Making an air manifold from aluminum block

I made a manifold the quick and dirty way. 1" iron pipe, capped at both ends, drilled and tapped along the length. 1/4" pipe fittings. I avoided the seam. Sees 150 psi regularly, no problems after a year. A nice chunk of seamless pipe with a thicker wall would be perfect if you could scrounge it for free. Just not pretty, and probably not at all tolerant of side-loading the fittings.

--FWIW I found some nice ready to go manifolds from, maybe, HF or MSC a while back. They were very cheap, maybe $8.- apiece, anodized aluminum. Will supply more details when I go out to the shop and look at it again.

Ed, thanks, but I pretty much resolved to make my own.

I want to have three types of air: regular 90 psi regulated (for most things like inflating stuff, blow guns and basement), 90 psi dried (for plasma), and 90 psi oiled (for air tools).

I can easily do it, I think, with one multiple manifold made with a hex bar or a square bar, appropriately drilled.

I will make an "air panel", which would be a board with pressure regulator, oiler, and manifold. It will be mounted next to the compressor. The dryer stands above the compressor on a little shelf.

Indeed. Had another bit of tape foul up a very small solenoid on a customers machine last week. Shuttle would work, didnt have a replacement, so took it apart..and found a sliver of tape.

I use pipe dope now exclusivly when doing any air line work.

Gunner

"If thy pride is sorely vexed when others disparage your offering, be as lamb's wool is to cold rain and the Gore-tex of Odin's raiment is to gullshit in the gale, for thy angst shall vex them not at all. Yea, they shall scorn thee all the more. Rejoice in sharing what you have to share without expectation of adoration, knowing that sharing your treasure does not diminish your treasure but enriches it."

- Onni 1:33

Ahh, another "make sure Iggy knows the finer points" moment. ;-P

If you are going to have oiled air, make sure to buy a separate set of air hoses for use with it - preferably with a contrasting color outer sheath, and mark them clearly.

To be really safe, use a totally different size or style of quick- connects for oiled air that doesn't mate with the others in your shop, like the old super long stem ARO.

If you are painting it doesn't matter if you use un-oiled air if the inside of the hose has oil all over it from the last few uses on the oiled side. You'll still end up with fish-eyes in the paint from the oil in the hose, doesn't take much oil carry-over to ruin a finish.

And I suspect equally strange reactions could happen with oiled air and a plasma cutter.

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always appreciated.

Yes.

I think that for now, I have three main uses of air: inflating stuff, air tools, and blowguns.

Soon I will have more uses, such as plasma.

I will have a separate hose for the plasma cutter to use dry air only.

I do not yet paint anything with compressed air. When I start doing that, I will use different hose. For the rest, such as blowguns, tools and inflating, I think that I can use one hose for all of them (and switch air sources)

Oh..it does..it does indeed.

Gunner

"If thy pride is sorely vexed when others disparage your offering, be as lamb's wool is to cold rain and the Gore-tex of Odin's raiment is to gullshit in the gale, for thy angst shall vex them not at all. Yea, they shall scorn thee all the more. Rejoice in sharing what you have to share without expectation of adoration, knowing that sharing your treasure does not diminish your treasure but enriches it."

- Onni 1:33

On Tue, 04 Jul 2006 17:05:39 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus5009 quickly quoth:

Bruce is right. That's a bad habit to get into, Ig. I'd separate the oiler from the other hoses if I were you. It's too easy to forget otherwise, and the first bad paint job you do you'll realize how cheap a separate hose was.

Better yet, put a mobile FRL at the end of a hose with a separate shorter hose for the HVLP paint gun. Then you couldn't physically mix them up. You'd be plugging into the QD at the FRL.

-- Sex is Evil, Evil is Sin, Sin is Forgiven. Gee, ain't religion GREAT?

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I was making the comment based on general principles of what could happen if someone mixed long-chain hydrocarbon as a mist in compressed air, and added a high voltage as an ignition source - but that sounds suspiciously like it was from a DAMHIKT moment. Okay, dish.

So how long was the gout of smoky orange flame coming out the end of the plasma torch?

And was it a total surprise, or were the words "Here, Hold my beer and watch this!" uttered first?

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About 6 inches

Total surprise to everyone involved. Lots of head scratching until I suggested that they use a new air hose..one that hadnt daily had a few drops of air tool oil spritzed into it..for years. They had to clean all the consumable in carby cleaner too. They would cut along and a drop of oil would condense and it would go BANG and flare for a couple seconds.

Friends of mine, who build stock cars. Got their new (used) hip slick and cool somewhat elderly Snap-on (oooooww!) rebaged Century....plasma cutter.

Sigh..I still need to get my PCM-100 up and running one of these days...sigh

Gunner

"If thy pride is sorely vexed when others disparage your offering, be as lamb's wool is to cold rain and the Gore-tex of Odin's raiment is to gullshit in the gale, for thy angst shall vex them not at all. Yea, they shall scorn thee all the more. Rejoice in sharing what you have to share without expectation of adoration, knowing that sharing your treasure does not diminish your treasure but enriches it."

- Onni 1:33

I have wrapped up the manifold assembly.

- regular air

- dried/more pressure regulated air that has a little filter at the endpoint (for plasma torch)

- Lubricated air.

(there is also an unused compartment, that I will maybe use for vacuum)

I will put it on the wall maybe today or tomorrow.

Bruce's point regarding a separate fitting for dry air is well taken, I have not yet done it but will someday.