Moisture seperator for blasting

I have a plan on a seperator Im going to biuld but thought run it by here and see if there a better or simpler way id post a drawing but dont know how. So ill try to explain first off this is what im working with I have a 185 cfm compressor and about a 4 cubic foot pot I usaly run a #4 or #5 nozel and feed the pot from the compressor with 1 1/2" hose. Ok so my idea is to run a inlet 1 1/2" pipe into the side tords the top of a 4-5" pipe 12-16" tall and try to creat a sweriling sentrifugal efect maybe a fend bafel to help. Then in the top of the large pipe id have a 1 1/2" pipe coming down the midel for outlet with it flared out on the botom end it would go about half way down inside the large pipe the bottom half of the large pipe would be open for the water to colect ther be a drain valve on the bottom. I think this is how most are made I was thinking maybe two of them one in the midel of the air line to the pot and one on the pot.

When I used to sandblast I had an aftercooler made from a ac condencer with a 12v fan on it at least 1'' tubes prior to the seperater.

Your seperater ought to work just leave the bottom valve cracked and get after it.

Having a vertical receiver tank of around 200 gallons or more with a float drain or an electric drain at the bottom is probably a better solution and additionally will give you enough storage to make things very smooth and increase the life of your compressor. Put the air in at the bottom and take it out at the top.

Ford460 what you are describing is a redneck seperator. Thats what the man that told me about a similar device called it anyw

My sandblast outfit had problems with moisture, normal water seperators didn't work very well for , my compresser is a converted model A Ford engine with a Smiths head, the 2 center cyls pump at the same time, hot moist air, my solution was 100 feet of 1" plastic hose in a 55 gal drum, the first version had a wood frame with nails to keep the coils in line, filled it with water, so with a 25' hose from comp to "cooling tower", then another hose to a 10 gal tank ---it has a drain on the bottom that doesn't close all the way, bleeds off the water, then a 50' hose to the small seperator on the blaster pot-now it doesn't get any water in it, since most of my blasting is automotive tin I only run 45 lbs pressure. ---my system is much smaller than yours but cooling the air will cause the moisture to drop out, even coiling up a length of hose in a kiddie pool will before the air goes in the seperator will help.

I built a redneck chiller out of a bunch of galvanized steel pipe, made it to fit well inside a 55 gal drum filled with water, I could refill for short batches or just let the garden hose trickle into it to cool it down, but you will get far more water out if you drop the temp even ten degrees before it hits the cyclonic separator. This is why a lot of blast guys put the separator right near or on the blast pot.

May also want to check everybody's favorite auction site, I picked up a 100 CFM separator for $~40 shipped a few years back. At that kind of price its not worth your time to build something custom.