Rapid-Air


NHSchreiner

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My name is Alfred, I own/run a one person woodworking shop in Manchester,NH. I have recently upgraded from a portable compressor to a 60 gallon unit. I rent shop space and did not want to invest in a piping system that was too, expensive. My question is this. Does anyone have experience with installing the Rapid-Air piping system for compressors? I have just purchased their system and would like to avoid any issues down the road.

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I've seen that system and thought it looked pretty cool for a quick setup. You'll have to report back how the install went and how you like it.

As an aside, a neighbor used to rebuild cars and hotrods. Naturally, he used a lot of compressed air for grinders, sanders, etc. He had two huge compressors. His shop was piped with PVC and I was shocked. He said it is rated up to 500 psi, far more than he generates. It was there for years getting heavy use 2-3 days a week and honestly dry Arizona air/heat is usually murder on glue. Seems like that would be pretty inexpensive for part of your piping. Plus super trivial to add branches.

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Paul, Thanks for your interest. I did hear folks were using PVC. The draw back to using PVC is, even at 150psi max if you hit the PVC pipe hard enough (lord knows I have repaired my share of self inflicted wood damage around my shop)the PVC shatters into sharp pieces flying shrapnel around the shop.

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I purchased the Rapidair kit as well during a sale at one of our local suppliers last month. I plan to put it into my shop in a month or so (too much else is happening at the moment). I did do a small test with my compressor and some ultra short runs (a couple of feet) between the joints, connectors etc. It was a piece of cake to put together. My brad nailer, palm nailer, and air hammer all performed as expected AND there were no leaks. You should have no problems at all. It simply is brilliant.

Let me know how it goes for your install.

Cheers

John

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Johnny,

I plan on installing a large loop around my shop with drops at various locations. I hope this will provide even pressure at all drops. My shop is in a 1843 warehouse building with many columns and beams. I too, have a lot on my plate. I'll post some more info and possibly pictures as I go.

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The pressure should be just fine, in fact, the space in tubing adds more air volume essentially like a long skinny extra tank so you will have even more volume than just your tank's basic volume. Unless you are running multiple sanders, air hammers and the like at the same time you should be just fine. Don't forget the water drain valves in a few spots.

John

Johnny,

I plan on installing a large loop around my shop with drops at various locations. I hope this will provide even pressure at all drops. My shop is in a 1843 warehouse building with many columns and beams. I too, have a lot on my plate. I'll post some more info and possibly pictures as I go.

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Here are some pictures of the install Rapid-Air compressor lines I just installed in my shop. Most of the tubing was supported by suspended ceiling wire I had lying around in the shop. I attached the tubing with zip ties every 18". The system comes complete with moisture drains. The entire system of 100' of tubing,manifold and 4 vertical drops took about 5 hours to install. Installation of additional drops will take about 10 minutes. Now all I need is my electrician to wire up the compressor. Guess which will take longer.

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