FX What to do after shooting an Impact that was filled with moist air? Disassembly, drying, o-ring replacement, etc.

[TheDaleness]

UPDATE:
It looks like the moisture I was noticing was from water that had accumulated in the fill hose from my 100cc Portable Air Venturi Tank. This is how it happened: I usually have the tank sitting up on a workbench, while the compressor is down on the floor. So as the water condensed inside of the hose it would flow down to the compressor's moisture reservoir. Every time I had filled the gun in the past, when I was done filling and I bled the line, about 1/2 tsp of water would come out of the compressors moisture reservoir.

During the last couple fills I was using the compressor in the field and it was being powered by my car. So I stupidly had the compressor sitting up on the car and the tank was 4 feet below on the ground. So all the water that was condensing in the hose was flowing toward the tank instead of the compressor. Thinking back I remember noticing that I there wasn't any water coming out of the compressor when I opened the bleed valve. All that water was still in the hose.

I detached the hose and there was about 1/2 tsp of water inside. I dried it out and now I'm not noticing any water in the quick connectors after filling the gun, or when bleeding the line. I disassembled the gun, bottle, and air tank, all were completely dry and showed no signs that there had ever been any moisture.

Next time I'm filling in the field using my car for power I'll put the tank on the roof.

I made an air filling station with a coalescing filter in between the compressor and tank. There a lot of debate if a filter is necessary, but I figure it can’t hurt.

Thanks again for all the help guys.

==============
ORIGINAL POST:

I just realized that the air used for the last several fills/top-offs of the 500cc bottle of my Impact contained inadequately dried air. I noticed this during the last fill when I removed the hose from the gun and there were a couple drops of water around the fill nipple. Then when I bled the line of the 100 cui fill tank, the air was misty and left a damp spot on my pant leg. Very bad!

I’m asking for recommendations on how to best move forward in terms of removing all moisture from the gun, replacing/repairing o-rings or other parts that may be damaged.

As for the bottle and fill tank, I’m thinking it should be straight forward: degass and remove the valves, clean, dry.

As for the gun, I’m guessing I should take the gun completely apart - or at least until I can access the inside of the plenum, carefully drying everything as I go with lint-free wipes, swabs, maybe a blow drier. And relubing all o-rings that don’t appear to be damaged.

I’ve since corrected the moist air issue with an improved filtering setup, so this wont be happening again. I’m very frustrated with myself for not being more knowledgeable about proper air filtering before I started using the gun.

Thanks for the help guys.
Dale

 

[Exodus]

If you have the ability, use nitrogen to purge the gun. It will pick up the moisture and expel it on the shot. Otherwise, depending on how much moisture is in the system, disassembly maybe your option.
But first:
Do you see noticeable water when you fire the rifle? Dry fire it, then swab the barrel if it’s wet, you’ll need to take it down. If you see vapor but no moisture, getting the rifle totally empty would be the next step. Then filled back with dry air and fired to purge any water particulate. Dry fire it a fair amount until you don’t see any moisture. Swab it and you’ll more than likely be ok. If that’s not exceptable, take it down, clean it and grease your o rings.

 

[mubhaur]

I just realized that the air used for the last several fills/top-offs of the 500cc bottle of my Impact contained inadequately dried air. I noticed this during the last fill when I removed the hose from the gun and there were a couple drops of water around the fill nipple. Then when I bled the line of the 100 cui fill tank, the air was misty and left a damp spot on my pant leg. Very bad!

I’m asking for recommendations on how to best move forward in terms of removing all moisture from the gun, replacing/repairing o-rings or other parts that may be damaged.

As for the bottle and fill tank, I’m thinking it should be straight forward: degass and remove the valves, clean, dry.

As for the gun, I’m guessing I should take the gun completely apart - or at least until I can access the inside of the plenum, carefully drying everything as I go with lint-free wipes, swabs, maybe a blow drier. And relubing all o-rings that don’t appear to be damaged.

I’ve since corrected the moist air issue with an improved filtering setup, so this wont be happening again. I’m very frustrated with myself for not being more knowledgeable about proper air filtering before I started using the gun.

Thanks for the help guys (be gentle)

Dale

Hi Dale,
A few years back I received an Impact that had been filled with moist air using the small compressor that is operated by car battery.

He used filters but perhaps filters were not able to control the humidity. The user also filled the gun with hand pump many times.

What I found is that the brass parts like the regulator adjuster screw and bigger part of regulator were badly rusted in green colour.

Many areas of gun were very difficult to disassemble.

The user used humid air since day one and had used the gun for more than a year.

Rusted parts were replaced with new parts.

Other parts were polished. Some of aluminum parts had got white rusting.

With a lot of effort, I was able to completely disassemble the gun.

Things got fixed and the user was advised to use only dry air obtained from scuba diving compressors like Bauer or Coltri.

The gun on which I worked was continuously used on humid air exclusively for long time.

In your case I would disassemble the gun, give it a nice clean. Disassemble the bottle and clean it too.
Then be religious in using the air got from good scuba diving compressor.

As you didn't use the gun on humid air for very long time, I believe the parts should be intact.

Just to share that once I worked on HW100 which was used on humid air for 10 years.

Each and every part came out as good as a jewl.

Humid air didn't affect any part of the gun. It seems to me the difference of metallurgy.

Don't worry, go slow and clean and dry every part if you have used it for long time.

Bhaur

 

[KitCarson16]

Relax. By the time this thread is over you will be recommended to install 15 filters on your bottle or compressor fill hose and provide dry air filters on the compressor intake. Grin!!
Simply fill it up and shoot three fills or so and the moisture will take care of itself, it will shoot out of the rifle. Then turn it upside down and put TWO drops of pure silicone oil in the fill adapter and air it up again and go target practice some more.
I myself put two drops of silicone oil in my PCP rifles every other month or so, depends on how much I shoot them which is not as much anymore as I enjoy my springers mostly.
My Crown was 7 years old when I decided to reseal it just because, the rifle was like new inside and had a thin film of oil on all the parts. The silicone oil will work its way unto all the parts.
I live in South Carolina where 80 percent humidity and 98 degrees is quite common. I also use a simple gun fill only GX compressor and it only runs for six minutes or so and does not have time to build up much moisture.
Cheers
Kit

 

[TheDaleness]

If you have the ability, use nitrogen to purge the gun. It will pick up the moisture and expel it on the shot. Otherwise, depending on how much moisture is in the system, disassembly maybe your option.
But first:
Do you see noticeable water when you fire the rifle? Dry fire it, then swab the barrel if it’s wet, you’ll need to take it down. If you see vapor but no moisture, getting the rifle totally empty would be the next step. Then filled back with dry air and fired to purge any water particulate. Dry fire it a fair amount until you don’t see any moisture. Swab it and you’ll more than likely be ok. If that’s not exceptable, take it down, clean it and grease your o rings.

Perfect! Exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks Exodus! On it!

 

[EDventure]

Send it to me and I'll fire a few tins through it. The AZ heat and dryness will fix it right up.

 

[TheDaleness]

Hi Dale,
A few years back I received an Impact that had been filled with moist air using the small compressor that is operated by car battery.

He used filters but perhaps filters were not able to control the humidity. The user also filled the gun with hand pump many times.

What I found is that the brass parts like the regulator adjuster screw and bigger part of regulator were badly rusted in green colour.

Many areas of gun were very difficult to disassemble.

The user used humid air since day one and had used the gun for more than a year.

Rusted parts were replaced with new parts.

Other parts were polished. Some of aluminum parts had got white rusting.

With a lot of effort, I was able to completely disassemble the gun.

Things got fixed and the user was advised to use only dry air obtained from scuba diving compressors like Bauer or Coltri.

The gun on which I worked was continuously used on humid air exclusively for long time.

In your case I would disassemble the gun, give it a nice clean. Disassemble the bottle and clean it too.
Then be religious in using the air got from good scuba diving compressor.

As you didn't use the gun on humid air for very long time, I believe the parts should be intact.

Just to share that once I worked on HW100 which was used on humid air for 10 years.

Each and every part came out as good as a jewl.

Humid air didn't affect any part of the gun. It seems to me the difference of metallurgy.

Don't worry, go slow and clean and dry every part if you have used it for long time.

Bhaur

Thank you Bhaur for taking the time to provide all these specific details. I'll take the gun down, carefully cleaning and inspecting as I go. Hopefully I wont find corrosion. I have been ignorantly using a "shoebox compressor" (the GX-CS3) for about 6 months (about 40 hours of total use) with an oil/water filter and in-line desiccant filter. I also kept the air tank above the compressor so that the water would flow to the bleed valve. I ignorantly thought this was sufficient, but after researching since this issue began, I now know this is extremely inadequate for keeping the air bone-dry.
I've only noticed the beads of water on the foster connections during the past 4 bottle fills, so hopefully this is a sign that high moisture levels haven't been occurring for too long.

I should have been applying more critical thinking about the physics of high pressure systems. It makes perfect sense why this would happen when you take a moment to think about it.

 

[TheDaleness]

Send it to me and I'll fire a few tins through it. The AZ heat and dryness will fix it right up.

That'd probably do the trick! lol. Where I live in southern California the humidity is usually around 50%. But during the last 2 weeks it has jumped to a consistent 95% due to monsoonal moisture from the Gulf and north-moving hurricanes down Mexico. This could be a significant factor in why the moisture rapidly became so much more noticeable.

 

[TheDaleness]

Relax. By the time this thread is over you will be recommended to install 15 filters on your bottle or compressor fill hose and provide dry air filters on the compressor intake. Grin!!
Simply fill it up and shoot three fills or so and the moisture will take care of itself, it will shoot out of the rifle. Then turn it upside down and put TWO drops of pure silicone oil in the fill adapter and air it up again and go target practice some more.
I myself put two drops of silicone oil in my PCP rifles every other month or so, depends on how much I shoot them which is not as much anymore as I enjoy my springers mostly.
My Crown was 7 years old when I decided to reseal it just because, the rifle was like new inside and had a thin film of oil on all the parts. The silicone oil will work its way unto all the parts.
I live in South Carolina where 80 percent humidity and 98 degrees is quite common. I also use a simple gun fill only GX compressor and it only runs for six minutes or so and does not have time to build up much moisture.
Cheers
Kit

lol this is exactly what I've been observing in every discussion I've come across regarding filtering. It's the The Filter Wars! Everyone has a different opinion, and some are drastically different. But this seems to be the case with most areas of airgunning.
I have the GX-CS3 and also run it about 5 minutes at a time, let it cool, repeat.
I'll give these suggestions a try.
So to clarify, you don't use any in-line filter with your GX compressor?
Thank you for sharing your first-hand experience!

 

[KitCarson16]

This literally made me laugh out loud. This is exactly what I've been observing in every discussion I've come across regarding filtering. It's the The Filter Wars! Everyone has a different opinion, and some are drastically different. But this seems to be a pattern in many areas of airgunning.
I have the GX-CS3 and also run it about 5 minutes at a time, let it cool, repeat.
I'll give these suggestions a try.
So to clarify, you don't use any in-line filter with your GX compressor?
Thank you for sharing your first-hand experience!

It has the little cotton filter that they put on the fill line, I check it once in awhile and change it, if it looks dirty. Other than that, nope no filters.
Even on the most humid and hot day it is very rare to see even one hint of moisture. The little GX only runs five or six minutes and the rifle is full.
Now something like a larger compressor filling an air tank, yes you will get lots of water doing that as it heats up the heat helps create a lot of water.
It has been chugging away for three years now, doing fine. Used it today twice and it is 96 degrees and 84 percent humidity, did not see any water.
Kit

 

[bozman]

It has the little cotton filter that they put on the fill line, I check it once in awhile and change it, if it looks dirty. Other than that, nope no filters.
Even on the most humid and hot day it is very rare to see even one hint of moisture. The little GX only runs five or six minutes and the rifle is full.
Now something like a larger compressor filling an air tank, yes you will get lots of water doing that as it heats up the heat helps create a lot of water.
It has been chugging away for three years now, doing fine. Used it today twice and it is 96 degrees and 84 percent humidity, did not see any water.
Kit

I spoke with a factory tech about the air venturi rovair 4500, the guy had plenty of experience and told me the same thing that its not running long enough for the moisture to build up, test it if your not sure. Take the filter out when done filling and if wet on one side dry on the other side of the filter it's not getting through. The compressor also has a drain and you could check that to see how much actually builds up.

 

[TheDaleness]

I spoke with a factory tech about the air venturi rovair 4500, the guy had plenty of experience and told me the same thing that its not running long enough for the moisture to build up, test it if your not sure. Take the filter out when done filling and if wet on one side dry on the other side of the filter it's not getting through. The compressor also has a drain and you could check that to see how much actually builds up.

Thanks bozman! Good to know. Here is an update to the situation:

It looks like the moisture I was noticing was from water that had accumulated in the fill hose from my 100cc Portable Air Venturi Tank. This is how it happened: I usually have the tank sitting up on a workbench, while the compressor is down on the floor. So as the water condensed inside of the hose it would flow down to the compressor's moisture reservoir. Every time I had filled the gun in the past, when I was done filling and I bled the line, about 1/2 tsp of water would come out of the compressors moisture reservoir.

During the last couple fills I was using the compressor in the field and it was being powered by my car. So I stupidly had the compressor sitting up on the car and the tank was 4 feet below on the ground. So all the water that was condensing in the hose was flowing toward the tank instead of the compressor. Thinking back I remember noticing that I there wasn't any water coming out of the compressor when I opened the bleed valve. All that water was still in the hose.

I detached the hose and there was about 1/2 tsp of water inside. I dried it out and now I'm not noticing any water in the quick connectors after filling the gun, or when bleeding the line. I disassembled the gun, bottle, and air tank, all were completely dry and showed no signs that there had ever been any moisture.

Next time I'm filling in the field using my car for power I'll put the tank on the roof.

I made an air filling station with a coalescing filter in between the compressor and tank. There a lot of debate if a filter is necessary, but I figure it can’t hurt.

 

[HogKiller]

Send it to me and I'll fire a few tins through it. The AZ heat and dryness will fix it right up.

Except during Monsoon.