best material for shop airlines

Wondering for suggestions on the best material to use for new air supply lines in shop.PVC??? Thanks

 

Lots of debate on this topic. Right or wrong, I used galvanized steel pipe. Definitely no PVC pipe. Imagine accidentally hitting the PVC pipe under 125 psi pressure with something. Boom. Ouch. Not good.

 

I'm a big fan of copper, but it ain't cheap. depends on if you want it to last for 15 years or 60 years. PVC is ok but if something goes haywire and it leaks it ****s to fix. Copper is expensive but if you have a leak its real easy to re-sweat the line. and it looks pretty and metal kicks ***. just my two cents, helped set up shops both ways, if you can afford it copper is the best.

 

You might check at the Garage Journal as this has come up a few times. PVC is a major no-no as it can explode and you do not want shards of that **** blasting through the air in your shop.

 

Maybe I'm "living on borrowed time", but I've had CPVC (the heavy duty kind available @ Home Depot) in my shop for close to 20 years. Only trouble I've had was early on I had one joint to blow out and discovered I had missed gluing it and even then it worked quite awhile @ 125 psi, guess because I had so many clamps holding it all in place to prevent sagging! The other time was when I was using one of those 500 watt quartz lights on a stand and got it up against the pipe and it melted a hole in it.
One caution however, don't install if you are subject to OSHA rules which means a commercial shop with 4 or more employees. There may also be some localities with code provisions forbidding PVC.

 

I used black pipe when I did mine 14 years ago because when I moved in there was a guy moving out a couple doors down that had a ****load of black pipe he was tossing out. free is good

 

My buddy owns a compressor company and he has done all the lines in my garage as well as a few friends and will be doing my new shop soon, he does it all in copper.

 

use anything but PVC.....

 

Has anyone tried those quick connect nylon tube style systems that are available now?

 

Avoid PVC. Hard copper is good, but should be silver soldered. I see a lot of nylon air line being used these days. It's still hard to beat properly installed black iron or galvanized pipe.

 

I work in an industrial enviroment and you would be surprised at what the new "flex" tubing will hold up to. I have seen/ helped installed a few CPVC systems and they work well. The systems we did were on the ceiling with hose reels coming down so the chance of damage was minimal. I think I am going with polished stainless steel w/ three coats of clear, NOT! Damn, it's just air line!

 

I have had PVC sch 40 in mine for the past 20+ years and run 175 psi through it, never had any problems. i have had hoses hook on bumpers and pull the fittings off, one guy ran into the line with his car nothing happened. it is rated at 300 psi so why would running 120-175 hurt it? unless it gets to say like 20- below i can't see it exploding, we are regularly at 5 * in the winter and no problems, summer 110 * or more and again no problems.

 

I had an old time retired plumber do the plumbing when my shop was new (18 tears ago). He used black iron pipe and at the time he said that's all he had used during is career for air lines. I blow the whole system down about twice a year just make sure there is no condensation buildup and have yet to detect any moisture in the lines.

Frank

 

Copper lines in my place.

 

I built the air system in my shop out of schedule 40 PVC. It says right on the pipe it is tested for 480 PSI so my 125 PSI should be OK. I ran a loop around the ceiling (12') with a drop down to chest level every 10' with a quick connect hose fitting and a blow down drain.

I put in a good filter seperator at the compressor that automatically drains when the compressor powers. I think the whole thing less seperator, was about $35 and has been trouble free for years.

 

I have a rubber hose on the floor.

 

It's been discussed before. I ended up using black iron pipe-it was, by far, the most reasonable and I have never seen anything positive about pressures being handled by glued plastic pipe joints.

 

As expensive as copper is these days, the kits from garage pak ain't looking so bad. It's still debatable that as my shop grows I can always add to copper, so I'm still on the fence with this stuff. I'm still making a single 50 ft. soft line work in my garage, but when friends come over to help more often, I'm going to have to plumb some lines eventually so we're not sharing one line. Just thought I'd throw this link out as another source/option.

http://www.garage-pak.com/index.html

 

I've been a steamfitter since '91 and I don't want to come across as being preachy. But, don't use anything other than black pipe or "K" refrigeration copper if you're dead set on using copper. If you need to use copper, silver solder it for strength. I've seen 95/5 soldered joints fail from vibration. I would never use PVC, not even schedule 80.Never use galvanized because it will flake off on the inside and small particles could get caught in tiny orifices in your air tools or blown out through an air gun. Also for this reason never use teflon tape on air lines. The tape will break off in small pieces and get lodged in tiny holes in your equipment. Use pipe dope or paste. The blue coated aluminum pipe you see that uses the mechanical tees and elbows is engineered for the specific purpose of a shop air system. Don't just use any pipe or tubing and make sure you know what pressure it will safely operate under. The use of a vibration isolator or a flexible hose between the compressor the air system is also recomended. A ruptured air line is extremely destructive and this is a case where over building something is just right. I'm sure I'm going to hear "I've done it this way forever and I've never had a problem". Good for you, you've been lucky so far. I've seen the aftermath of an inproperly installed system.

Del

 

Black pipe is the preferred material but more difficult for the non-plumber/fitter. The heavy pipe can actually work as a drier to remove moisture from the lines. The moisture vapor actually condenses on the inside and if plumbed properly it will get carried to the dirt leg on the end of the run. All connections to the trunk line should come off the top so any dirt or moisture can't fall into the connection. Most air compressor suppliers will have diagrams showing how to hook it up correctly.

All that said and I have PVC schd 40 in my shop for 10 years or so... plumbed correctly though. I put pet ****s on the bottom of the dirt legs to easily remove any condensation and dirt.

 

Those pressure are for non compressible liqiuds like water not compressible gases like air. Every PVC manufacturer states that their products are NOT to be used with compressed gases. Will it work maybe, you might even get 20 years without it blowing or it may never blow but if it does look out. For me it would not be worth the risk of having an airline explode and injure myself or worse someone else.

 

I'm with the black pipe guys. (I would use copper if it wasn't so darn expensive.) The business I work for has all black pipe in it, of course we use a lot of it so it was available.

 

I used black water pipe that was s****ped when my company re-did it's sprinkler system. Got it for free and even had the guys thread some short pieces for me while they were working on the re-do. Check a s**** yard for used stuff. What I did not take went to the s**** heap.

 

I installed the garage pak stuff in my shop a couple of years ago. It's only been a couple of years but it seems to be holding up well. Install was really easy.
The machine shop I used to work in had schedule 40 pvc that exploded fairly often. It really ****ed.

 

Our local compressor shop will not set foot in a shop with PVC lines. It is not the pressure or fittings, it is the reaction of the plastic PVC with any oil that may get in to the line via blow by or line oilers. After time the Pvc will break down and become brittle. That said, a good oil separator and drier system should prevent oil in the lines, but is your or anyone else in your shops life worth it?

 

This stuff is great and cheap.

http://www.atp4pneumatics.com/catalog.asp?prodid=594364&showprevnext=1

 

Use black iron with enough moisture drops and you'll have nice dry air. PVC and nylon won't let the moisture condense out of the air before it gets to your air tools... same for rubber hose. Copper is good but a little pricey.

I did my whole shop in black iron without any cutting of the pipe... there's a drop every 10' cuz that's how long the pipe was... easy to do.

 

Thanks for all the advise!! I think when its all said and done the winner will be good old fashion black pipe.The boss was thinking maybe try and save some bucks but when you hear about some materials failing,like its always said here "Go with Traditional" Plus I will be installing it and pipe is quick Thanks again Jim F

 

-It's not the rating, it's the cycling. There's a pressure pulse in the system every time you squeeze the trigger on an impact gun, or push the lever on a blowgun, or pull the trigger on a paint gun.

And besides those pulsations, there's the slower overall pressure rise/drop/rise/drop fluctuations as the tank bleeds down, fills up, and bleeds down again.

This flexes the piping, eventually leading to fatigue. Steel/iron pipe is overbuilt for the conditions- the flexing is well below the fatigue life of steel, meaning the service life of black pipe is effectively infinite.

Copper does eventually work harden a bit, so it's service life is more finite, but still effectively longer than most of us will ever own a garage, if properly installed.

PVC, however, has a much shorter fatigue life. After, say, ten years of cycling, the tubing weakens- that doesn't mean it'll blow out, but the pipe once 'rated' for 300 psi might only be good to 150 psi.

Throw in heat from the hot compressed air, oils from the compressor, solvents from the shop air that were picked up and pulled into the tank, UV effects from sunlight (depending on your windows, etc.) and other effects, and after a while, that "good to 300 psi" tubing starts blowing out at only 100 psi.

I'm not particularly thrilled with the aluminum stuff either, as aluminum doesn't have a particularly good fatigue life either. But if it does fail, it splits, rather than shatter and throw shrapnel like PVC.

I'm doing my shop in heavy-wall copper. The cost difference between copper and iron pipe was a little over $100, and it was much easier to install.

Doc.

 

I have been researching this pretty heavy for my new shop .I will not use black pipe because it will rust inside with any moisture ,I don't like rust in my paint gun or air tools.No pvc ,I don't like the flakeing of galvanized. I will run 1 1/4 inch copper along the wall with a fall of 2 inchs in 24 feet. I will bring the outlets off the top with a tee and the turn out. The reason for this is moisture will have a harder time turning a corner up so will tend to continue down the tube and fall into the drains.. I will have two drain legs down the run. I believe that copper also will allow the air to cool quicker which will help the moisture separate.
Now all of this is my warped mind going over all the possibilities while drinking red beer and laying in the hot tub. It is a theory with no real world back up data.But I may be all wrong .