“Rust” Inside Black Iron Compressor Piping
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Hey Guys,
I am adding about 6′ to my air compressor piping system and couldnt help to notice that the inside of the pipes (even newly purchased) had a surface of “rust”. I can stick my finger inside the pipe and rub the “red” off on my finger. Now it is not the type of rust that flakes off. It is mostly from the reaction from the moisture within the lines as it cools. I am just curious if this is normal. I was not sure if it was a probable cause of my comtamination issue. I have a water/oil dryer at the end of the piping and the other side of the dryer is hooked up with a hose, not a pipe. Not sure if this is a common characteristic of black iron piping. For reference, the piping is 3/4” and I have about 26 feet before it hits the air dryer with two valve drop off lines.
ya its sorta common an i wouldnt worry 2 much about it as long as ya have a filter on it :cheer:
Use copper. Easy to use and won’t rust like black iron. :teach
Only use schedule K or L
LOL well I sort of have the whole system hooked up with black iron, so if i shouldnt have to worry about then that sounds good to me!
Good point :blink:
We have all copper 3/4 pipe here at the shop, it wasnt cheap, but wont have to worry about rust issues.. And its easy to change if you want, just cut and solder.
the only advantage to using metal is it cools the air, other than that PVC is great. if you use sch 40 PVC it can shatter if you hit it – a long run of plastic pipe will still get very cold. I’m planning on 1″ sch 80 PVC in my new shop. no contamination issues.
I also have multiple tanks to cool the air and drop out the water. helps a lot
I ran 1 1/2 copper for my main pipe with 3/4 drops. little overkill :blink: but addin bier pipe helps on your air storage and the compressor doesnt have to cycle as much
geez an mine is all black iron waterpipe with some galvanized pipe mixed in :blush: :blush: got over 150 foot of it an never had a problem :cheer:
There isn’t a PVC that is OSHA approved for airlines. Will it work? If OSHA came in and knew what to look for they could have an issue.
A place I worked years ago the owner ran PVC trying to save a buck. He used shedule 80 and in a year it already went bad. I was painting a car and the main airline in the shop shattered. Luckily nobody got hurt but there was plastic pieces everywhere.
I have heard of people doing it with no problems, but I never would. Ding has the right idea of the 1 1/2 pipe for air srorage and cooling.
I didn’t realize the PVC wasn’t OSHA approved. it’s rated for 300 psi, and with properly primed and glued joints I’ve never had a problem with it. my last shop was sch 40. leaked in 1 spot for quite a while, but I was too lazy to fix it…
My mechanic uncle has 1″ sch 40 for his whole shop and never had issues. Us one man shops aren’t worried as much about OSHA…
If you use PVC I would box it off so when it blows no one gets hurt
[b]ding wrote:[/b]
[quote]I ran 1 1/2 copper for my main pipe with 3/4 drops. little overkill :blink: but addin bier pipe helps on your air storage and the compressor doesnt have to cycle as much[/quote]I thought and am pretty sure Black pipe was for gas such as Natural gas or Propane and regular Galvanized was for water, Either way Black pipe works good for me too. 😛
I’m running 1 inch all over the shop and half inch taps off that.Best way – TIG welded stainless! run lines in the wall behind the sheetrock and stub out where you need air!
[b]bobwires wrote:[/b]
[quote]Best way – TIG welded stainless! run lines in the wall behind the sheetrock and stub out where you need air![/quote]
you sic ba$turd :wak :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl
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