being able to make proper cuts and create legit parts will serve me better than the $150 I saved getting a smaller, poorer quality desiccant.
From someone else’s perspective, yeah my wording wasn’t the best for sure.
It takes getting to hear me/know me to understand how my words actually come out versus words on a screen.
With that said, yeah the expense for dry air will pay you back quickly.
Consumables are costly, especially when talking Hypertherm. But I’ll gladly pay the $10/per electrode (before tax) and $7/per nozzle (before tax) to achieve 1,000 pierces.
Without my refrigerated dryer, I would see an average of 400-500 pierces which effectively doubles the cost of my consumables.
I’ve installed my refrigerated air dryer. Feels like it is working. I haven’t cut with it installed yet, but the couple of leak tests I did on the new system did not turn my desiccant beads pink. So, I am hopeful lol.
I like your shop setup. I’ve been reading the “what have you done on your crossfire pro” thread, and your shop setup is pretty much what I am going for. Nice job. Those brackets you make are nice too.
Do yourself a favor and ensure you track your pierce count, especially when trying to establish their life expectancy.
You definitely don’t want to start a run that requires 253 pierces (the flag I recently cut) with consumables at 900 pierces if you average 1,000 per set.
It’ll save you in time and steel, and it’s a lesson you don’t want to learn in the middle of a job when your electrode suffers a blow-out.
Is this a stat that Fusion can spit out? I realize that I would need a spreadsheet or something and track my production on a daily basis, but I don’t remember seeing the pierce count in the post process.
Since I do a lot of one off stuff, I switch from general cutting to finecut and back again.
So when I have a set of consumables on the table and need to pull them off, I write down the pierce count on a piece of masking tape and place it in my little container with said consumables.
When I need to swap back over to the consumable set I pulled, I place that masking tape on my laptop and add that to whatever my new counter states in Firecontrol (since it would’ve been reset again).
No spreadsheets, no fumbling with excel. Just a simple means of tracking pierce count on one set of consumables.
This is of course knowing how many pierces I expect.
In your case, I would check them at the interval you normally replace them at (before refrigerated air), and then check on them every 100 pierces after for a better idea of wear now that you’re on dry air.
Just to put this to bed, I’m posting what I did to my shop air drying system.
Upgrades:
1/2"npt air regulator
2qty 1/2" water traps
Harbor Freight refridgerated air dryer
Speedaire PA-1 desiccant air dryer
one shitty amazon desiccant air dryer (I returned the other one I had as it leaked like a soaker hose)
Motorguard M-60 air filter
I’ve had to fiddle with the controls of the HF air dryer to get the air temp down. And I went ahead and took the water trap out of it and cleaned it. There wasn’t a lot of water in it yet, but with my luck it would have been a problem. It drains pretty well when I fill it with water.
all told it is about a $1,200 upgrade to the shop. I’ve disgarded all of the lines I was previously using and went with pex on the wall and a 1/2"ID hose to the plasma cutter where it goes to a 1/4"npt fitting (I may change that out to a 3/8" fitting)
