Aluminum air lines

[Torque Wrench]

I have had aluminum airlines over 7 years and with no problems. I have never had any leaks due to o-rings either, they are made of Nitrile and have chemical resistance to all the lubrication oils out there. Prevost is the one I have in my shop. If you have the big bucks to spend on copper go ahead, but I would take a second look at aluminum.

 

[Torque1st]

I have had aluminum airlines over 7 years and with no problems. I have never had any leaks due to o-rings either, they are made of Nitrile and have chemical resistance to all the lubrication oils out there. Prevost is the one I have in my shop. If you have the big bucks to spend on copper go ahead, but I would take a second look at aluminum.

^^This guy must work for Prevost, ALL of his previous 5 posts are pushing Prevost products.

 

[Bevis]

I see this topic has turned into a ******* match as usual.

 

[russlaferrera]

I used 3/4 aluminum EMT. With 3/4 NPT fittings works great.

 

[buening]

With regards to rust in the lines from black iron pipe or galvanized chippings from galvanized pipe, a quality line filter would eliminate any of these particles that could damage the tools. It's a good idea to have a filter regardless of the material type. I have a 5 micron combination filter/regulator at every outlet and have galvanized piping throughout my garage and into my basement. If rust smaller than 5 microns enters my tools, I would think it would be small enough to not affect them and would just blow out the tool.

FWIW, I used cheap fittings and a chinese manual pipe threader with my 3/4" galvanized pipe system and it didn't take but maybe 8 hours to put together 100' or so of my pipe network with 4 drops. There is a very tiny leak at a union that I cannot get sealed, but I shut off the ball valve at the compressor after I'm done using it for the day. I plan on replacing the union to see if that cures the small leak. You don't need an expensive pipe threader if you are doing a small system, unless you are afraid of a little labor. Hell if you are that lazy you can buy the pipe from Lowe's and they will even cut and thread each end for you for free.....or hire someone to install the system for you.

I looked into aluminum but decided to go with galvanized iron pipe after looking at the cost for the fittings for the aluminum system. If you are only wanting a couple drops and don't need a lot of fittings, the systems are pretty similar in cost. The more fittings you need will drive up the cost quick. If money were no object, I would have went with the aluminum just for the ease of installation and ease of expansion. Unless you are branching off an existing tee fitting, expansion is a little more difficult on a iron pipe system.

Regarding the compressor adding to the fire, the compressor would only fuel (oxygen) the fire until it's tank is empty. If you have an 80 or 120gal at 175psi, this could add quite a bit of oxygen. Once empty it cannot create oxygen if the fire has depleted the room of it's supply (assuming the intake from the compressor is not plumbed outside). If the compressor kicks on, it should only take in and blow out smoke. If the line is open during a fire, it is likely that the compressor intake < outlet, so pressure differential of the garage and the outside would only increase from the fire's demands and not the compressor running. To simplify, the compressor alone won't cause additional air to come through the wall joints (increasing the oxygen supply rate). That's my opinion, but I could be wrong.

 

[Torque1st]

I see this topic has turned into a ******* match as usual.

It's kind of an old thread, the commercial post newbie found it and opened it again.

 

[Vinko]

Prevost ALR is certified by TSSA-TUV-it conforms to ASME B31.1. I am sure the other three major Aluminum Air Line Mfg. are to the same standards.

Thread bump

Do you know who the other three major alum. air line manufacturers are? Kaiser is one, I know. But who else do you have in mind?

 

[Industrial Concepts]

Thread bump

Do you know who the other three major alum. air line manufacturers are? Kaiser is one, I know. But who else do you have in mind?

Kaiser is private labeled by Transair which is now owned by Parker.
Transair also supplies Garage Pak with their airline.

Infinity is another supplier, they private label pipe for Champion Air Compressors.

Ingersoll-Rand has aluminum airline.

Their are a couple of buying groups putting together packages, not sure who they are.

 

[jam022316]

Just a question, but is there any advantage to running air lines rather than using a long air hose with a reel? I only have a 400 sqft garage and was planning on buying a 100ft airhose with an automatic winder. Any reason other than cool factor to not do that?

 

[bluesman2a]

Just a question, but is there any advantage to running air lines rather than using a long air hose with a reel? I only have a 400 sqft garage and was planning on buying a 100ft airhose with an automatic winder. Any reason other than cool factor to not do that?

I plan on having a combination of both. I have 4 air reels, 1 X 100', 3 X 50'. I want to run copper to supply them, but it's also nice to have multiple points around the shop where you can hook on a short whip for say either a quick job (no hose on the floor), or a permanent piece of equipment like my plasma cutter which I hate dragging accross hoses.

 

[Jeepguy]

keaser doesnt make it. they just private label the Trans air. you can get the trans air cheaper from just about everyone in the world. Keaser even trys to make you pay up front for inbound freight because they dont stock any of their "smart pipe" just search for trans air and you'll see everyone that carries it.

 

[tcianci]

A lot of good points here guys. One I didn not see mentioned is that lots of compressors use ALUMINUM lines on the machine itself. I think the take away here is that outside of PVC, there are lots of good materials for air.
One of the things that shoud be noted though is that if you are using air at multiple CFM's, there isn't a piping system in the world that will condense enough moisture out of the air supply to keep up with an air tool or blast cabinet.
As for letting the fire dept know what you have and where it is... What they know can and will be used against you. Fire personnel are well trained and know what to expect as far as what types of hazards they may encounter in any given building.
As far as suggesting that any shop having more than a small quantity of flammables should be detached... Do you drain all the gas out of your car after you park it in your attached garage?
Ditto on the lack of quality on the cheapo chinese fittings though. I had a bad experience with them on a boiler manifold and circulator flanges, it was a pretty crusty mess.

 

[Vinko]

Thanks for the additional info. It's helpful

 

[Chris Adams]

Just a question, but is there any advantage to running air lines rather than using a long air hose with a reel? I only have a 400 sqft garage and was planning on buying a 100ft airhose with an automatic winder. Any reason other than cool factor to not do that?

Yep, you do much better with copper or whatever, lines.

Seem the long hose expands, killing the pressure to the end.

I was using a 20 foot hose, to a reel with 100 foot on it. I was wondering what was wrong with my impact guns, just didn't have the power to do tasks they had done before.
Did some research and found that the more rubber hose, the less 'impact'.
Replaced the 20 feet with copper (actually moved the compressor and put in 35 feet of copper) and disconnected 50 feet of line, as most of the time 50 is all I need.
MAJOR difference in power at the guns.

The hose expands softening the air feed.

Now with a 400 foot garage you don't need longer than 30-35 feet of hose anyway. Keep the extra length hanging on the wall for those times you need to couple it up, say to reach a tire at the curb or something.

If you use the very best rubber hoses you won’t feel as much power drop, but it still will happen.

 

[wagspe208]

1) I HAD a shop fire. You know what? The ******* pvc air line was of no consequence. IT WAS A FIRE!
2) O-rings seal thousands of pounds of pressure. Last longer than I will.

I'm going 1" alum main line. Probably 1/2" drops. I will have a around 300' of line. The alum systems I looked at, you can tap in any place with a hole saw and one of their clamp around tube fitting deals.
I HATE soldering. I am not great at it. The only idea I liked better than alum was the guy that used stainless steel hard line. Talk about hard to work with, however!
I also think the blue line will just look cool! Yup, that matters to me, as I build stuff like this.

 

[1redTA]

the fire departments job after life safety is the protection of property. We train and apply taught principles to respect your belongings

 

[lakeroadster]

Holy thread resurrection..

 

[wagspe208]

Holy thread resurrection..

I searched and came up with this thread. Then I posted on it... then saw it was years old!
Sorry!
Wags

 

[radrush]

.....uhhh, I shut the valve to my system when it's not in use. Copper will be fine...

This ^^^^^^^^

Holy thread resurrection..

 

[404]

O-rings you say??

Yeah, I think Ill pass.

Hey if they are good enough for space shuttle booster engines they should be good enough for air lines.

 

[Ironhorse74]

When I post to a six year old thread, I am always argumentative.

Brad

 

[budco]

Some of the people here need to move forward 100 years or so...........

The factory I'm sitting in right now has literally thousands of feet of copper air line in it. In the 23 years that I've been here I've yet to see a failure in the hard line portion of the air system.

Black iron is simply a PIA and expensive to work with. Threading machine?? Yep, I've got 2 or 3 of those in my shop just waiting for the next time I need one. Tried to buy a decent pipe theading setup lately?? Prepare to spend some big dollars for one that does a better job of threading than the Chinese do.

Ever look inside any new production equipment, CNCs, tractor trailers??? Wanna guess what they use for air lines?? It ain't black iron, and it's all sealed with push-fit O-ring'd connectors. Again, rarely see a failure.

Compressed air fanning the flames?? I'll bet you've got the pressure relief valve on your tank plumbed outside don't you?? What happens when a fire starts near the compressor, flames heat the tank, the air pressure goes up and the valve pops?? Better plumb that valve outside.........

Have you seen the new crimped copper piping systems?? Guess what it's sealed with??
It ain't pipe doped, it ain't soldered, and it ain't threaded, yet I see it every day and it ain't leaking.

Your family needs to try to save stuff and escape the flames??
#1, saving stuff is what insurance is for, scew it, get the hell out. More people die trying to save stuff than failing to wake up.
#2 Any "working" shop containing anything but minor amounts of flammables should not be attached to the house, period.

Like the fire department is going to keep a list of what's in yout house and where it's located. There's simply now way for them to keep track of everyone's home garage.

And on and on.............

Use what you can afford and what you feel comfortable with installing and using.

Amen to that !!!

I've been a certified master mechanic for close to 40 years and have worked in countless different shops in those years. It makes me laugh to see some of these responses about fires, o rings etc etc etc... What do you think they use on car a/c systems where high side pressure get up to 400psi ? That's right, o rings and they seal systems for years and years.

I don't know about you guys but I shut the air supply from the compressor off every night. What's the deal about fires and what kind of air lines you run. Just like everything else in life, there is good and bad with everything.

I'm in the process of building my last shop, a 40x30 and will do everything inside myself. I'm going to try to read about everything I need and make a decision that works the best for me....

and hope there's no FIRE.....

 

[skipnay]

Even though some of this has gotten out of hand there is some great information if you want to take it in. Though I was hoping for more of where to buy I will start another thread.