Newell Gurus

hi all,

i know this question seems to give a number of opinions and such, but i thought i would ask for your experiences.

i will be running a total of about 200 foot of air lines in my new shop. i will have a compressor capable of 175psi.

i have studied this and researched on garage journal forum (lotssss of opinions there).

there are a few common materials used.

1. PVC pipe (btw, i am not interested in using this. i know many have with good luck, but i will not be using it)

2. Threaded black pipe (seems to be the what alot of industrial places use)

3. galvanized threaded pipe (not as common)

4. copper (type K, L or M)

5. stainless

6. aluminum

7. different types of Pex.

8. specialized plastic airlines made for compressed air

so.....i do not want to use threaded metal piping so 1 and 2 are out. stainless and aluminum are out, no PVC, pex i am leary about, specialized plastic airlines are expensive and not common, so that pretty much leaves copper in my mind.

even at the highest temperatures, the copper pipe handbook has type M able to hold well over 200psi,

i am assuming the trunk line should be 3/4" and then 1/2" drops off of it.

so, any other opinions and or things i have missed?

the price difference between type K, L and M is pretty large. I will probably use type L or M.

thoughts?

thanks

tom

It's a good idea to loop around the whole work area with the air line. That allows 1/2" pipe to flow as well as 3/4" would. "T" off of the loop and run 3/4 to the compressor. Run a drop pipe at each coupler to catch any moisture that might get through the line.

A friend of mine just built a new mechanics shop and did the whole thing with PVC.. It works great for them

Look here...

http://www.rapidairproducts.com/

Tom, If you use copper use L. Anytime I plumb in copper I use the middle gauge L. K would be over kill.

Tom sorry I don't know what happen here.

Jeff Rowe at East Tennessee Luxury Coach ran copper. It looks and works great! Russ

I will probably do copper.

now to decide if i need to run 3/4" as the trunk and 1/2" down? 3/4" is ALOT more money

tom