Do a search and you'll find lots of opinions about compressed air systems. This system is pretty simple, and all copper. I looked into some pre-made plastic or aluminum systems; they look cool but to accomplish what I wanted I was going to have to buy a bunch of extra fittings and accessories. At that point, I figured if I'm piecing fittings together anyway I might as well just piece it all together.
The biggest advantages of copper in my opinion is that it looks badass and won't corrode from moisture in the air like iron pipe does. The copper tube itself isn't exactly cheap, but neither are the pre-made kits that inevitably come with almost all the fittings you needed...This way I get exactly what I want and don't end up buying a pile of extra parts just to make the kit work for my application. It's more work to assemble because all the joints need to be soldered (as opposed to compression fittings), but that was the fun part. My shop is pretty small so in the end this copper system was actually pretty cheap.
Lastly, I know about loop systems. If the pipe is arranged in a loop around the whole shop there is less pressure drop because the air can travel in two paths to any location. Russell Makes is a one man show. I'm not worried about pressure drop because I can only be in one place at a time. I guess the CNC mill could be using air to do a tool change while I am using my blow gun at the lathe but that won't cause a problem with my system. Running the pipe the way I did used a lot less pipe and saved me money.
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6 окт 2024
