Re: Air tools icing up

[jlandry@domain.elided (John A. Landry)]

As the little green aliens inserted a searing hot probe into the sternum of
Doug Rasmussen <DougRasmussen@domain.elided>, a blood curdling scream was
heard...

>  How about some of those little disposable inline moisture filters that
>the paint shops sell for use with spray guns.  Around $5 to $6 for a
>package of two.  They claim about 2 days continuous use in spray painting.

I've tried those, and while they do work to some degree, they don't really
remove all the *humidity* from the air and they fill up rather fast (minutes).
You might get a couple of days out of one in a dry climate, but not around
here!  I'm sure they're effective at removing water droplets, but humidity
seems to be entirely different.  I'm not going to waste my money on one of
those again.  But thanks for the suggestion.

>  You install the filters in the hose right before your inline oiler.  You
>do have an inline oiler, don't you?

No oiler.  I prefer to oil my tools manually because I don't want oil in my
air line and I don't want an inline oiler close to the tool limiting my work.
I use a tiny squirt bottle to add a drop or two every 10 minutes or so when I
stop to wipe off the air tool periodically (of water, ice or oil from the
exhaust).

>  But I'm wondering if all your icing is due to moisture in the line. 
>Remember those little CO2 cartridges used in pellet guns, etc?  Puncture
>one of those and it'd turn to a block of ice before it was empty.  That was
>moisture in the surrounding air not from inside the cartridge.

No... this was ice *in* the tool and blowing out the exhaust.  You wouldn't
believe how cold the tools get... just like the old C02 cartridges.  I
couldn't hold them for too long without gloves.  The ice is most definitely
from the heated moist air being chilled through rapidly decompression.  Just
like an air conditioning system in a car.

Regards,

John L.
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