DIY Compressed Air Dryer | What Is An Air Drier? 

You've motivated me to engineer something awesome and see how well it works. compressor with its own little room ..slightly insulated with a fan on each side pushing and pulling circulating air throughout the compressor room. Going to do a setup very similar as yours with a heat exchanger, but I'm going to put an in wall AC unit that will obviously fire into the compressor room. So the room will have constant airflow and then actual air-conditioned air being blown out directly into a fan blowing through the heat exchanger. Not only having a water filter before the tank.... But also running another 25 to 30 ft of airline, then running to another water filter with pressure gauge... and then a desiccant filter....then out to my main line. And most normal circumstances when people are putting the water filters so close to the output of their compressor without doing a heat exchanger are really shooting themselves in the foot. It's really 25 to 50 ft down the line when the water vapor really starts. That way my idea above will knock out every aspect. 👍 Great video. Best setup I have seen yet. Thank you for your time and effort and sharing this with us

baking pan with a computer server fan attached connected to the rad face works great. and low draw. they are 120 volts . For a water collector you can put the coarse stainless steel pot scrubber pads inside and it gives moisture a place to condense on.

Thanks for sharing. I'm thinking of setting up something like this and you have a lot of great ideas.

This is a really great setup. There are a lot of videos for DIY air dryers on YT, but yours is particularly well thought out and constructed. The squirrel cage is a good move, better than just using the fan built into the compressor pulley, though that works too. I think your setup lends itself to multiple use, including a fan to circulate air within the shop with a ducting to bring air in from outside when desired, and with a filter downstream from the heat exchanger could supply fresh air for a home paint booth. Your water separator/drain vessel is also a really, really good design. Nice job and thank you for sharing.

Very effective Brad, nice work.

Nice setup. For a sight glass you could use a sight glass for a boiler

If the internal rusting in the condensing trap starts to be a problem, maybe drill a threaded fill port at the top and fill it full of rust converter (tannic acid), let it sit a bit then drain it out. Plug the fill hole. This device is amazing..insanely clever. I bought a refrigerated condensing unit for our shop. It works..but the price..OMG. Cheers my friend..hope you are well.

Wow. You really put a lot of work into removing water from your compressed air, and it shows. Something that also shows might be good to address as well; dust going through your blower. Some air filtration is adviseable there, too, as many house fires have started in the dust that collected on blowers without filters.

Dry clean air is imperative to some businesses. I designed the air delivery system for my little brother's powder coating business. I started with the Prevost air system lines. I used their plan and added a few modifications to go with the EMAX 10-HP 120-Gallon Variable Speed Rotary Screw Air Compressor Fully Packaged w/ Dryer. So no dryer was figured into my design, although when this $16,000.00 dollar compressor had a catastrophic failure after the first mandatory oil change with E'Max labeled oil ( they no longer sell btw) , the airline design ended up saving him a lot of possible issues. His Gema powder coating system suffered zero damage from the oil and water that blew into his lines. It blew right through the dryer and passed all of the initial fail-safes that were in place, to a blow-off valve, I had set to just under the maximum pressure limits. 90% of the contaminants were taken care of there and the other 10% got into the line loop, but never made it to his tools. He was terrified the Gema setup he was using was compromised when the compressor failed. The system was on loan from Gema as a beta tester and had not even been released for sale in the US market. He was the only Gema Customer in FL that was chosen to demo the system pre-release and feared his relationship with Gema would be hurt after working very hard to build it. Thankfully everything worked out and that is the very system he powders with today. Your video is great and very informative. Thanks, for the detailed explanation. BTW it looks like you have a dream setup of tools for a DIY fabricator like myself.

Great work, i suggest to add a small ball that float so you can see the level inside the , but i am not sure if it can withstand the pressure inside

Wow ! Excellent design, planning & fabrication, using an authentic aftercooler made to flow & cool air! Nice custom baffeled water trap with great capacity! Well thought out sir! Paul from S. Central Tx.

Great design. Any chance of finding out more about the heat exchanger you used? Who makes it, model number? Maybe even a link to a website where we can buy one? I did a quick search and couldn't find one that looked like the one you have. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Also, you have some serious skills and equipment. Mine will be more primitively built I assure you.

Nice job mate. I like you tool post tap driver 👍

You have a new subscriber! Great design! I just obtained a 5 hp Quincy compressor. Will need a water extractor system!!

I have a nice 2” stainless pipe. I could make a nice water catch. Thanks for the idea

Great idea, nice machine work & really nice welds on your condensation trap!

Do you have a link to the Heat exchanger?

Harbor Freight has a refrigerated drier for $550 with very good reviews

I wonder if submerging the intercooler unit in water tank would work rather than the squirrel cage fan? Maybe not if the water would warm up during long sessions? Just brainstorming. Any thoughts?

Couldn't you put a small red (or other high visibility color) plastic ball or cylinder that floats on top of the water into the reinforced plastic tube to show the level ... The ball/cylinder has to be a loose fit but not so small it passes through the 90 degree bends

what is part number of the air cooled aftercooler, thanks you

Anyone that uses his mill as a drill press is okay in my book!!

I went with the copper tubing on the wall. Wondering if I should modify it a bit and add more of a reservoir.

What sort of acid(?) were you using at 14:57 to clean the metal after you did the tube notching on the fittings? Overall, quite a well thought out design, well done!

I need some help!

You’re never going to get a 35 to 40° dewpoint out of that after cooler on a hot summer day. There is no substitute for a refrigerated air dryer with the exception of a twin tower desiccant dryer

Arnold, great video! Would you please share the brand/model number or a link to the heat exchanger you used?

nice done bro did you sell the plans for this and the links for the parts bro

Where did you get the heat exchanger from?

Do you have a link to the fan you used, or rough dimensions? Thanks

Why the heck did RU-vid stop email notifications for new subscriber videos? I never know when folks post new videos now. I recently picked up a 5hp CompAir Hydrovane compressor, tank mounted. It has an after-cooler between the comp. air outlet and the tank, but NO drain or drip leg, so apparently the water goes in the tank anyway! Funny but not funny. Really nice design Brad!

get a colored bead that floats and fits into your braided tube. it will allow you to see it better. get red ,yellow or blue, not brown or black.

How well does this work in warmer temperatures? I live in Australia and I’m unsure if this would work well in summer weather

you seem like the type of person that needs a 3d printer if you don't already have one.

Am I the only one who noticed he used drill in reverse???? :( I checked two times, good thing he drilled anything. At least the first three times

Don't look simple to me, lol!.

I wouldn’t call it silent lol

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