I decided I needed an air dryer for my shop. I luv to build machines and tools so I thought why not build the air dryer I need. I thought about the action of removing moisture from air and decided that the best option was to condense the water out. Thought about using a little fridge to cool of a coil of air line and some how drain the water off the bottom of the coil with the help of gravity. I didnt like the idea of another appliance running sucking up power, I do enough of that with my oven. I then had the idea to use the fridge I was already running in my shop to cool our drinks, just had to make it so the fridge was still usable for this purpose. Heres what I came up with.
Ok, so this is an easy one I'm sure all of you can do. All that is needed is a refrigerator (this can be the one you currently put your beer in) and some piping or hose.
In the pics you see some pvc piping inside the fridge, this is cooled by the fridge. As the warm moist air enters the moister condenses in the cooled pipe. It is collect in the resivior at the bottom outside the fridge and the dry air goes to the shop. Simple as that.
If I had to do it over I would use metal for the piping for better efficiency. But as you can see from the last pic, it does work! The water you see was drain from the resivior after using the sandblaster for a couple hrs the first day the dryer was installed. I have been using this for a few months now, and have not had even a drop of water in my lines anywhere!!!! Even on the hottest most humid days, running the sandblaster nonstop.
As far as it being needed for the plasma, I now very rarely have any misfires and consumable life seems to have increased.
Jim
