After getting splashed few times by compressor condensate, I decided to build an overengineered vortex drainer.

Intro

I saw various solutions for draining the condensate from the compressor stages - from “factory” drainage buckets (regular bucket with inlet hose opening and vent holes placed in such a way that you mostly don’t get splashed) to DIY solutions involving PET bottles and pocket knifes that result in flying bottles and some cursing and swearing. Some of my friends drain compressors “on the spot” resulting in wet and slightly greasy floors, while one (dear) friend uses old T-shirt to “muffle the sound and collect water”. You can imagine the color and smell of that cloth.

I wanted to use this as opportunity to learn OpenSCAD and I designed parametric vortex separator (overengineering at its best) to trap water and oil while allowing air to escape.

OpenSCAD model

I played with BOSL2 library and, after banging my head against few concepts, managed to build a two-piece drainer with some configurable parameters:

Size of drainer (height and diameter)
Number of inlet hoses and their diameter

For extra points, I configured slopes on the the critical parts so they print easier and have added slightly expanding holes for hoses, so they self-lock as they are pushed in.

Printing

Printing it turned to be a bit of a challenge as some threads look like overhangs and I really don’t like supports on PETG. I tried variable layer height and ended up with few spaghetti prints, but fixed layer height seem to be working just fine.