I first read about the "copper coil in a bucket" air cooler quite a number
of years ago on r.c.m. and have always wanted to make one. Finally, I got
around to it. See http://www.tinyisland.com/Air%20Dryer/index.html if you
want to take a look at mine.

Now to get to plumbing in the clean air supply for the plasma cutter ..

GWE

In article , Grant Erwin says...

I first read about the "copper coil in a bucket" air cooler quite a number
of years ago on r.c.m. and have always wanted to make one. Finally, I got
around to it. See http://www.tinyisland.com/Air%20Dryer/index.html if you
want to take a look at mine.

Now to get to plumbing in the clean air supply for the plasma cutter ..

Cute project! How do you get the condensed water out of it?

Jim


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jim rozen wrote:

In article , Grant Erwin says...

I first read about the "copper coil in a bucket" air cooler quite a number
of years ago on r.c.m. and have always wanted to make one. Finally, I got
around to it. See http://www.tinyisland.com/Air%20Dryer/index.html if you
want to take a look at mine.

Now to get to plumbing in the clean air supply for the plasma cutter ..


Cute project! How do you get the condensed water out of it?

At the bottom of the 1" pipe nipple coming down from the filter drain is a
petcock, although it is hard to see in the pictures. The water collects in
the drain and I will periodically have to drain it. I designed it to just
drain the filtered water back into the water bath.

GWE

Grant Erwin wrote:
jim rozen wrote:

In article , Grant Erwin says...

I first read about the "copper coil in a bucket" air cooler quite a
number
of years ago on r.c.m. and have always wanted to make one. Finally, I
got
around to it. See http://www.tinyisland.com/Air%20Dryer/index.html if
you
want to take a look at mine.

Now to get to plumbing in the clean air supply for the plasma cutter ..



Cute project! How do you get the condensed water out of it?


At the bottom of the 1" pipe nipple coming down from the filter drain is a
petcock, although it is hard to see in the pictures. The water collects in
the drain and I will periodically have to drain it. I designed it to just
drain the filtered water back into the water bath.

GWE

Nice looking project! Have you tried it out yet?

Bob

Grant Erwin writes:

I first read about the "copper coil in a bucket" air cooler quite a
number of years ago on r.c.m. and have always wanted to make one.

This is essentially an ice-bank soda fountain chiller, or a cold-plate
flash chiller, depending on how you stock the barrel, and there are
principles to observe regarding this type of heat-exchanger.

Both latent and sensible heat must be removed to condense water, and
without a phase-change heat-sinking source, you can't achieve that at
the desirable temperatures for compressed air. Water alone won't work.

The only way you will get real performance is to forget the water and
just pack the thing with wet ice with draining of the melt. Or a
circulator paddle if you want to use a water-ice bath. I doubt that
water alone or unstirred ice-in-water will give you any degree of
performance, certainly not in a maintained sense.

The dead space in the center of the coil is a negative, since it is not
in contact with the heat exchanger, and it is dead mass you have to
chill when charging with ice. Fill it with something like a hunk of
styrene foam. Then it takes much less ice to initially charge the unit.

My rough calculation of the heat sink required is about 2 lbs ice per
SCFM-hour.

If you're in a snowy climate, you can run this thing for free.

In article ,
Grant Erwin wrote:

jim rozen wrote:

In article , Grant Erwin says...

I first read about the "copper coil in a bucket" air cooler quite a number
of years ago on r.c.m. and have always wanted to make one. Finally, I got
around to it. See http://www.tinyisland.com/Air%20Dryer/index.html if you
want to take a look at mine.

Now to get to plumbing in the clean air supply for the plasma cutter ..


Cute project! How do you get the condensed water out of it?

At the bottom of the 1" pipe nipple coming down from the filter drain is a
petcock, although it is hard to see in the pictures. The water collects in
the drain and I will periodically have to drain it. I designed it to just
drain the filtered water back into the water bath.

GWE

McMaster-Carr, page 865 has things you might like.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net
http://web2.airmail.net/thegoat4/

Grant,

Very nice workmanship...as usual. ;)

I sure wish we were neighbors.

My neighbors definitely aren't as interesting as you are.

I look forward to your next project.

TMT