How tight for pipe fittings?

[Sidetracker]

I'm in the process of hooking up my new Campbell Hausfeld compressor and I need to know how tight to get the pipe fittings. I know they're a tapered fitting, so I don't want to get them to tight and damage something. While I'm asking, should I use brush on thread sealer or tape?

 

[Kevin54]

Pipe dope is used by many on pipe fittings. Thread tape will also work but I like it mainly for smaller fittings. And you want them tight but not to the point where you are using two 36" pipe wrenches to horse them down. Just use good reason and get them good and snug. Look at it this way....if a person had two slip joint pliers and reasonable strength about them, you could get the joints tight enough. So an average person can use 2 14" pipe wrenchech and be just fine without using a lot of effort. But then again, if you have arms like Olive Oil, go fo the 36". It's hard to explain to someone how tight to tighten something without a torque spec on it and without seeing the physical size of someone. But then again I have seen some huge guys that couldn't tighten a 1/4-20 thread with a breaker bar and some small guys that could tighten lugnuts with their bare hands.

 

[kbs2244]

A plumber will hand tighten until "snug" and then continue only enough to line up the fitting for the direction of the next pice of pipe. The dope is the sealer making up for the less than "cranked to the bottom of the threads."
I like the brush on stuff. It just seems thicker, and therfore more "filling" than even multiple wraps of tape. I even have some of the old grey stuff that came in the little paint cans. I am not afriad to use it.
I have used blue Pemtex also. Mostly on the actual tools though.

 

[Major Ramifications]

Well, I've found that compressed air piping needs to be tighter than water supply piping. Probably because the air molecules are smaller and are under three times as much pressure as the water molecules.
In other words, tighter than snug but not so much that you are about to break something. There is a wide range in there. As long as it doesn't leak, you are all right.

Also, it would be nice of you to include a picture of your new aquisition.

 

[Joe B.]

I spent 5 years working for my Uncle's fire sprinkler business. We would always use tape and dope for water lines. We had experienced leaks when using just one but we never had a leak when we used both. I would use both if I were putting in a system but then; I have never worked with air lines.

Just be careful not to crack a fitting!