compressed air Archives

Folks, I’ve used Harbor Freight’s Central Pneumatic 2-1/2 gallon (10 liter) paint pots (HF Item 66839) for years to pressure cast grips. You may know them as “paint pots”, “pressure pots” – they are the same thing. I read fear-mongering stories on the Internet where folks are scared of them blowing up. You know what? They’re safe as long as you stay within their pressure rating and I know what I’m talking about. I’ve used my tanks through thousands of duty cycles at 60 PSI with no major problems.

There is a headache though – the cheap gaskets the tanks come with either don’t last or are a bear to seal. It used to be you had to make your own replacement gaskets or try to repair what you had but now there is an awesome ready-to-go quality gasket you can buy.

Here’s the lid of one of my modified tanks. You can see remnants of blue RTV everywhere from past fixes. The OEM gaskets are thin and don’t always seal very easily. I keep a wrench by my tanks to crank down the lids the last bit if there are air leaks after pressurizing because the original gaskets are so crummy.

There’s a failure – see the groove/tear in the middle of the black gasket? In the past I would have filled that with RTV and let it cure for 24 hours. I don’t do that any more – I replaced this old gasket with a new one I will tell you about shortly.

Enter TCP Global with a solution

I periodically search for stuff I hope somebody will create and sell. That includes these gaskets. It’s been a while since I last looked and the above gasket’s splitting prodded me to check again. It just so happens that TCP Global had, realized there was a market and was making gaskets better than the original.

How are they better? They are thicker and the durometer (firmness) of the gasket is such that there is a bit of give to get a really good seal. The gasket measures 10-5/16″ for the outside diameter and 9-5/16″ for the inside diameter. It’s also a 1/4″ thick which is great and the dogs (the bolts on top that secure the lid) have enough adjustment to accommodate this thicker gasket.

To cut to the chase, these units fit my pressure tanks perfectly. No more gluing, cutting, etc. These work right out of the box and are way, way better. They also fit a number of other thanks including:

TCP GLOBAL Brand 2.5 Gallon Pressure Pot Tanks Systems. Part# PT8310, PT8312 and PT8318
Binks or Devilbiss Brand 2.7 Gallon Paint Pressure Pot Tank Systems that use the Devilbiss Part# PT-33 Gasket. Binks Tank Part# 83C-210, 83C-220 and 83C-221
Other brands of tanks as well – many are made by the same Chinese factories and use the same size gasket.

Look at the difference! The old gasket has the blue RTV on it and the new one is the much thicker all black gasket.

Installation is a breeze

Literally, pull the old gasket out and push this new one in place. I did not need to do any trimming. When I put the lid back on the tank, I did have to back off the toggle bolts in the dogs (clamps) so that they could pass over the edge of the lid given it’s new taller height but that was literally just backing the off a 1/4″ more or so. Then when I turned the bolts down, the clamping pressure fully seated the gasket and the job was done. I spent more time taking the pictures than I did replacing the gasket and adjusting the bolts!!

Here’s the tank with the new gasket installed. You can see the dogs (clamps) have plenty of adjustment. When I took this photo, I clamped the top down by hand with no wrench and pressurized the tank to 60 PSI – no leaks or problems. Seriously, these gaskets rock.

Here’s the gasket on Amazon:

If you click on this link, I will get a small referral fee but that is all I get – I had to buy my own gasket and wouldn’t be writing this review if I honestly didn’t think the product was fantastic.

Conclusion

These TCP Global replacement gaskets are awesome. The seal works wonderfully and I can just tighten the lid down by hand now – no more wrenching. If you have a tank these gaskets will fit, I highly recommend them.

August 24, 2024 Update: They have held up great. I am now using them in all four of my pressure pots.

March 6, 2022 Update: These are still working great. I’ve slowly replaced most of my original HF gaskets with these and have no problems to report.

Note, I have to buy all of my parts – nothing here was paid for by sponsors, etc. I do make a small amount if you click on an ad and buy something but that is it. You’re getting my real opinion on stuff.

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If you are just jumping into this three part post, an inline compressed air filter by itself does not work very well when it comes to removing moisture from compressed air but it definite works good as a third step in a thought out moisture control strategy. If you haven’t read them yet, please read these other posts first:

Now, as a third step, good filters are definitely needed. In line filters remove even more moisture and protect your regulators and equipment from debris such as rust. Filters are a good example of you get what you pay for. Those really cheap air filters aren’t up to demanding tasks. Setting shoddy construction to the side for the moment, you will notice that some do not say how fine their filter is (as measured in microns) or give you any indication of the cubic feet minute (CFM) the filter can handle. You at least need to know the first part.

Buy quality units from a reputably manufacturer. I like Milton, Parker and PneumaticPlus and they are three of many that are out there. Everything I am going to write about here, I bought with my own money and actually use or have used so this is not some thinly veiled advertisement. I’m recommending the various items because they work for me.

In terms of construction, some have a plastic/polycarbonate bowl and they are rated for lower pressures (usually 125-150 PSI) and others have metal bowls and are rated for higher pressures. For example, my Ingersol Rand 2340 stores the compressed air at 175PSI so I use metal bowls on my filters and drains exposed to that pressure. In downstream areas with lower pressure, I use filters with polycarbonate bowls.

If you are serious about filtering, you need at least a two stage unit. The first stage is a coarse air filter and will range from 5-40 microns in terms of filtering element size. The second stage will be a fine air filter and be remove even smaller particles often down to the 1 to even .01 micron level. You must have the coarse filter in front or you will plug up the fine air filter real fast and negatively impact your CFM.

When you are shopping for filters, there is an ISO standard to be aware of that some reputable filter companies will reference – ISO8573.1. Here is a good blog post if you want to learn more.

With that said, let me show you what I actually use.

My inlet air for the filter is 1/2″ because I wanted to provide a lot of flow. All of my plumbing up to that point is 1/2″ also. After doing a lot of digging, I opted for a PneumaticPlus SAU4030M-N04DG-MEP which is a combination three stage unit with a 10 micron coarse air particulate filter first, then a 0.3 Micron Coalescing Filter followed by a pressure regulator.

In researching the unit, I found that the rated inlet pressure was 250PSI and the outlet was rated at 150PSI — note these are metal bowls hence the higher pressure rating.. I planned on setting the regulator to 90PSI for my tools and found that the maximum flow would be around 38 SCFM (standard cubic feet per minute) @ 90 PSI, which also met my needs. The two filters also have automatic drains so I don’t have to worry about purging them.

You’ll note the black warmer cable in the last photo – that’s because my shop is unheated in the winter. The heated cable is on a thermal switch and only turns on at 32F. This keeps the condensate from freezing in the bowls. You’ll also note the 1/8″ tubing removing routing the condensate to drain where I want it to.

They both still collect moisture – the first filter more than the second. Every day, I can see the condensate coming out of the tank, the moisture separator and to a much lesser extent, these filters. I have been using this set up since August 2016 and really like it. I usually find zero moisture downstream but I still run basic coarse filters just before my various regulators. Attached to my plasma cutter, I still run one of their #128647 1 micron air filters just to play it safe.

Downstream, I still have in-line air filters just in case

As a rule of thumb, it is always a good idea to have an air filter just before a regulatory. Before a couple of my downstream pressure regulators, I run Milton 1018 filters and they are nice. 40 micron coarse filters with 48 SCFM. This one right here has been in use for a few years and predates the elaborate moisture control system I have in place now. Look at the rust in the bowl from when I cleaned it! I still have two of these in daily use and have no complaints.

These inline filters are all bone dry which helps me conclude the upstream moisture control is working pretty well. They are probably 50-75 feet from the tank in terms of how much line the air must flow through before reaching them. The dirty bowls are from the mess I had before the current system. I cleaned them while I was at it hence the above 1018 being disassembled. A nice feature of this model Milton is that it automatically drains when the pressure in the bowls drops to the point that a spring can pop open and let the condensate out. You can also push the rubber nipple sideways to manually drain it while pressurized. They are simple and effective coarse filters.

Now the red and black filter is a Craftsman 16009 and it is pretty low end. When my dad passed away, he left a couple of Sears gift cards that I used to buy three of these filters and some air hose. When I google them now and read on the Sears website, they do not list the microns. I suspect it is a 40-50 micron coarse filter but that lack of a rating should throw up flags. I don’t have the original packaging so I don’t know if it listed it or not. The one unit left in place was inserted a few years ago to protect the one regulator from backflow from the two airlines just before it The Milton’s drain when the pressure in the bowls drops to the point that a spring can pop open and let the condensate out. With the Craftsman, you need to turn that little valve screw on the bottom and manually drain it. Not too bad for casual use but I would not use them again for my stuff. I should point out that on one filter, the pipe hole not straight! Also, guys report bowls cracking and no replacement parts so at least that hasn’t happened to me. I just include them here so you can see what I would not recommend. You can see the angled/not true pipe hole in the second photo especially. These are in my parts bin just in case.

5/2/2019 Update – I have replaced all Craftsmen filters with Milton filters. The PneumaticPlus gear is all still running great.

I hope this three part blog post has given you some ideas on how to reduce moisture in your air lines. I don’t consider myself an expert or anything close, but just wanted to share what worked for me. There are some great resources on the Internet if you want to learn more:

The three blog posts in the series are: