Which plumbing fittings to use?

[Isaac-1]

I am planning on doing a little HP air plumbing for my small compressor (Bauer Purus), adding a second fill whip, inline pressure gauge, needle valve bleed off for CO meter, maybe seperate filtration, etc. So I was wondering what do you recomend for hose fittings, etc, JIC, NPT, etc? I already know I will have to convert from BSP coming out of the Bauer filters, the question is what to use for the other plumbing, or mix and match.

thanks Ike

 

[pescador775]

I use AN (JIC) for just about everything. However, when running tubing a 37* flare tool is needed and they are not cheap.

 

[JBRES1]

I used 1/4" npt fittings and 1/4" and 3/8" 316 tube and fittings (swagelock)
From the compressor to the filter I ran a 5000 psi hose with 1/4" npt male connections, then the balance was hard piped with the 1/4" and 3/8" tube and fittings and valves.
Jim Breslin

 

[Hoosier]

I am also using 1/4" NPT mostly like Jim.

1/4" is easy to find and cheap compared to anyother sizes and kinds.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I am planning on doing a little HP air plumbing for my small compressor (Bauer Purus), adding a second fill whip, inline pressure gauge, needle valve bleed off for CO meter, maybe seperate filtration, etc. So I was wondering what do you recomend for hose fittings, etc, JIC, NPT, etc? I already know I will have to convert from BSP coming out of the Bauer filters, the question is what to use for the other plumbing, or mix and match.

thanks Ike

Swagelok has BSP to tube fittings. I like swagelok and 1/4 SS tube. To do neat job you will need a tube bender.

Tobin

 

[Surface Tension]

I wish I had the tools and skills to bend SS tubing, but those like me, 1/4" NPT is relatively cheap and available at any hydraulic supply shop.

 

[pescador775]

Bending 1/4 inch SS tube is relatively easy. Benders are available on EBay for a few bucks. The cheap ones do fine. SS tubing in small sizes can be bent on a mandrel which is a piece of pipe in my parlance. I did the after-cooler coils for my DIY compressors by bending tube that way. I don't use 1/4 inch NPT fittings on anything unless absolutely necessary. I prefer to drill small holes in high pressure stuff. Big, factory made compressors use 1/4 inch port fittings mostly, and fortunately this is simple to adapt to 1/4 inch JIC (AN-4). I prefer 1/8 inch pipe fittings/adapters whenever possible such as when making new stuff, and then only to adapt to a more convenient fitting such as the aforementioned AN-4 flare. For example, the final filter on my DIY compressor uses a paintball type stainless QD adapter which fits the 1/8 thread in the DIY filter. The tiny QD fitting available from paintball shops fits this adapter which are sold as a pair, and is just a pleasure to use. No tools to connect or disconnect the whip. If I do use a wrench it is usually to rotate an AN flare fitting which seals perfectly and disconnects easily, and can be used over and over with confidence. My feeling is that any pipe fitting should be regarded as permanent and anything after that should come apart with minimal effort and total reliability. The swage type compression fittings are OK for rigid tubing but I don't use them very often because they don't seem to go well with whips (flexible hose fitting). Bauer uses or used a ferulock type fitting on tubing. These stick sometimes requiring the connecting pipe to be sawed off. That can be an expensive problem. I found that greasing a new ferulock seems to help.