My plasma air is dessicant dried, after three (including the vertical compressor tank itself) gravity water seperator stages. And then the air is filtered.
Got to try the sleeves this past Friday. The weather sucked, it started snowing about 2 pm, and I got home and mixed chainsaw fuel and got ready to go to the woods, so got out there at about 3pm. The ground was frozen, but dry except for the new very dry and cold snow. Tractor is 4400 lbs ballasted, four wheel drive, R4 tires, no chains. So by the time I got down the hill into the woods, there was already an inch or so of snow. The first stuff I found to work on was a pile of small but tall trees. I made a whole bunch of cuts and then tossed the 3-5 inch diameter by five foot long pcs onto the tines (with sleeves installed) until I had the capacity in volume, maybe 35 pcs. Absolutely no slipping of the load! Even on side hills, thru the ravine crossing, etc, the load stayed together on the tines. And dumped fine of course. The next trip was the last for the day, due to timing and weather, and maybe the last for the season as the snow continued until we had almost a foot of snow. So I knew I had to try to pick up some logs with the sleeves on. I found a couple of pcs, off the side of the trail. One was 14 inches at the big end, and 25 feet long. The other pc was somewhat smaller. For the ultimate test, I decided to try to lift the larger log out of the brush and drag it out onto the trail to cut it, by sticking one tine under it and backing up. You see, the logs were beside the trail, but perpendicular to the trail, so I could drive to them, but the tractor was 90 degrees turned from scooping under them with the tines and picking them up that way. So I tried the single tine method, not expecting it would work, but it did work great. The sleeve provided enough grip on the log that I could lift the big end and it did not slide off as I backed up and turned so I could drop it across the trail. Normally with the bare tines, a wet log would have just slid off. A frozen one would surely have cooperated even less, and add the snow lubricant and the bare tines would frustrate me greatly. But with the sleeves installed, the wood does not slide around on the tines. Next I cut the log into pcs, and since they were too big to lift I proceeded to the last test: sliding under logs to pick them up. Here I experienced a problem. On level ground I was unable to slide the sleeved tines under the logs. They pushed along instead. So I ended up having to get off and roll them on. Then they stayed put nicely of course, and I was able to transport them up to the pile.
Yesterday I modified the tines. I cut off the front-most bump. I did it with a taper, so they should present a sliding surface to the log. I will post pics when I get them. With the front bump section removed, There is about 15 inches of bare tine showing out front. So I am thinking that I can now easily slide that bare tine section under the logs, and then curl suddenly to "pop" the log backwards onto the sleeve serated section, lifting to encourage it to roll to the back. Then get another one loaded hopefully.
So, overall they work well, and maybe with the modification now made they will work even better. Maybe a little technique change will develop too, when I get more time with them.
