Harbor Freight is the only local source for brass hex ******* (hex ******* are male-to-male close ******* with a hex section in the middle to us a wrench on). I figured that, since they were simple threaded castings, it'd be safe to buy them from HF to get the convenience of the hex ******.
Boy, was I wrong.
Over the week, I've been plumbing in my new compressor. Thursday, I got it up to pressure for the first time and left it sit with the switch off to see if it would leak down over time. 48 hours later, it was holding pressure perfectly. So I bled the little bit of water out of it and stood back up. I could hear a tiny hissing noise. Very annoyed that the system had suddenly developed a leak, I started hunting the noise down. I quickly localized it to the ****** between the tank and the shutoff valve. Sighing, I began to pull my head back with the intention of opening the drain valve and the safety valve so that I could blow the tank down and fix the leak.
Then it blew apart.
There was a tremendous noise, something hit me in the head, my glasses were ripped off my face, chunks of brass plumbing were shot across the garage hard enough to pierce the 5/8ths drywall, and I hit the deck like I was under fire. Once on the ground, I realized that the tank had let go but I figured I was either already dead the tank was going to hold and nothing I was going to do was going to change that outcome. Thankfully, the tank blew down via the now large hole without rupturing.
I honestly don't know if the ball valve hit me in the face as it was shot across the room or if it was just the force of the rushing air. I assume that if it had been the ball valve itself that had hit me, I'd have been killed at that range, given how weak the skull is in side of the temple. My glasses are bent to hell and gone, the side of my face hurts, and my ears took about 8 hours to stop ringing.
When I finally found all the pieces, the hex ****** had sheared cleanly at the transition between the threaded portion and the hex section. It looks for all the world like it was cut with a pipe cutter. Perfectly clean. I replaced that hex ******, and all the HF hex ******* in the system, with generic close ******* from Lowes. Out of curiosity, I cut one of the Lowes ******* in half at the same point that the HF ****** had failed. The wall thickness of the Lowes ****** was at least twice, possibly three times larger than that of the HF ******.
Needless to say, anything to do with compressed air is now on my list of "Things I Won't Buy at Harbor Freight Because the Commies Are Out to Get Me"
Boy, was I wrong.
Over the week, I've been plumbing in my new compressor. Thursday, I got it up to pressure for the first time and left it sit with the switch off to see if it would leak down over time. 48 hours later, it was holding pressure perfectly. So I bled the little bit of water out of it and stood back up. I could hear a tiny hissing noise. Very annoyed that the system had suddenly developed a leak, I started hunting the noise down. I quickly localized it to the ****** between the tank and the shutoff valve. Sighing, I began to pull my head back with the intention of opening the drain valve and the safety valve so that I could blow the tank down and fix the leak.
Then it blew apart.
There was a tremendous noise, something hit me in the head, my glasses were ripped off my face, chunks of brass plumbing were shot across the garage hard enough to pierce the 5/8ths drywall, and I hit the deck like I was under fire. Once on the ground, I realized that the tank had let go but I figured I was either already dead the tank was going to hold and nothing I was going to do was going to change that outcome. Thankfully, the tank blew down via the now large hole without rupturing.
I honestly don't know if the ball valve hit me in the face as it was shot across the room or if it was just the force of the rushing air. I assume that if it had been the ball valve itself that had hit me, I'd have been killed at that range, given how weak the skull is in side of the temple. My glasses are bent to hell and gone, the side of my face hurts, and my ears took about 8 hours to stop ringing.
When I finally found all the pieces, the hex ****** had sheared cleanly at the transition between the threaded portion and the hex section. It looks for all the world like it was cut with a pipe cutter. Perfectly clean. I replaced that hex ******, and all the HF hex ******* in the system, with generic close ******* from Lowes. Out of curiosity, I cut one of the Lowes ******* in half at the same point that the HF ****** had failed. The wall thickness of the Lowes ****** was at least twice, possibly three times larger than that of the HF ******.
Needless to say, anything to do with compressed air is now on my list of "Things I Won't Buy at Harbor Freight Because the Commies Are Out to Get Me"
perfect!
