My attempt at making an air dryer for my air compressor.
This is just a mock up just to see if it works, which it actually does quite well. No water at all from the bottom tank drain.

Good idea

At first glance I thought it said Hillbilly "hair " dryer, so I was expecting to see some convertibles.............
I was disappointed!

That will work. I use 60 feet of pipe before I run my air into the final filter. It runs 10.5 ft, then I put in a "U", then 10.5 more feet, another "U", etc. Why 10.5 feet, because uncut pipe runs 21 feet and it is real cheap to buy full lengths from a plumbing supply store (not Lowes/Home Depot). I then spread the pipes so they always drain downhill to a "T" where I drain off the water (similar to your setup). Sounds complicated but it really is not.

If you put your filter immediately at the tank it is worthless, as the air is too hot and holds too much moisture. If you spray with the hot air, it will cool down on expansion and water will come out of your spray gun (not good). To give you an idea how good it works, it is very rare to get any water out of my final filter.

I just looked at your setup again and realized you go directly from the compressor discharge into the cooldown assembly. That is a great idea. I may modify mine again so I never have to blowdown the tank again. Thanks for the tip.

I guess I will have to retract my West Virginia joke that basically says "The one good thing that came out of the Civil War for Virginia was West Virginia." :-)

Thanks for the comments. Just to update, I added a check valve ($10) just before the upper inlet to the condenser. I did this so that when the pump kicks off it doesn't drain the condenser.
I think it is functioning good enough now for me to attempt some sandblasting tonight. I will let everyone know the results.
Can someone tell me again why I totally disassembled my bird?

After further research, I will have to remove the A/C Dryer canister. Although it contains desiccant material, it only works with a closed system so in this application the desiccant material will quickly become saturated. I may just replace it with an expansion tank/tube with an automatic drain.

Now this is a hillbilly air dryer.

Tell me more

My sandblasting hood kept fogging up so I had some 1/4" plastic tubing that I hooked a quick connect to on one end. The other end I duct taped to the top of the plastic hard hat and fed the end through a hole I drilled in the front brim, letting it hang down about an inch. When I'm blasting I turn a small regulator up to about 5 psi. It works great keeping the lens from fogging and the positive pressure inside the hood really cuts down on the sand coming inside the hood.
Now if I could only figure out why my photos keep rotating when I post them.

This is my setup. The air dryer filter needs replacing already. It seemed to work but I will try using more line from tank before going into dryer. I don't have a final filter at the other end. Any recommendations?

I hope to try the blaster this week.

Tip: use copper, hose, stainless and brass for you line & fittings. Avoid black pipe as it will rust on the inside.

The main source of moisture from what I have found comes from the very hot air coming from the pump going directly to the tank . That is why I tried to cool that air as much as possible before it goes into the tank. That is basically why I built the "after cooler"

I use a Sharpe Filter for painting and "clean" air. For air tools, I use a cheap "Home Depot" type filter. I have found that water is generally the big issue not particulates for painting. That is why you really need to cool it down before any moisture traps or filters. Having your filter that close to the compressor is not ideal as the air is going to be hot. The big tank lets you cheat because it slows the air down and allows it to cool, so you probably don't require as much cooling line as I do.

I don't remember which magazine this came from but it was probably close to 20-years ago.
Not sure if it will post this file but here it goes.

All I did was run a hose from the regulator up over the rafters and back down to a water separator about waist high(next to work bench).
Only get moisture in the separator after long periods on continuous use.
Drain the compressor tank 2-3 times a year.