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Old July 1st 04, 03:38 PM
Bushy
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It probably more of a monument to the memory of "Steptoe and Son", (British
TV series about a garbage and scrap recycler from many years ago) but it
works a treat.

Just the sort of tools you expect to see us poor homebuilders working with!

Hope this helps,
Peter

"BillC85" wrote in message
...
Peter,

Jeebus! Did a fellow named Rube Goldberg have anything to do with the
construction?

BillC85


"Bushy" wrote in message
...
My brother has a VW compressor which runs on two of the four cylinders

and
has compressor heads on the other two. Although it produces plenty of

air,
it is oily, hot, and certainly can have a high water content in a

Brisbane
(Australia) summer. As the compressor cylinders are lubricated by the

dirty
engine oil, the oil content in the air tank is yuck. (Technical term!)

As a condensation unit he uses 20 feet of 3/4 inch copper water pipe

coiled
up inside a 44 gallon (55 US gallon) drum full of water. The air enters

at
the top of the coil and travells down the coil to the bottom of the drum

and
then the copper pipe is bent back up out of the water. This cooled air

is
then fed to a commercial water and oil trap which catches almost every

last
drop of oil from the now cooled air.

He uses the air for sand blasting timber for artistic furniture and

creative
artwork and the air is cleaner than anything else he has tried. If there

is
any oil or water in the air it stains the timber and he gets pretty

finicky
with his quality control......

If he uses it for continued operation, he changes the water in the drum
after about an hour or leaves a hose running to overflow the drum so the

hot
water is continually changed with fresh cold water and the garden gets a
drink.

The copper pipe is readily available at your local hardware store, and a
copper olive from a standard plumbing fitting soldered on each end of

the
pipe makes a great bevel for the hose clamp to hold against so the

flexible
hose can't blow off. You might use a flair to do the same thing. This

part
is cheap, the drum also is an old second hand plastic one (no rusty

water)
with one end cut out, but a garbage can or and old oil drum would be

just
as
good as it only has to hold water and no pressure.

The lot is mounted on the back of an old unregistered farm truck so he

can
keep it in the shed and drive down the back paddock when he wants to

blast
the timber and that way he leaves all the mess down the paddock.

Hope this helps,
Peter