shop-talk
[Top] [All Lists]

RE: Questions on Air line plumbing (NOT PVC)

To: <mikey@b2systems.com>, <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: Questions on Air line plumbing (NOT PVC)
From: <ken.landaiche@nokia.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 15:42:14 -0800
Mike,

Just this morning I was shopping for compressors and had this conversation 
about piping with the proprietor. Here is a summary.

Copper pipe is fine. You already have the pipe, but the larger the diameter the 
better for two reasons: 1) the pipe can act as an air reservoir, adding xx 
gallons to your tank's capacity; 2) for high volume air tools, like sanders, a 
larger diameter pipe will cause less resistance to the air flow, allowing the 
tool to maintain its maximum speed. For both reasons, run the full 175 PSI in 
the pipes and regulate at the end points, with air dryers and oilers as 
required at each location. 

>From comments on the list, you should only have to silver solder joints in the 
>first few feet at most.

I haven't done any of this. But I'm planning to in the next two months.

Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: ext Mike Rambour [mailto:mikey@b2systems.com]
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2002 2:20 PM
To: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Questions on Air line plumbing (NOT PVC)



   Ok, I need to finally finish my shop air line plumbing, I got my new 
compressor almost 6 months ago now and I am tired of plugging in the hose 
to the compressor outlet.

    I went to the TIP site for their ideas on air plumbing and what I am 
going to do is use copper pipe instead of black iron.  My compressor is in 
another room attached to the garage and it would be a tremendous pain to 
plumb it with iron pipe, lots little nipples with corners here and there, 
besides I already have the copper pipe left over.  It is type L which is 
the medium wall thickness, should I go buy type K ? I hope not, I have LOTS 
of type L.  No, I wont go to PVC and I don't want to start that discussion 
again but in the past it has been decided that Copper was ok for air line.

   Should I put a regulator at the compressor to control all the outlets ( 
this is the way my old compressor was rigged up and while it was a pain to 
have to go to the compressor and crank up/down the pressure, it did work 
)  or should I plug in the air line directly to the compressor with a 1 
foot flex line for vibration of course and put the full 175psi into the 
line ?  Doing this means buying more regulators but might be worth 
it.  Should I keep a regulator at the compressor and limit the line 
pressure to 125psi. and then regulate down more at each outlet ? if I limit 
the pressure to 125psi and then put regulators at the outlets anyway, i get 
no financial gain from not putting in the full 175psi since I still have to 
buy regulators so why should I not put the 175psi into the pipe.

   Since I am concerned about heat at the compressor end of the air 
lines,  I will be silver soldering the thing together.  I have done lots 
and I mean lots of sweating pipes together with plain old solder, this will 
be my first time silver soldering, any hints ? gotchas ?

        Lots of questions,eh ?
        mike

~~~~~ I'd rather be sailing and  ~~~ .oooO  Oooo.  ~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Rambour                                   (    )  (     )    

///  unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net  or try
///  http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
///  Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/shop-talk


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>