I’m thinking of getting one of those oil coolers and putting it between the tank and the regulator. That would be upstream of the refrigerated air dryer.
I’ll run through another set of consumables and see how they do. I have two more 48x32 panels of steel to cut before my next restock. Should be through that this weekend. I’ll repost the next set and probably get the oil cooler then.
I believe you have done everything that can be done on your air system that I can read. Living in Louisiana is a extremly high humity area. Now this is my opinion only. I would never risk ruining a sheet of metal with a set of consumables that had 300 pierces on them. Also, the wear out factor would be very high if you run a 30 amp tip and 30 amps all day. I don’t care about my kerf within my work. The width is factored in on Fusion. I personally run a 70 amp tip for almost everything regardless. Now I don’t make signs either. If you try shielded consumables, the wear-out rate is significantly reduced in my case. Again it’s just my two cents… I relize that some of these guys will say they have 1000’s of pierces on theirs. But the consumables are much cheaper that a 48 x32 piece of steel.
It is hard to beleive that you still have moisture with all you have in line from your compressor.
Yeah I’m not really mad at the rate of consumption of my consumables. It’s not ideal, but I could live with it.
Like you said, living in southern Louisiana, it may just be the way it is.
Two things bother me though,
I’ll take some things apart after this weekend and do some investigating.
If anyone has a “go by” for the settings of the HF air dryer, that would be appreciated. Specifically, the settings for the thermostat (I guess that’s what it is) inside the air dryer. I messed around with them until I got the fan to kick on, but didn’t find any recommended settings for it, and I don’t fully understand what the two adjustments are doing.
Now, I am spoiled rotten here. We have a Ingersoll Rand screw
Machine @ 75 cfpm with two 400 gallon tanks. My shop is also 400 yards from the compressor, so the air is cooled when travelling to our machine shop. The refrigerated drier is spitting out water every couple of minutes. Our Ingersoll guy has made a control update to let it cycle many times in a couple of minutes. Read the HF manual you may be able to increase the rate of blow down on it.
Regardless the beads should be catching the moisture.
The Harbor Freight manual leaves a lot to be desired lol. It has one little table (below) that calls out recommended settings, but I’m not sure how the adjustments on the thermostat correspond to that. I’ll take some pictures when I open it and see if anyone has an idea.
The drier should be looking at the dew point to cycle. One of our rocket scientists should know if there is in fact a adjustmet to the blowdown settings.
@ARDynamics I use the same dryer as you have. This one like most have inlet temp max to work efficiently as well as the bead dryer. The air could possibly be to hot to let them work efficiently. I understand you live in a very warm climate so it is worth checking this. Can you measure your inlet temps? This is where a after cooler can be handy.
I frequently run nested files that take over a hour to cut. My compressor cycles every 10 minutes give or take a few. I do run a after cooler before my refrigerated dryer. Checking with a IR thermometer I get about 75 degrees going into the dryer.
The big question is how long do you run at a time. Adding a cooler could benefit you but it will restrict air volume.
I actually run 2 coolers they are trans coolers. This is not ideal but I am still improving my system. There is a cooler intended for air on my wish list. I would recommend you get one intended for air if you decide to get one .
As for the dryer blowing off I believe the way this one is set up the valve opens when pressure is released. I can only remember one time mine clearing the air while running.
Is there any chance this little desiccant cell could be faulty in the air is not actually going down into the desiccant?
What do the beads look like in your 1 qt?
With all that hose coiled on a concrete floor, you’ve got a halfway decent cooler. Water could condense and then puddle there and then be blown out in spurts. I’d go overhead and then have a trap just before your cutter.
These separators in these dryers are the cheap THB brand and are pretty good size. They will hold a considerably amount of moisture before it needs to purge. I usually only see mine dribble when I let the pressure off when I shut things down.
Possibly the op is just expecting to see more frequent purge.
Perhaps my dryer is not working correct but once I turn it on, it runs continuously.
This “First Water Trap” is not likely to catch anything but it is okay that it is here. Some say it needs to be a “minimum of 20 feet of air line away from the compressor” to give the air a chance to cool a bit. That being said, I have six water traps in my set-up and have not seen any moisture in any of them: I am not sure what that means!
what about the air from the compressor to the refrigerated air dryer . what diameter and size is that hose ?
1/2" ID Same hose. I just cut it and put connections on it to make jumpers.
I have some temp/pressure combo gauges on the way. I’m going to install one after the first water trap, and one at the plasma. That should give me some data for analysis.
Also thinking about using my leftover pex to make a setup similar to the copper line cooling system to give the air some resonance time before going into the refer. I know it won’t be as effective as copper tubing, but I’m not trying to learn how to solder that at the moment, and I already have the pex.
Yes, that is my project from four years ago: Mercury 200 piston. The chain turns, but it drains the battery within an hour or so.Now its just a clock…
To add to the discussion here are some other water removal products I don’t see mentioned:
timed powered tank drain
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09B3VX3CL/?coliid=I34YJ6W0BHQYM7&colid=W80RCF8IFAX6&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1
Pneumatic No-Loss Tank Drain, looks easy to build but plastic-DO NOT FLAME ME KWICKFAB !
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2V4RCM2/?coliid=IQRM3GJM6KGDP&colid=W80RCF8IFAX6&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Heatless Desiccant Air Dryer, costly but shows the different stages ingersoll uses:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPBB5DPL/?coliid=I2C3HZS31JY6K9&colid=W80RCF8IFAX6&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1
Does anyone have experience with the “Keltec KRAD-15 Refrigerated Air Dryer”? It looks like a step up from the HF one but still reasonably priced. Thx.
