Is there a Plumber in the Room (how to hook up an air fitting??)

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greybeard

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One thing not mentioned about copper piping is that water plumbing is normally sweat-soldered using 50/50 tin-lead. Industrially, copper tubing for compressed air joined with a low-melting braze alloy. The reason is that lead-tin solder is not good for cyclic stress, and there is a lot more stored energy in a line full of compressed air than there is in a line full of domestic water. (For different reasons, PVC pipe is also a bad idea for compressed air.)

That having been said, if you keep the line pressure down and essentially all of the pipe is inside the wall, you are unlikely to have any dramatic experiences with the setup. The simplest transition from rigid or flexible copper to pipe threads at point of use is the compression style with ferrules, which avoids the solder/braze issue entirely.

From a safety standpoint, then, you are probably all right. However: for photographic use, the air has to be really clean, and condensation in the supply line will dictate a point-of-use filter/regulator assembly. Expansion and cooling will deposit water (and possibly also oil) in the line, and the only practical place to take it out is just before use. By the time you have priced the copper line, fittings, and filter/regulator, you may find that a small oilless "pancake" compressor complete with regulator and filter will actually be cheaper, as well as portable.
 

Davesw

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copper line for compressed air

Hmmmm... these guys seem to think it's not such a bad idea... they seem to know what they're talking about too...! Maybe I can learn something here. Nothing on air line filters though...

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/showthread.php?t=123&highlight=shop+air+design+guide

If you want to use the existing copper and be on the safe side, put the regulator right after the compressor and only send 10 PSI up the copper line in to the DR. standark K and L type copper lines carry 80 to 100 PSI water pressure all the time but 80 PSI of air has a lot more energy stored in the line should a failure happen.
 

glbeas

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nothing showed up on that link... what term should i search for... or is there a product id number..?

Just got to homedepot.com and go looking in the plumbing pages for copper fittings. It will be obvious from the apearance what they are for.
 

Photo Engineer

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Going back to greybeard's post, once you consider all of the cost and labor, think about the tank of Nitrogen again. It starts to look more and more attractive, doesn't it?

PE
 
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Sparky

Sparky

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Going back to greybeard's post, once you consider all of the cost and labor, think about the tank of Nitrogen again. It starts to look more and more attractive, doesn't it?

PE

Not really actually... I'm not too worried about the naysayers... besides it's a bit impractical to operate air tools from a tank of nitrogen too... which is a MUST for me. That's why I built the whole line in the first place. One of the reasons anyway. I've also used a few 'pro' darkrooms that had a similar setup... and it's always been terrific...
 
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Sparky

Sparky

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If you want to use the existing copper and be on the safe side, put the regulator right after the compressor and only send 10 PSI up the copper line in to the DR. standark K and L type copper lines carry 80 to 100 PSI water pressure all the time but 80 PSI of air has a lot more energy stored in the line should a failure happen.

The line's embedded in a birch plywood box running the length of the wall. It's also got an inch or so of pipe insulation on it- all pressure fit into the box... so I'm not too worried about catastrophic failure should it happen. The pipe isn't really exposed anywhere.
 
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