Enter keywords or a search phrase below:
I've been having air compressor issues for a while now, but none of the fixes I've found seems to work. My airbrush keeps outputting large amounts of water, but the water trap is emptied and cleaned, my hose is long enough, and I dry my hose now and when. However, it still sputters a lot of water. I know it's not the water trap on my compressor, as this problem has persisted on both compressors I've purchased, and even with a friend's compressor I borrowed.
I have an idea of the issue, but I wanted some advice from the professionals. I live in a highly humid country, where the humidity can get from 70-75% on an average day, to 90% and up on especially hot days. I'm thinking that this may be the issue but wanted to check with those who know what they're doing (unlike me) before I go out to buy additional water traps.
I'd really appreciate any advice at all from the gods of scale modelling this forum houses. My 1/35 M1A1 Abrams would also appreciate it.
High humidity could be the problem for sure. Have you considered CO2? I've used a tank for years. Silent and dry - and no, I'm not a CO2 salesman ;)
Thanks,
John
I presume you are using a compressor with a tank. I couldn't tell from your description but are you draining the tank on a regular basis? The traps work fine but if the tank itself is not drained once in a while the shear amount of water will overpower them.
You could also go with a tankless compressor. They are not quite as nice to use as a tanked one since the pressure drops off but they do not condense moisture.
Mount a water trap/regulator at your work area with maybe an 8-10 ft hose between the compreesor and the trap. Keep your compressor regulator set high then regulate at the second regulator/trap. What is happening is the trap is too close to the compressor and water is condensing in your line as the air cools down stream in the line.. This is very common even with 1/1 paint shops. When I painted 1/1 especially in our humid summer months I had one trap at the compressor, basically an auto drain, then about 25 ft down the shop copper lines a big water separator and still had a little filter/drain at the spray gun. Obviously you aren't flowing these volumes of air but its all the same principle on a smaller scale.
Gotta make sure you drain the tank also or the moisture will rot the inside and eventually rust thru
Tojo72 Gotta make sure you drain the tank also or the moisture will rot the inside and eventually rust thru
...as I learned at some cost.
“Ya ya ya, unicorn papoi!”
In the most dramtic fashion and ALWAYS when you are right beside it!
Tcoat Tojo72 Gotta make sure you drain the tank also or the moisture will rot the inside and eventually rust thru In the most dramtic fashion and ALWAYS when you are right beside it!
In the best cases it starts leaking with hissing noises, a fair warning. On the other hand I know a guy whoes compressor blew up and blew the windows out of his garage ! Obviously a larger compressor than a hobby compressor. Non the less, not good.
TcoatIn the most dramtic fashion and ALWAYS when you are right beside it!
Heh...mine happened in the middle of the night when I was asleep, and my compressor is just down the hall from my bedroom. Don't know if it was me or my cat that was able to get unstuck from the ceiling first.
"You can have my illegal fireworks when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers...which are...over there somewhere."
Important safety tip: Always blow down the tank pressure prior to uncorking the drain valve! I leave a small amount of pressure (about 5 PSI), to get a positive "blow" to clear out any water in the tank.
I have a small 1/5 hp compressor with a small tank,It developed a pin hole last Feb 22,I patched it with liquid steel,folks on a forum said it wouldn't last,but here we are 15 months later and it's still holding,I always bleed the pressure off after each use,so far so good.But it's way downstairs in the basement.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.