Cleaning house, housekeeping and rearranging!

You may have noticed several items for sale from my shop the last few days. I've been going through a major overhaul in the shop. I've installed my new compressor complete with automatic drain, oil/water separator and filter. I just installed 170' of clamp together metal duct to all major machines including two new hoods for my Powermatic 3520 c lathe where I do most of the finish sanding of my bowls. All of that goes to a now elevated Grizzly 5hp cyclone with a 4' cube dust container on big casters. I empty it with the tractor. I'm building a new wall in the bowl shop with general ventilation so dust doesn't settle everywhere in the shop. I've sorted i don't know how many containers of bolts, nuts, washers, screws and countless misc. items from my 50 year collection into new clear storage containers and built shelves to store them on. The next big project is compressed air piping throughout the shop. I bought the copper several years ago with all the fittings but haven't taken on the project to install it.

For the last 2 1/2 years, since my retirement at 68 3/4, I've been able to work in the shop 7 days a week. It's something I've been looking forward to for 10 years. Every day is a holiday.

I will post pics in the coming days of the "new shop".
 

Bear Republic

Steve
Corporate Member
You will definitely have to be on the next shop crawl. When you had us up there for the class, the new space was full of potential.
 

junquecol

Bruce
Senior User
For soldiering your copper pipe, get some LACO brand flux. It's the best of the best. You may have to visit your local plumbing supply house to find it, but worth the trip.
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Steve, the Flux you probably will want is Zinc chloride One of the Laco is that, the other type is more corrosive.
There is another way to do piping and is what almost all our project are assembled with. and that are swaged fittings, no soldering. Propress type is the name, though there are many companies making these. The tool to compress them can be bought on Amazon about a 100 bucks. When I was lic plumber (before electricity) these things didn't exist, now all my commercial project are done with these almost no soldering is done. Anyway, Another way to do it. If you are interested pm me and I can provide info on it.


Thanks Bruce. I got some flux but I'll have to see what kind it is. I only want to do it once!
Thanks for the suggestion.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
I didn't know copper pipe was strong enough for air pressure? I have seen several industrial accidents where pipe blew apart under air pressure. We had a stainless steel pipe fail just a few weeks ago. it blew a big steel table over ten feet across the floor. The good thing was nobody was standing there at the time.
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Mike - almost all compressed medical gases in Hospitals is schedule L or sometimes sch. k copper. When it comes out of the wall they sleeve it with a chrome tube to make it look clean and to make cleaning easier.

I didn't know copper pipe was strong enough for air pressure? I have seen several industrial accidents where pipe blew apart under air pressure. We had a stainless steel pipe fail just a few weeks ago. it blew a big steel table over ten feet across the floor. The good thing was nobody was standing there at the time.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
Mike - almost all compressed medical gases in Hospitals is schedule L or sometimes sch. k copper. When it comes out of the wall they sleeve it with a chrome tube to make it look clean and to make cleaning easier.
But that is all low pressure gas, not 200psi and over.
 

pcooper

Phillip Cooper
Corporate Member
My short search online revealed that copper is the most preferred for compressed air, withstands moisture without corrosion best, able to handle heat, and a few other things, but they did say use type L which has a rating of 440 lb. If soldered it doesn't reduce the pressure rating, if brazed it goes down to just under 300 lb. I've thought several times about moving to copper, but the expense is holding me back for now.
 

Mike Davis

Mike
Corporate Member
My short search online revealed that copper is the most preferred for compressed air, withstands moisture without corrosion best, able to handle heat, and a few other things, but they did say use type L which has a rating of 440 lb. If soldered it doesn't reduce the pressure rating, if brazed it goes down to just under 300 lb. I've thought several times about moving to copper, but the expense is holding me back for now.
So, what is type L? not the common water pipe?
 

pcooper

Phillip Cooper
Corporate Member
From what I read it has to do with wall thickness. The farther down the alphabet the thinner the walls are. K is thicker than L, L is thicker than M. I figure common water pipe to be L as the use description I found said internal plumbing and some HVAC work.
 

cyclopentadiene

Update your profile with your name
User
Our labs have house compressed air and it all uses steel. We also pipe helium, nitrogen and high purity compressed air through copper. As mike indicated the pressure is regulated at the tanks to about 60 psi. We also use hydrogen but do not plumb it overhead as a leak could go undetected and become an explosion hazard. The tanks are maintained next to the equipment and plumbed with small copper tubing 1/8”. The instruments have alarms that go off if the hydrogen pressure drops in the event of a leak. Compressed air in the factory uses steel as well.
the question is for home use if you are not leaving the system under pressure 24/7, do you need steel? I only have a rubber hose connected to my compressor but it rarely runs Over 10 minutes and I shut it off and drain the tank
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Pipe under 1" Schedule L is 420 psi max operating and Schedule K " is 550 max operating pressure.
The limiter on copper is the fittings, you have to buy the higher psi fittings, the home depot versions are a max of 300. Additionally, if you go over 150 psi, then all should be silver soldered, regular bi-metal solder can/will fail when going over 150-200 psi.

But that is all low pressure gas, not 200psi and over.
 

junquecol

Bruce
Senior User
R 410-A has a working pressure of a little over 400 psi, and it's in copper. Fittings are either mechanical, or silver brazed.
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Yup 3/8-1/2 have a a 600 psi + rating. the critical thing is the solder and fittings.


R 410-A has a working pressure of a little over 400 psi, and it's in copper. Fittings are either mechanical, or silver brazed.
 

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