Plumbing a shop with air

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my grandfather told it to me, i like it...
 
Those old bastards sure do ahve good ideas sometimes huh :)
 
How is the 1/4" diameter pipe working out? I mostly use 3/8" and 1/2" impact wrenches and air grinders etc. When I run my long (50') 3/8" rubber air line hose I loose too much pressure at the impact gun. I run an 80gal tank and I have the regulator set at 135 PSI.
 
I worked in a shop that had PVC line in it. After a few years, every Saturday was spent fixing leaks. PVC also holds the heat of the air longer so the water does not condense out as easy.

Current plant is plumbed with Transair, it is a epoxy coated aluminum pipe http://www.transair.legris.com/en/index.htm No leaks, easy to work with and cool looking, the only problem is it is NOT cheap.
 
I have run a framing crew for about fifteen years so Ive bought a good four miles of 3/8" id air hose. I seem to hire people that tend to shoot hose with nail guns and a hose can only take so many splices. I plumbed my shop with the parts and pieces of 3/8 hose and double crimp clamped each joint. My big Ingersoll 2 stage keeps 150 psi with no leaks.
:beer:
 
I'm getting some moisture in my lines and it is time to do something.

Does anybody have first hand experience with this stuff? Several of our customer are installing it or having it installed along with their new air compressors. The IR, Quincy or who ever delivers the air compressor is generally the one who installs it.


Compressed Air Piping and Air Tools from Garage Pak
 
Looks like drip line... :idea:
 
Seems drip line is only good to 60 psi, damn.

CPVC...? 450 PSI for 1", 480 PSI for 3/4", 600 PSI for 1/2".
 
Where to start?

First off, when using pvc. Impact may be a factor but not the biggest. Do some research on PVC characteristics.
As with all pipe pvc, copper, black iron, as the operating temperature goes up the rated working pressure goes down.
Pvc's are affected for the worst,by much lower temps than the others.
I would never recommend pvc to anyone. If you are going to use it at least run a 6 to 10ft section of copper or steel first to drop the temp of the air and the pipe, Call it an aftercooler if you will.

Secondly. Oils, like the ones your compressors pump. and if you have a compressor reciprocating or rotory and it has oil in a sump it passes oil. These oils attack the pvc softening it. I have seen the aftermath of pretty horrendous explosions from pvc pipe.

They do have plastic pipe that is oil resistant and is specifically designed for air. It is expensive and a total waste of money.
Copper or black Iron act as heat exchanger to cool the air before point of use. allowing for much greater qty of moisture to drop out.
copper is the hands down winner in my book.

Filters are must at each drop in point of view. Chew up some vanes in that 400.00 snap on impact once. then tell me it wasnt worth the 30.00 for the filter.

Anyway good luck. Step away from the Plastic!! and have a nice day.:cheers:
 
I piped my shop in copper but was thinking of helping my neighbor do his shop in pex. Pex manufactures say it's not rated for air but it won't grenade like PVC and there are some nice brass 3 lug drop ells for mounting your air connections on the wall. I have a step down regulator that takes the 175 at my compressor to 110 at the wall and would do the same for a pex system. The 3/4 pex I use is rated at 160 psi at 73 degrees and 100 psi at 180 degrees so I think it should be fine as long as you keep it out of direct sun light.
 
By the way solder flows to heat in a sweat joint so I'm not sure how a wet rag would help solder flow towards the colder copper. I could see this helping with 95/5 and even old 50/50 where the solder needs to cool a bit to bridge joints.
 
I've always wiped my joints but I was talking about Ian Rogers's comment in post #19 " have a wet rag with you and cool the joint in the direction that you want the solder to flow. this pulls the solder in to the joint"
 

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