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 ( ) ( )
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