The Ultimate DIY Compressed Air Dryer For Your Shop (Part 1 of 2)  

Thanks for watching this video. Now that this video is a couple years old a couple of the same questions come up a lot in the comments bellow. I've made a part 2 that covers the question you're about to ask. :) Here is a link to part 2 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1eenVNNAHa8.html

Just a suggestion... Plumb your condenser directly from the compressor pump through the condenser then into the tank. You'll have much less water in your tank.

I've been a car painter for over 40 years the thing I do is I just crack the petcock leader valve on the bottom of the tank till you hear a hiss and I never have any water build-up in my lines at all😊

I noticed the clamps you used to mount the copper pipes to the wall look like steel. If they are you may run into problems with galvanic corrosion. Eventually the steel will react and create a hole in the pipe where steel is contacting the copper. You should change those out to copper or brass clamps and you'll be good to go. Just thought I'd let you know.

Going from 1/4” tube to 1” tube is actually a 1:16 ratio in area. That means the air velocity ‘practically’ slows down 16 times. That’s an amazing amount of surface area for condensation to happen. I love the overkill!!

This is very helpful. I agree about getting steel close to Copper. I had a water leak in my house because a nail was 1/8" from my copper water line. Also, I think I will build a supporting frame and then screw the frame to the wall. Thank you for the video.

We built one for our compressed air system and it works great! Thanks for the suggestion.

Thank you, this will fix a whole lot of problems for me in my injection moulding business. Awesome idea and solution

I would think having a large down section above the valves would allow a spot for the water to build up that isn't inline with the air flow preventing the still water from being carried along with the air. Basically just have a section of pipe run straight down off the T before adding the valve.

Here's a thought, how about hydronic baseboard heater tubes with all those aluminum fins to help cool. I'm not sure what pressure they're rated for but most plumbing pipe is rated for 150 psi.

You could T all your drain ports at the bottom together with a single lowest horizontal run if you slope the horizontal pipe downwards then you could have just one drain valve. That's about the only improvement I can think of to the flow and ease of use of your system. Looks good.

The condensate drains do work better located on the opposite leg. The moisture will always be running down the pipe walls even when there is no flow and being heavier than air when there is flow it will tend to go in a straight line towards the dirt leg trap while the air will make the turn at the tee. Plumbing and pipefitting 101.

Smartly done! Love what you've done there!

up north a guy posted his install using old hot water baseboard heater piping with the fins on it. woks amazing and got it at a scrap metal yard. also on the intake you put a second filter , It stops that sucking noise so you can stand next to the compressor and even talk.

Mount the coils on two horizontal 2 X 4’s to get them off the wall for more air contact. And yes use copper mounting strips.

I thought your video of really good. Natural and easy to follow. Like a normal working man. Not staged like most videos. Appreciate that.

Great job! May be a little over kill but look at results, good job sir!

Thank you very much, really appreciate your help by sharing your experience

I built one of these years ago, using no more than three feet of 1/2" pipe. I have a little squirrel cage blower that blows on it. Works perfect. If the tube stays cool at the far end, then the apparatus is doing it's job.

I'll tell you something that's helped me tremendously. Your air compressor sucks air from inside the shop. When you open those you atomized the air and moisture coming out of there. Then your air compressor in your shop sucks that are right back in. I will tell you if you exhaust those outside you will benefit tremendously from it. Just run some lines tying all four of them together and then one exit line going through the wall out above the roof you don't want them asking on the side of your building. Also you can tie the tank drain on the bottom of your tank into that also. Hope that helps period also will eliminate the staining on the wall:-). I am waiting on my langmeyer crossfire Pro should be here sometime before the end of the month.

I too have a cnc plasma table and have been running this configuration for 4 years. 1" iron pipe with ball valves like yours. It works. Period. It removes and amazing amount of the water and cools the air quite well. I have a larger table than you, and also include a refrigerated air dryer in my air supply loop. It does very little on short jobs, but on high amp, high air usage jobs, the compressor runs a lot and the refrigerated air dryer is needed. Made a huge cut quality improvement.

where i Live it was to hard to get 1" copper tubing so i went with 3/4" and about 60' total length, the compressor is in about 90 degree room upstairs here in South Florida, the lines go downstairs to the copper tubing that is in a 70 degree room and then goes into a 50 degree room where it is used to run the equipment, i also I put a cooler and water separator on like many others have done on youtube, the cooler takes out a lot of water, i have not yet hooked up the copper tubing to the system yet but very soon it will be done, when it is done i really expect almost no water in the lines, thanks a lot for the video it helped me a lot, i did all this at my job where i work, we were making so much water compressor works a lot, it is a 60 gal Husky 11.5 cfm

If I was making that, I would have the pipes running horizontally and slightly stretched so there is a slight fall on each run, just one drain in the bottom. The place I worked at in AU, who manufactured CNC plasma cutters and routers, the budget option for plasma cutters ( rather than a refrigerated dryer) was a toilet roll type dryer, toilet rolls don’t actually work as well, the proper ones are brown and different material. They work remarkably well.

Using the baseboard heat pipes with fins will greatly increase heat dissipation.

Stumbled on this video. A dryer was not on my list but now it is. Cheers from Wisconsin.

Ideally you would want the cooler between the compressor itself and the tank. Otherwise you are just pumping wet air into the tank, drying the air before storage is possible is the way to go. 🤠👍 That is where you can take a old compact fridge and use coil of tubing with drain. Then use bucket of water in the fridge and have it cooled down as well. It will help take out the heat much better than just air to air inside the fridge.

Love this setup. Can you fit a transparent pipir down low so you can see the moisture when it builds up?

I've thought about building one of those.....turned out good nice job

Very helpful, Thank you!

A great idea. I took a 30gal 200psi compressor, and plumbed it into the 35gal tank of my old compressor. It only sees 150 psi since it's rated at 165, but it's plenty, and i almost never have a low pressure problem, and most of the condensation is caught in the second tank. A drain loop in the steel pipe output catches pretty much anything left. But having said that, I could see adding a copy of your setup in the future!!! Now to just over engineer your setup a tad more, and link all the valves to a single handle...😅

made a simmilar setup years ago. but i used regular 200 mm diameter pipe, about 350 mm long weldig top an bottom to it, air in and out are in the sides at the top, a 200x250mm plate is welded inside it so the air/water mix, chrash into it , and the water get stuck on the plate, and falls down where a drain is, the air runns under the plate and up again at verry slow speed, works just fine, and you can add as many as you need to the system, in series, or everywhere else. we use them at the outlet aswell.

These work excellent. The 1" tube is very smart. You can also make a pre-tank separator out of a vehicle condenser and a small tank or drop tube with a valve on the bottom. Basically you take the hard line directly from the compressor pump, attach that with flared fittings to the AC condenser, attach a T at the outlet of the condenser with a valve and a drop tube along the back of the main compressor tank and plumb back into the original tank inlet location at the top. Attach the condenser to the fan/pully cage of the compressor and viola, you keep water out of your main tank as well.

Awesome video man!!!!

Instant Subscription!!! Wasn't even looking for this, but have been meaning to address the issue. Thank You!!!

To prevent the galvanic corrosion from the steel clamps, wrap several layers of electricians' tape on the copper. I would also recommend clamping only top OR bottom horizontal tubes to allow for the bit of expansion/contraction of the tubes. Verticle tubes pose no problems. For those wondering if copper can withstand the 150psi, I have been taught that properly soldered copper joints AND the tubing sidewall can normally handle up to the 300psi range. This allows for slightly frozen pipes without rupturing. Cheers from Alberta, Canada.

I'm about to invest in a 4x8 plasma table. I'll be building a air dryer like this. Thanks for the video

just want to thank you, it help us a lot

I just went through this nightmare. Finally got a decent compressor of my own and attempted to use different filters to reduce moisture using a gravity sandblasting gun on a truck axle. After several unsuccessful setups, I ended up getting an old DeVilbiss 803643 filter from a coworker. Got a new element for it and zip tied it to my compressor's frame. Ran a 30' spiral hose from the compressor to the filter inlet. Running the $0.75 harbor freight inline plastic filter just before the swivel fitting at the gun. Before I'd get about two hopper loads in before moisture started creeping past all the dumb transluscent dessicant filters I was using. The cheap plastic ones on their own were getting me two or three hopper loads each. After setting up a long enough hose for the water to condense, I can run my blasting gun practically indefinitely. Every bag of media I go down, I dump the tank and filter drain, then let it all charge back up while i swap the cheap plastic filter at the end of the hose. Not going to be my final setup but it works for the budget and space I have right now.

Very nice build! Never thought of doing it this way, but I am going to try it. Only advice I have for you. Build a box, cage or separate room for the compressor. There is an extremely low chance, but the tank CAN fail and it will send shrapnel through the shop. Those large compressor tanks are serious bombs. I never trust any of them and at least have a heavy metal cage around them. The explosion will still rupture your eardrums, but it won't send pieces through your body as easily. 90psi filled truck tires send men flying 20 ft. When they come apart.

sounds great i will try it out when i start finishing my shop thx for the info

Cool video. Love the 1" copper pipe idea. I wonder if you could use a "tree-like" structure for the 1" pipes, and use only 1 reservoir (any size) and 1 valve at the very bottom? Or some variation. thanks for posting! :D

Thank you so much for doing this video, terrific information.

Yes the larger tubes have a greater surface area, BUT they have a much worse surface area to volume ratio, which is the significant thing when you are trying to remove heat from that volume. Put plainly, a number of thin tubes of equal total volume to a few larger tubes provides much more surface area for that volume to dissipate heat through. Many thin tubes are significantly more efficient at removing heat than a few thick ones.

I like it and looks good. A cool tip I have for the compressor is cylindrical or floor mount vibration isolators from grangier. Divide the published compressor weight by four and get the closest match. Never vibrates the floor and literally floats on the isolators. Much quieter.

Bravo.............refrigerationd dryer ......desicant beads reuseable.........big tank........cheers

I have one of these I built about a year ago. It works great! I used about 60 ft of 3/4” copper and my air is 99% dry.

I have used an air cooled system in the past, they work ok. I now use water cooled system and it just works much better. Mine has 50 foot of 1/2 copper coiled into a 10 gallon barrel with a relief valve at the bottom in the water where water inside the line will collect and is pushed out automatically every time the compressor airs up. You just hear bubbles for 2 or 3 seconds or so after the compressor shuts off. No valves to open and close constantly, just add a bit of water now and then. I also run a single stage air compressor dryer for good measure but it has never shown any signs of moisture where when I ran air cooled the dryer still got a bit of moisture in it. I have run this for about 5 years now and have never had any moisture at all in my tank. I actually scoped inside the tank last summer, it looks shiny and new inside, no rust whatsoever.

Thanks for the good ideas and a clue on what works... That said, why don't you pull the water out of the circuit starting from the compressor, then put the dry air into the tank, then distribute... Would keep the tank free of water too, correct. Slow down the tank rust?

I built one per your video and it is amazing! Thank you!

I use a collector with stub out ends. It offers more area to collect

Good idea to go big because that offsets the pressure drop you would experience adding that many feet to your overall line length.

Great info brother! thanks.

Great job

Thanks for the great video. Think I'm going to go with 3/4 inch. Lose 25% of the surface area but I can add an extra 10 ft of pipe for less and save a bunch on fittings. For some reason the local home stores are really proud of their 1" fittings.

Awesome thank you

Nice setup, thanks for sharing. I wonder if you could put pressure relief or pressure check valves at the bottom of the pipes where the condensation collects, instead of the manual valves. I'm not sure there would be enough pressure or if you want to relieve that much pressure... of course it could be regulated. Then they could all connect via tubes to an output drain or condensation tank. 🤔

That table is sweet.

You could pack the tubes with copper pan scrubbers too. That would increase the surface area dramatically

Putting stainless steel wool in the tubes (not packed to tightly but full) would help the water coalesce inside them. Also having a cheap box fan set on Low blowing on the pipes helps a lot as well. And instead of mounting flat on the wall stand it off by 1/2" so air can circulate all round the pipes.

❤❤ you’re a pay a lot more than that now for an air compressor. I’ve got the cobalt air compressor from Lowe’s which is a two-stage compressor one big piston, and one small piston and it works great. I have no complaints with my air compressor and my air pressure gauge is 6 inches from one side to the other side of the air pressure gauge that way I don’t have to go over directly to the air compressor to read the air pressure gauge and I have a secondary tank tapped into it so when it’s running, it’s actually filling two tanks, a 60 gallon and a 22 gallon air tank❤❤❤❤

Awesome job!!!. Only change I would make is come out of compressor to drier than go into tank. This would keep tank clean and dry.

I wonder if you used sections of baseboard heat if the fins would help with cooling?

I am in the process of making one of these. I am installing automatic drain valves instead of manual ball valves at the bottom of each run. This way I won't have to remember to drain them. I am also installing one on the air compressor tank drain.

I'm concerned about getting high volume out of this system since your inlet line is just 1/4" tubing. I like the Tee design; you are right, that angle can help condense moisture. So does cyclone rotation like the moisture separator design. I've thought about making one of these that resides in a fridge, freezer, or even a tub that can be temporarily filled with ice water. As you drop that temperature, more and more moisture will condense out. As others have said, the auto drain for your compressor is worth its weight in gold.

Very good idea man! Just connect another tank after the pipes.

Install this in a fridge to get a better dewpoint, anything to get a lower temp of the compressed air will condense even more moisture. For a one-time quick project I've thrown a coil of soft copper in a big garbage can and filled it with ice and put a water trap on the outlet.

nice little workshop!

Again thank you

I wonder is there any way to collect all the pipes together into one single valve? Instead of three separate ones?

The next time you build one put an upside down U or drip loop in after the valve of each stage . What you build works by gravity . So adding an upside down drip loop in will catch more water and it will double what you have now . So first stage valve then after that drip loop upside down going to stage 2 valve then going to upside down drip loop .Once your wet receiver is full of water (your tank) in super hot summer it will pay off . Winter is one thing but summer is a bit different .. Oh I will add this in as well . If you have 125 psi in your wet receiver (tank) and only using 30 psi at the other end ? Having a regulator before it hits the part that you built will help a lot . So your tank 125 psi and a regulator 80 to 60 to what you made and after what you made regulator at 30 psi depending on your needs ??? Anytime you slow something down gravity takes over . good video !!

Really great video. Now you gave me the idea to make a HD trans cooler for my RV/bus. The ones sold today are cheap China junk. I will have to braze the fittings thought for durability/vibration.

Cool idea....FYI-1/4 - 1" =16xs volume. Twice the diameter of a set line equal 4 x the volume

Yeah, I did the same except longer copper tubes and L-type copper (not the M-type which is the thin wall regular). Works like a Swiss clock. Also, I took square wood beams 4”x4” approximately and drilled 1” holes at the copper pipe distances center to center. Then cut them along so the holes would be split. Then I clamped it over top portion and bottom portion of this copper assembly. This made the structure solid and easy to manage. Simply bolted it to the wall.

You only need 1 valve. Remove all those valves, run a header across the bottom and tee into it at each loop. Run the header and a slight grade towards a valve at the end. Solves your wet wall problem and you only have to release 1 valve.

Thank you. I will watch part 2 to see if my questions are answered. If not I will ask in that comment section.

I have a CF-Pro on order. I think I might have to look at making one of these cooling rigs for my compressor

Nice Set up. 1 critique if you will and perhaps a better mouse trap.. The Catcher tubes should be 4-6" long cause the 2" tubes are a lil too short IMHO. Other than that liked you're idea of the turbulence T and all. If you swap the output of your compressor to the dryer lines and then return via the Tank, you actually virtually eliminate ANY water vapor from your tank which extends its life. I personally added a double separator, macro/micro separators in tandem with an output regulator on the FIRST one and a desiccant dryer all in a single row lineup. My Plasma cutter has never seen a drop of contaminants. I also use it for painting cars/trucks/motorcycle fairings and pieces and it is flawless. I added an double oil tank with a clear glass jar for my air tools that is plug and play via a 3 way switched air flow valve to do air tool work on the aforementioned body parts. The oil is down line of the valve actuator so no danger in oil infused into my dry lines. My 2c worth.

it's the change in direction as you have it doing most of your water separation... its called a drip leg in a propane system ...simply passing straight over a drop leg wouldn't work as well...I've used a similar but much smaller deal using black pipe with good results

I have made one of those and never had any problems Spraying cars base clear ALL GOOD!!! just added automatic electric valve( Automatic Electronic Timed Air Compressor Condensate Auto Drain Valve) at the bottom of the compressor tank so it drops water out automaticly and dont accumulate inside getting tank rusty.

If you have room, 2” black pipe works fantastic and it also holds a large volume of air. Put your air filter at the outlet

Hi, What you have made is very good indeed. I would suggest as mentioned the galvanized straps need to go or at least use a barrier between the pipe and the straps.. Also get the tubing off the wall about 3/4" to promote 360 degree circulation.Consider a small fan to blow across your condenser that can be incorporated in the electrical circuit to come on with the compressor and shut off after. I live in S.Florida with 90% humidity most of the year and have had to resort to the above mentioned ideas. Cheers and 73

Thanks, I’m wanting a CrossFire and researching what I need in plasma cutter and air compressor. What plasma cutter do you have? And are you happy with it?

I realize it’s an old video but nice plan with the 1” copper. As others have said steel fittings in copper pipe and clamps are going to eventually cause an issue, the reducers and all are available in copper and a few feet of #10 copper wire would strap that down against two or three horizontal 2x4’s you get better air circulation behind the copper and eliminating the vibration saves the pipe.

You could get an aftercooler to install on the back of the compressor and use the pump and motor wheel as fans to pull air through the aftercooler, the moisture will then condense into the bottom of the tank. Then drain the water weekly.

Could this be done with cpvc or pex?

Nice setup, I'm thinking of using an automotive A/C condenser for this. I want to cool and dry the air before it goes into the compressor tank. I wonder if those Harbor Freight $10 auto drain kits would work on that. You'd have to adapt the fittings onto the end, but then it would be 100% automatic.

I'm building one. I am going to use ether 3/8 or 1/2 tube and not that tall. I'm going to mount it on the compressor in front of the large compressor pulley with the slanted fins for air flow. I am going to connect it along the bottom to one long manifold with one dump valve. It will ether work or not lol. I am still going to mount a filter and desiccant dryer along with the regulator. There is one dude who used a older ford F250 air conditioner condenser mounted on the guard in front of his large finned pulley. Might do that is I can find one cheap enough. I just bought a plasma cutter so got to get this built.

I definitely need to build something like this. Im always on pops to drain the compressor but he doesnt. Campbell hausfeld 60 or 80 gallon(lol i always forget) single stage. Its in the heated part of the shop, but i usually work in the unheated area. This winter was so mild ,it was 38f for most of the time in the work area. Totally awesome to me ,as i work outside so that was almost t shirt weather to me 😂. Anyway,after 5-8mins my angle die grinder blows ice chunks and gets slower and slower, ao i stop and go drain the tank and put some oil in the tool and go another 10mins and repeat. I did stick a couple of engine heater magnets on it for 3-4 days with the drain opened and that helped quite a bit. Finally,i took about a shot glass worth of 91% isopropyl and dumped it in and thats been the best solution so far. Im tired 😂, i want something permanent like this (so i also saved the vid so whwn i finally get around ro it ill rewatch) Thanks man ! Edit: I just had a brain flatulation! I've got an old craftsman compressor with a dead compressor,I wonder if it's worth putting that in the unheated shop area and running the line to that instead of running off the line ? Maybe it would help some of the moisture issue as it's like a big separator and accumulator.

You could put some really thin metal sheet where the valves discharge. It will help stop pushing the moisture into your drywall.

Hey again. i finally purchased a crossfire pro, and am now building this copper wall condenser before I assemble the table. how has it been holding up? still happy? I am doing the exact same design as yours except I managed to score an insane deal on some 2" copper pipe. the fittings are gonna make me broke but i think it will be worth it for all the extra surface area, and air volume. would you agree?

Does the hot air from the compressor go directly to the cooler before going to the storage tank ? I want to do the same design for sand blasting...

I'm wondering if you could connect all the ends where the valves are with t's into one valve as long a you had a couple inches of pipe to allow the water to collect instead of having to crack all four separately?

I love it. Do you think the copper pipes will also trap any oil? Seems like it would.

I was thinking of doing something similar with steel pipe, but my idea was to basically build a tank I could store in the walls for garage space. At the time I thought it would be too much hassle, you've just made me rethink this idea. Wonder how much 2" pipe it would take to be the equivalent of a 60 gal tank. NM, too much work lol

mine runs from 37cfm pump to a Chevy s10 a/c condenser then to 1gal air ride tank then to the 8 100lb propane then to a 3gal air ride tank with the switches, regulator, gauges, filter / water sept. then a Devilbiss desiccant water sept. (witch I have never had water in these 2 to have to drain). I have 3 auto float style auto water drains 1 in each air ride tank and one I plumed into the bottom of the 8 LP tanks. I have never had water in a line yet, I had tried the copper pipes 1st with 3/4in pipe and 10 loops the loops would fill after a hr of run time and blow water in tanks an out the hose and start messing up paint in I forgot to empty in the middle of painting and with my new setup it just works I clean filters once a month and that's it. hope that's helpful to someone

The cross sectional area of a circle grows with the square of the radius but the circumference only grows with the radius so from a surface area perspective larger diameter tube should be less effective since the volume increases much more than the surface area. In terms of pressure drop it's another story though.

Nice setup. I've got two 8 foot vertical runs of PVC. Valve 1 always has moisture. Valve 2 never has moisture that I can see but my system is for automotive which isn't as sensitive. Good for air tools and not pumping water into tires. Also use 45 angles to keep moisture off the wall.

Do you think schedule 80 PVC would do the same?

To be honest. I would have put a silica gel filter on the compressor intake. Then on the high pressure side I would have installed 3x filter units rated to the max PSI of the high side. One filter would be filled with a particulate catching media and activated charcoal. The next filter would be silica gel beads then the last filter would be filled with zeolites aka molecular sieve. This is the exact set up I use for my plasma torch . In the winter get dew points in the air as low as -5 F, in the summer I see an average dew point between 13f and 25f, depending on the temp of the air. I also use a very similar setup for my pcp air rifle compressor. However the dryer for the pcp air rifles is much more expensive due to the need to have filters that can withstand 4000 psi without failing. With the above recommendations you would save space, time for not that much more cost wise especially if you count build time as money.

Great video! Just want to ask if it would be possible, or if you have considered, to connect all the downtubes and use only one drain valve?