PVC air line

The oil has always been a concern in my mind, too. I think it speaks volumes about the wisdom of not using PVC, a decision I'm still wrestling with even though none of my lines are exposed (all terminate in black iron pipe) and are imbedded in concrete or underground almost 100%. I also don't discount the effects of ultra-violet and other light sources in the long term.

Harold

Don't forget your parachute! Gerry :-)} London, Canada

This reminds me of a rather weird family story. My father was a mechanical/thermodynamic engineer who did lots of work aerospace and semiconductors. A crystal growing/cutting operation he worked at for a while had new air lines run throughout the building, mostly along the ceiling. Soldered copper.

Well, the plumber who ran the stuff either didn't have a sense of direction or was a little sloshed. The lines were zig-zagging all over the place. Now, my father also happened to be mildy obsessive-compulsive. I remember him telling me how he spent all this time (a lot of it on his personal time) on a huge ladder resoldering pipes and relocating hangers until everything was straight as an arrow.

GTO(John)

Remember the sectional shut-offs, so they can throw a ball valve to work on one area without turning off the air to the whole business.

And a tee and plug is always better than a coupling or elbow, because if they want to extend the mainline or tap off a new drop, you only have to pop the plug and keep going. No disassembly of existing piping.

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Of course. All in the design. I, like you , have done this before. But its great to mention it. Thanks!

Gunnner

The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I now hope to hear about a catastrophic failure of copper air plumbing! Air lines should be black pipe! My favorite is still the guy that used lengths of 6" pvc under his mobile home as an air tank. They never did find all the debris.

"loyalty" and "duty."

You may possibly

"Tom Gardner" wrote in news:zjsUb.173$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr28.news.prodigy.com:

Why not Galvanized pipe?

The galvanizing is prone to flaking off, and clogging small passages in the equipment.

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

I don't believe you ever will hear of it.

Lane

Spray the bottom step of that ladder with day-glow orange paint. It helps keep you from thinking the *second* step is the bottom one...Works for me...

And a pair of these might be in order too!

Jeff (Who could have used them a year ago when he slipped on "black ice" in his own driveway...)

If you want to really freak yourself out sometime, grab the ASTM spec for the Sched 40 common PVC and ASME 31.3 ( I think this is the correct section ) and run the pressure limitations, plugging in the values for the PVC......I will tell you that the working pressure limits at 70 deg F are in the single digits......

Craig C. snipped-for-privacy@ev1.net

Galvanized tends to occasionally send flakes of galv down stream. If your air users are simply spray nozzles..its not bad..but sooner or later a chunk of galv will wind up inside an orfice, etc. In a CNC shop, this is very bad juju when the stuff settles inside the shuttle of a $300 solenoid.

The first thing I put in the cart when we went pipe shopping, was a nice big bottle of teflon thread Dope. Teflon tape can do the same thing as a chunk of Galv, so I wont use it either on such installations.

Gunner

The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long

Black pipe presents its own problems, although not usually fatal ones. I reused some in my previous installation and kicked my butt. It was the source of an endless supply of fine rust particles. I'm convinced that copper is the way to go.

Harold

I suppose that since I do the same thing, even to the choice of soldered copper pipe for air lines, I must be mildly obsessive-compulsive too! :-)

For me, sloppy wormanship is the trademark of a common hack, rather than that of either a professional or a first rate craftsman who won't accept a lack of precision in anything, including his tools.

Harry C.

I'd like to point out that the original tradesman might have been obsessive-compulsive about "wasting" materials.

I read a story about the WWII Oak Ridge gaseous diffusion plant and how all the piping had to be nickel-plated at vast expense. The project director decreed that all piping would go point-to-point rather than routed with 90 degree bends.

I suggest holding your breath while waiting. And waiting, and waiting, and not finding any catastrophic failures of copper pipe. Sure, if you let it corrode enough, it will fail, not usually in a very exciting manner, and easily fixed by replacing the failed section, but the same is true of black pipe. There is nothing to suggest that black pipe is superior to copper, and rust to suggest that it is inferior.

Or he may have been applying a good solution to thermal expansion/contraction which does not involve the U-bend needed in a long straight run of pipe.

My father died recently so I can't ask him, but the wiggly air lines weren't intentional. It was things like straight runs of pipe that meandered around, and other poorly-done work. He had a thing about lining things up. Didn't have to add any pipe, just smoothed out what was there. Dad was the ultimate material conserver so he wouldn't have undone anything effecient.

GTO(John)

Jim, Gunner, & Guys, Makes perfect sense now. Thanks for clarifying. How about Copper? Marty

Gunner wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com: