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Any compressed air gurus?


mikec

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I'm just gathering bits so I can fit on board air, now from reading the oba threads, its reccomended to fit a coalescing filter to filter out the oil. Well I can't find any of these for a reasonable amount they all seem to be 80 quid etc, but I do have a spirax sf2 filter, but I'm not sure if this is coalescing/oil removing or not. Anyone know how to check? Or tell the difference? Cheers mike

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Good news, you're 4th on google for "spirax sf2" :)

Really you want to get as much oil and water out before then, in the resevoir. At work I see oil in the reciever tank as well as water, but I mostly see water in the line filter-bowls, so I guess the oil is more easily removed than the water.

The one heat exchanger I do sell regularly is the compressed air cooler called a 'drier'. All it does is remove the heat of compression down close to ambient, so the water falls out of suspension. The coolers tubes act like a filter, so I'd consider an intercal oil cooler for the job? Or a coil of copper pipe?

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Oil in your tyres is not good, if you can get as much out as you can for a airing up etc.

Coalescating filter is really required to do this properly.

There are some pics of mine/details in my build linky below.

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Good news, you're 4th on google for "spirax sf2" :)

Really you want to get as much oil and water out before then, in the resevoir. At work I see oil in the reciever tank as well as water, but I mostly see water in the line filter-bowls, so I guess the oil is more easily removed than the water.

The one heat exchanger I do sell regularly is the compressed air cooler called a 'drier'. All it does is remove the heat of compression down close to ambient, so the water falls out of suspension. The coolers tubes act like a filter, so I'd consider an intercal oil cooler for the job? Or a coil of copper pipe?

Haha google didn't show anything up (in English!)

The plan was to put the filter at the entry into the tank, so I'd have clean/dry air in there, I had read about the cooling loop but haven't found anything yet.

Oil in your tyres is not good, if you can get as much out as you can for a airing up etc.

Coalescating filter is really required to do this properly.

There are some pics of mine/details in my build linky below.

Yep I read that thread, that's where I'd got the idea from, I just need to see if this filter is coalescing or not, obviously it'll save me a small fortune if it is and I can use it. I've emailed spirax so fingers crossed :)

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The cooling loop on my friend's truck (6x6 ex-army thing with a 10l cummins in it, so a big engine-driven compressor, so high air flow.) has a copper coil that we made out of standard copper pipe (standard stuff will cope with 10 bar happiy, it's the joints you need to watch).

Just get a plumber to make you a tightish coil of fairly small pipe, as many turns as you can fi i the given space. Proper braised joins are plenty strong enough - one of our weird refridgerant devices sits at 20 bar happily, althou that's small bore thick walled copper pipe.

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Well reply from spirax for any future google searches :)

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your enquiry.

The answer to your question is yes, but the SF2 was not designed for that application it is designed to remove water liquids and particles so the chances are that any oil going into the fillter will end up damageing it.

I should note though that the SF2 Filter is now obsolte and has no direct replacement.

Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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I would say it was'nt is says 25 micron filtration and internally it just looks like a normal filter (like a fibre) to remove vapour like you would get from Machine Mart etc

If its a coalescating it should have like a foam filter in ?

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You should also put one of the paint style in-line filters right before your air chuck to ensure no oil gets through. If you're running tools etc then you don't need that since they want oil. One little bit of security and if you fit them with either quick disconnect or the press-fit fittings they're easy to change over.

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And on the heat side, all the power put into the shaft of the compressor is turned into heat, all 100%. Even a small cooling coily tube makes makes a big difference to the heat. Better still if it gets it to below a point of condensing :)

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I'm gonna use the sf2, see what happens.

Also picking up some 1/2" copper pipe tomos to make a little cooling coil from. Best way to form the coil? I've read to fill it with sand and heat it up etc.

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Ok guys so sorted out the cooling coil this afternoon, bought some soft coil 1/2" copper pipe from an air conditioning spares place 6m £15 http://www.ryanairconspares.com/

Had a look around and best method I saw was to fill the pipe with sand then bend round something, had no sand so I used salt. Not a great pic but I flattened the end and clamped it to a pipe.

C3C63D98-7004-439C-A3C7-4CB479C1B58B-764

And just heated it up to help bend it, worked a treat I think, not sure if its enough coils but its roughly three meters total length.

D8A4F024-9CAE-42E6-9DC8-C3D661284B2C-764

So that fitted with the spirax filter should hopefully get most out. :)

Thanks for the advice

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I don't think so, if you look at the copper coolers in big PA amps (as I've spent all afternoon doing) none of them are coated, and they have to dissipate some serious heat. Same goes for all the coolers in computers etc. Nice coil though! Really good, you just need to make sure it gets good airflow now.

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Yeah I didn't bother in the end, but it was seeing my new radiator that was painted black that gave me the idea,

it'll get ok ish airflow its down between the servo and the wing just above the drivers footwell, probably not the best place but there's enough holes round there and it's away from the exhaust too. Cheers guys

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We only paint them so they look nice :)

And in reality, the paint doesn't get far into the fins.

There is paint that increases the emistivity for gearboxes and the like. Thinking about it, I should have done my engine at the rebuild.

I've had ally rads treated with marine-grade-hard-anodising, (which is anodising at zero deg.c so the layer is deeper) and Alochrome (Which looks awsome with green colour tinges) which are great anti-corrosion processes that don't seem to affect performance (I couldn't see anything worth noting on the test rig).

If you paint on top of alochrome it sticks better than etch-primer. So should you need anything alluminium protecting it's good, but I only mention it cause' it's cool :)

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Alochroming sounds cool! It self-repairs scratches, and becomes hydrophobic over time! Most days, the something new that you learn isn't that interesting, but not today, thanks for that. Now all I have to do is repress the urge to find all my ally bits and get them alochromated, at least until I've worked through the galvanising urge.

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