DIY Filter towers

[cool_hardware52]

I'm glad you found some suitable accumulators, a better option IMO than struggling with pipe. I assume these are hydraulic? What's their rating?

I have a steel hydraulic tie-rod cylinder as an argon booster. Cleaning it of oil was disgusting. I eventually used powdered laundry detergent (which must be like pH 11 or 12) to cut the oil. It was thick, and smelly.

Then Simple Green about 3x, then rinse rinse rinse. After it dried there was still some whitish detergent residue so I rinsed somemore. Took a surprisingly long time and I was able to get it disassembled (tie rod design).

If you can't disassemble your accumulators, I think you'll want to have some sort of circulating wash and then circulating rinse.

All the piston type accumulators I've ever encountered can be disassembled.

Tobin

 

[cool_hardware52]

Stats, you are welcome and your post about "personal" stuff is well taken. However, the somewhat dense nature of "hardware" did elicit more responses from me than would be the case. Magneto can thank him for that. However, his admittedly disengenuous questioning became an annoyance and I do take it personally when trolls patrol.

So you justify your tone, responses and personal attacks based on my questions?

Exactly which of my questions justify your uncivil tone?

Where did I admit any of my questions were disingenuous? Rhetorical yes, disingenuous no.

Trust that I will continue to "Troll" whenever I see dangerous, potentially life threatening, advice being given.

Tobin

 

[rjack321]

Magneto, as I said, you were not serious. Thanks for finally coming clean, and hopefully your computer is doing better. My responses were mainly an intellectual exercise for the potential benefit of a larger crowd so, no problem.

"Not serious", "come clean"? Using SS hydraulic accumulators as filter towers sure seems DIY to me.

If you're going to go through "intellectual exercises" I suggest providing enough information so someone could actually compute the pressure ratings and and safety factors of the materials discussed. Otherwise, saying XYZ aluminum is adequate is not very illuminating - and potentially dangerous.

 

[bargainmarge]

I have several sizes of accumulators available

 

[pescador775]

Xxxxxxxxxxx

 

[Couv]

Hello All,

I have just read through this very interesting and informative thread and have come away with a greater appreciation for the amount of work and knowledge require to build such a system. I do not intend to build any such a unit but, I am curious about many aspects of diving and related subjects.

Years ago (over 20) I worked in a few dive shops and saw a variety of filter systems. One of them used a modified aluminum 80 scuba tank stuffed with...well lets just say a product made mostly from cotton. I know that industry standard have come a long way since then, but I am wondering if one has the correct medium(s) internally, is it a bad idea to use a scuba cylinder either steel or aluminum? If this approach is acceptable, how would one safely modify it for this application.

Please know I am not an engineer so don't jump all over me for my ignorance of metallurgy etc. Again, I will not be building a filtration unit, I do not have a compressor, I am just curious after having to change the "element" in one such unit.

Thank you,

couv

 

[cool_hardware52]

Years ago (over 20) I worked in a few dive shops and saw a variety of filter systems. One of them used a modified aluminum 80 scuba tank stuffed with...well lets just say a product made mostly from cotton. I know that industry standard have come a long way since then, but I am wondering if one has the correct medium(s) internally, is it a bad idea to use a scuba cylinder either steel or aluminum? If this approach is acceptable, how would one safely modify it for this application.

My quick thoughts on scuba tanks as filters:

Compressors often operate at pressures well in excess of the WP for scuba tanks

How do you fill and empty the media from the tank through the neck of the tank?

How do you insure that the gas passes through the media?

Remember any mods to the tank to allow access to the inside is not going to improve the working pressure.

Tobin

 

[Couv]

Hello Tobin,

Thank you for your response. The scuba tank filter we used had a hole drilled in the bottom and a fitting was installed. I remember expressing my concerns to the shop owner about the safety and his reply indicated that this was, in his experience, a common set up and he had never heard of an explosive incident. The medium was stuffed in through the neck and another fitting was treaded into the valve neck and reduced. I can see how drilling the hole into the bottom of the cylinder would compromise the structural integrity of the bottle, but if this was a common method (perhaps it was not) I do not remember hearing of any safety issues. Since I first made this post, I have been trying to imagine a fitting that would screw into the valve neck that would have two ports. One would have a long tube going to the bottom of the bottle and the other would have a short tube near the top. The flow would be introduced into one, go through the medium and out the other.

Again, I do not have any background in designing filtrations systems, but why couldn't a scuba tank or larger cylinder such as a used in a cascade bank, be used as the medium container?

Edit: I missed your response about the tank's working pressure, but couldn't a pressure regulator or relief valve be installed between the compressor and filter?


Thank you again,

couv

 

[cool_hardware52]

Edit: I missed your response about the tank's working pressure, but couldn't a pressure regulator or relief valve be installed between the compressor and filter?

If you want to fill scuba tanks you will need a source of compressed gas at a pressure greater than fill pressure of the tank you want to fill.

If you regulate the compressor output to some pressure BELOW the working pressure for Scuba tanks (so you don't over pressure your scuba tank filter) how then do you fill the tank you want to dive?

There is a long list of reasons why this approach is troubling. Imagine the volume of media you'd need to fill a scuba tank. How do you insure that the gas passes through all of it and does not "channel" down the center?

How do you change it? How do you prevent internal corrosion of the tank?

How do you drain the accumulated moisture and oil?

Tobin

 

[oxyhacker]

There's a shop not to far from here that was still using, as recently as 10 years ago (and maybe still is, I haven't been there since then) a huge old 1950's 2400 psi compressor, a ScubaAmp added in the '60s to bring it up to 3000 psi, and a filter consisting of a 63 c.f. aluminum tank completely filled with carbon. The tank has a nicely made special fitting in place of the valve, which has a dip tube that goes all the way to the bottom so the air had to go the full depth of the carbon, however there was no dessicant, no baffles to prevent channeling, or anything to control how tightly the carbon was packed - is suspect the carbon actually blows about whenever the air flows. And since the tank was mounted upright, no way to drain it. The owner assured me it was a factory job, which he'd bought with the compressor, and boasted about how much money he'd saved over the years by not having to buy expensive cartridges.

There is a long list of reasons why this approach is troubling. Imagine the volume of media you'd need to fill a scuba tank. How do you insure that the gas passes through all of it and does not "channel" down the center?

How do you change it? How do you prevent internal corrosion of the tank?

How do you drain the accumulated moisture and oil?

Tobin