in the drainer the spiral increases the suspension of the fines and pin chips in the slurry entering the drain column the spiral is adjacent and downstream of the inlet 116 to the drainer cylinder the inlet 116 to the drainer cylinder is contained within a cylindrical tank 118 that forms the sand separator portion of the combined device 100 approximately one half of the length of the drainer column 102 may be housed within the sand separator tank 118 the drainer 102 may be mounted vertically along the vertical axis 120 of the sand separator tank the drainer may extend through the top of the tank 118 and down into the tank such that the inlet 116 to the drainer is about halfway down into the depth of the tank and aligned with the tank centerline 120 due to the swirl in the tank sand and heavy particles do not flow towards the centerline of the tank rather the centrifugal force imparted by the swirling flow moves sand and other heavy particles to the perimeter of the tank thus the fluid in the tank along the centerline is relatively free of sand and particles appropriate structural devices are used to mount the drain cylinder to the sand separator device these structural devices may.