Pex for air lines

[Jeff-C175 7,199]

31 minutes ago, squonk said:

POW!!! The sight glass

 

I've been around them, but don't know a lot about the bigger boilers.  So I'm a bit confused... and at the risk of going further off the rails...

 

I thought the sight glass was for observing the combustion chamber?  Do they have sight glass on the water/steam side also?  If so, what would one see if they looked in?  What would one be looking for?

[squonk 41,038]

Just now, Jeff-C175 said:

 

I've been around them, but don't know a lot about the bigger boilers.  So I'm a bit confused... and at the risk of going further off the rails...

 

I thought the sight glass was for observing the combustion chamber?  Do they have sight glass on the water/steam side also?  If so, what would one see if they looked in?  What would one be looking for?

Water level in boiler

[Jeff-C175 7,199]

Just now, squonk said:

Water level in boiler

 

Ohhhh... you're talking about the glass 'test tube' !  Gotcha, thanks!

 

[Zeek 2,286]

4 hours ago, squonk said:

Working at the Hospital on a Saturday by myself. Boiler room is about 30' X 60'. 2 Cleaver Brooks 100 HP boilers running at 60 PSI. I am about 20 ft. from the exit door and about 10' from a boiler with my back to it. POW!!! The sight glass on the boiler near me explodes. Within 2 seconds the boiler room is full of steam, I can't see and have to feel my way to the exit and find the emergency shut off and get out of there. It was another 2 hours before the steam dissipated enough to go back in to find out what happened. Found parts of the sight glass all over the room in multiple directions.

[squonk 41,038]

2 minutes ago, Zeek said:

I got a video of the boiler room somewhere stashed but I wasn't filming anything crawling on the floor.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

4 hours ago, squonk said:

Underwear was no where to be found. 

 

You need the hot air coming from the compressor to cool so it will condense. Nobody is going to run 500 ft of line until you get to your paint gun. That's why you need metal lines to cool the air and any  and all filters need to be away from the compressor. The only other way is to install a Refrigerated Dryer to get the air cool enough to condense. On medical air systems we ran multiple dryers to get the dewpoints down to about -20 Overkill for a shop but I was always fascinated at the steps taken to achieve that

Chuckle!

 

When I had the shop I looked into cooler/dryers but never did anything.  And yes, the more I remember the troubles I had back then the more I think there should be several feet of metal in all air supply systems of any size or serious use.  Really need to get that moisture out before the tool or the work and lengths of metal are probably the least expensive beginning of that removal.  Years ago I had intentions of having a big coil of copper in a water bath.  I had unlimited water and a creek behind me.  Could do the same today if I had a big coil of big copper.  Might need the help of the lottery!

[squonk 41,038]

Very brief video of the boiler room. You can see how packed in it was. Ceiling is about 15ft high filled with pipes. Boilers are at the end of the video. I was standing right about where I shot this when the glass blew. The boiler on the right is the one that popped. I kinda miss controlling all the stuff in the plant with a click of a mouse. Don't miss the triple digit temps! 

 

 

[squonk 41,038]

2 minutes ago, DennisThornton said:

  Could do the same today if I had a big coil of big copper.  Might need the help of the lottery!

There's gotta be a still or 2 floating around your neck of the woods. Maybe you could "pork" one. 

[DennisThornton 4,769]

1 minute ago, squonk said:

There's gotta be a still or 2 floating around your neck of the woods. Maybe you could "pork" one. 

Too far north!  I'd have to go back to my grandparents place in South KY.