Rapid air imstall

[spsullivan82]

I know this comes up as a question, but i thought I'd share what I have found works pretty well for me.

Back story is that I'm moving my compressor and that led to a few changes and upgrades. Ditching ½" Pex for ¾" rapid air is the biggest. I have 3 different "tools" I've been using to help get this stuff straightened out. One is a 12" section of 1" emt. Next size up is a 36" section of 1"pvc. Then there is this. It's 1" pvc held to 1½" angle iron with hose clamps. It's roughly 12' in length. No it doesn't give perfectly straight results, but it gets it close enough that condensation will still travel down the slope without a bend getting in the way. My experience in this project has been that simply lifting it to position is going to induce a bend under its own weight. This is light years straighter than even that bend.

 

[Citation]

Do we need to lecture you about using PVC pipe for compressed air!





Yes, I know you aren't using it to hold air pressure Seems like a clever way to make a straightener.

 

[larry_g]

Have you also considered running some hot water through the tube? That does a lot to relax the curl and if held straight while it cools it also helps.

lg

 

[Bad Habit]

I used a shorter piece of pipe, but it did need more massaging. It ended up pretty straight but still had to fight with it as I was putting it up. Ran it through the web of the trusses, problem with that was how long it was when feeding it in, the run that crossed parallel with a truss was the biggest pain. Did it by myself on an extension ladder at 12', so probably would have been cleaner and easier if I had some extra hands.

 

[Beerhippie]

Have you also considered running some hot water through the tube? That does a lot to relax the curl and if held straight while it cools it also helps.

lg

Rapidair line is PEX-AL-PEX. It takes some heat to relax the bend in the stiff aluminum layer--a little more than 212F/100C.

 

[Sno-Pro]

Do we need to lecture you about using PVC pipe for compressed air!





Yes, I know you aren't using it to hold air pressure Seems like a clever way to make a straightener.

Rapid air is px-al-px designed for compressed air

 

[Citation]

Rapid air is px-al-px designed for compressed air

That's why I put the small text at the bottom of the post

 

[finn]

Rapid Air is HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) with an aluminum core.

Pex is sort of a variant, but with more cross linking, so it’s not the same as the HDPE that Rapid Air and the clones use.

 

[Beerhippie]

Rapid Air is HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) with an aluminum core.

Pex is sort of a variant, but with more cross linking, so it’s not the same as the HDPE that Rapid Air and the clones use.

It claimed to be PEX-AL-PEX when I bought it a decade or so ago.

 

[dnschmidt]

Do we need to lecture you about using PVC pipe for compressed air!





Yes, I know you aren't using it to hold air pressure Seems like a clever way to make a straightener.

Not valid here. He is using the PVC ONLY to straighten the air line NOT as the airline.

 

[Citation]

Not valid here. He is using the PVC ONLY to straighten the air line NOT as the airline.

See post #7

 

[spsullivan82]

I put the roll out in the florida sun for 5 or 6 hours, and no change was noticed. So i gave up on heat. Yes I could have added more heat than just sitting in the sun, but with no change at all i didn't feel like i wanted to add the kind of heat i would need.

I thought about running ½EMT through the middle, but didn't want to chance scraping the inside and compromising my system.

Do we need to lecture you about using PVC pipe for compressed air!





Yes, I know you aren't using it to hold air pressure Seems like a clever way to make a straightener.

You should be more worried about the dangers of someone dumb enough to be trying to use angle iron for compressed air.

 

[Beerhippie]

I put the roll out in the florida sun for 5 or 6 hours, and no change was noticed. So i gave up on heat. Yes I could have added more heat than just sitting in the sun, but with no change at all i didn't feel like i wanted to add the kind of heat i would need.

I thought about running ½EMT through the middle, but didn't want to chance scraping the inside and compromising my system.

You should be more worried about the dangers of someone dumb enough to be trying to use angle iron for compressed air.

Once again, it has an aluminum layer in it--and not aluminum foil. Heat it enough to anneal the aluminum and the PEX or whatever will be long gone.

 

[Pontiac787]

Where I had a long straight run I ran the line inside lengths of PVC. The white PVC blends in with the wall and hides the small ripples in the blue line. It’s much straighter than than the Rapid Air line alone.

 

[finn]

I just bought the tool.

Straight enough now for my purposes.

Besides, I now have a tool to straighten coils of brake line tubing.

 

[spsullivan82]

I just bought the tool.

Straight enough now for my purposes.

Besides, I now have a tool to straighten coils of brake line tubing.

¾" PAP brake lines? That's just ludicrous

 

[finn]

¾" PAP brake lines? That's just ludicrous

3/16”

The tool works (supposedly) from 1” od down to 3/16”

The coiled aluminum core air line tubing is 3/4” id, and 1” od.

My brake line tubing is 3/16” Nicop or equivalent.

 

[FTG-05]

Rapid air is px-al-px designed for compressed air