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1/2" copper for air lines

mike93lx

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You are not drinking from it.....If you have lead solder....use it.

You want to use a regulator and dryer coming out of the compressor. I took mine off. I never have any moisture in my lines....but then again, I'm in dry California.
If you are really worried about moisture, add a drip leg at a convenient point...put a 1/2" ball valve on it for draining. A quick burp will let you know if you have moisture or not. Copper does a decent job of condensing out moisture.

A few key points....

Map gas with a good torch head. Yellow can....not the blue one. You spend too much time applying heat to get it hot enough....Map will heat it up quicker....

Get it clean. Besides the typical brush they sell at HD, I use 220 grit sand paper to make sure there is NO dirt.

De-bur the inside of the pipe. When you cut it, it leaves a little lip. De-bur it....It only makes a marginal difference on air flow....but really cuts down on the noise.

Make sure the pieces are snug...but not tight. Fittings should go on without force. If they are too tight, the solder has trouble wicking into the area.

Mapp gas isn't made anymore and hasn't been for a while. Yellow cans are "mappro" which burns a little hotter than propane, but not significantly
 
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metalmagpie

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Half inch fittings are cheaper than 3/4". I wish I had a pile of 1/2" copper. Mine is all 1".

metalmagpie
 

sberry

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In a lot of cases bigger really doesn't hurt,,, it just doesn't help much. Electric is the same way. You can wire 20A circuits with 10 wire but it doesn't save any electric. It might if the actual load was 20A on 24/7 with 100 ft circuit for decades but to zing a board off with a saw once in a while or for loads less than that it doesnt.
We in small garages are hooking this to comps where a 3/8 will drain the comp connected to a sandblaster in a hurry, pipe size is not that relevent.
There was the trucker on here, judges talking about a comp for his shop and was convinced he needed more than 5 up because he has a truck with big tires. It might seem like this to start with but,, he is a 1 man shop and not a truck service center with multiple guns running doing tires every day. A 3 hp will fill a tire as fast as a 5 or a 10 and the only benifit would be to constant impact like a NASCAR pit crew on 32 wheels, again more work than a single guy can do. There would only be delay with a large gun right after the kick on if one exceeded demand.
He needs a good comp or more accurately a 2 stage to pump hi pressure tires and enough to run a gun to do lug nuts,, by the time he got to another set it would be recovered.
He needs a 5 with big tank, a 7 1/2, but something practical that would run on the power he had, something that might run a da sander well enough too.
The effort to come up with 3 phase conversion and extra power for 10 up wasn't going to save. Same for mine, I simply have an extra old comp for backup and severe demand, I rarely use it, would only save a minute or 2 on occasion if I did. I have enough tank I am usually done or time cycle out of habit where it doesn't make any difference. I do use the extra tank from unit 2. Breaker off to it unless needed.
 
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Jason280

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Half inch fittings are cheaper than 3/4". I wish I had a pile of 1/2" copper. Mine is all 1".

metalmagpie

Damn, I got a little sticker shock just buying 1/2" fittings, couldn't imagine buying a bunch of 3/4 or 1" stuff.
 

ez-duzit

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For my 4-car garage sized shop I'm installing 3/4" copper mains with 1/2" copper drops. Many more 1/2" fittings than 3/4". This just isn't the place to cheap out.
 
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Jason280

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For my 4-car garage sized shop I'm installing 3/4" copper mains with 1/2" copper drops. Many more 1/2" fittings than 3/4". This just isn't the place to cheap out.

For me, it isn't so much cheapening out as whether or not it would have been any added benefit.
 

sberry

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3/4 are not teribly expensive for elbows and couplings, t's either. Other fittings go up in cost, street L is 3 times the cost of a common 90. But as I said in the last babble, bigger won't hurt but there is very little gain in these type of garages. The comp only makes so much and the demand at one time is so little. If it's going to a 1/2 drop anyway and a 3/8 hose a few ft of the main being 3/4 doesn't mean much except for extra fittings in another size.
 

sberry

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A guy doesn't need to use every fitting they ever invented. I saw a system here by a fine member, there was a lot of fuss about what a fine job it was but,, a dozen valves where 4 would have worked, pipe in 3 sizes, 6 fittings where a T would have worked, almost 20 fittings for a drop, 6 drops where 2 would have sufficed and had to wait and save to do it.
I can still remember one of the first I did, inch where 1/2 would have worked well, all in fear of a little pressure drop that never happened. As I now recall an old pro tried to tell me this but I didn't catch it at the time.
 

NUTTSGT

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Damn, I got a little sticker shock just buying 1/2" fittings, couldn't imagine buying a bunch of 3/4 or 1" stuff.

When I switched from PVC to black pipe, I didn't buy my fittings all at once. Every time I made a trip to the big box store, I grabbed a handful of this or that. I carried a list of what I needed on a 3x5 card and marked off what I had bought for a running total.
 

rlitman

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When I switched from PVC to black pipe, I didn't buy my fittings all at once. Every time I made a trip to the big box store, I grabbed a handful of this or that. I carried a list of what I needed on a 3x5 card and marked off what I had bought for a running total.



That makes sense for black pipe, where fittings are just sold by the piece.

For copper, certain fittings are much cheaper in bulk
 
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LS6 Tommy

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$60 bucks might not be over kill for freon. The main thing for sweating copper is clean joints.Get a wire brush tool to go in fittings and around pipe,a few twists,4-5,is good.I use a wet rag to remove extra solder while it's hot.Always seems like the extra was a pain if one had to resolder.

Plumber's wipe their joints. HVAC techs do not. We prefer a shoulder on the joint and if we get a "***" we knock it off with the end of the roll of solder... :thumbup:

Tommy
 

ddawg16

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One of the reasons for wiping the joint is it cools it off quicker.....less chance of things moving.

I wiped all mine.....It just looks better
 

LS6 Tommy

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One of the reasons for wiping the joint is it cools it off quicker.....less chance of things moving.

I wiped all mine.....It just looks better

We do not do it because it eliminates the chance of getting moisture in the system if the joint has a leak. Water lines don't have that issue.

Tommy
 

Dan in Pasadena

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Pasadena, CA
Since you're using copper, you can find an old home air conditioning condenser or evaporator and just plumb it in series after your air compressor, before the shop. It's relatively huge so it will cool with convection, no fans needed and can be found relatively cheap.

You’re talking about a regualr stationary home air conditioner, right? Not a window air conditioner?

If you plumb it in series the water will condense out of the air and a water filter down line from it will still be needed, right?
 

Fix Until Broke

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You’re talking about a regualr stationary home air conditioner, right? Not a window air conditioner?

If you plumb it in series the water will condense out of the air and a water filter down line from it will still be needed, right?

It could be either one, both do the same thing, just one is larger than the other.

It depends on how you plumb it and how "automatic" you want it to be. If you plumb it "uphill" then all the water will drain back into the tank and you drain it just like you would today. You can also put a drip leg on the outlet with a ball valve and bleed it there or do both.
 
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