Thread: Air Compresor Fittings - correct setup?

Typically the compressor has a Female fitting, hoses a Male & Female and tools Male.

If you have a Male on the compressor, that means you have either a tap on it, or you're letting all the air drain out of it when you unplug the hose. Also by having a female on both ends of the hose means that the hose is always charged when it is disconnected from the compressor, not an ideal situation for those that don't know if they where to undo the hose clamp.

As suggested, female at the compressor as the inbuilt check valve preserves the reservoir capacity, male at the tool to match, and one male/one female on the hose. The hose female again uses the check valve to preserve reservoir air when a tool is disconnected.

If you have a system that works for you, and don't swap tools with others, there is no major penalty in going your own way.

You don't mention what tools you use, but many tools (other than spray gear and blower tools) need a source of in line lubrication. The oil used is very good at stuffing a finish job if it gets into spray equipment, on either the fluid or air side.

To avoid this I use one variety of fittings for tools and another for blowers and spray gear, with seperate hoses etc. Only common element is the compressor and reservoir.

Thanks for the advice provided - much appreciated.

I broke out the spanners last night and swapped one of the hose couplings for the compressor coupling to attain the correct setup. Luckily I wan't too far out in the original configuration, so an easy fix.

The idea on different couplings for different purposes is a good one, and will probably pursue it if I ever get an inline oiler or a dryer!

Cheers

Nitto fittings are common and tend to come on a lot of hoses and tools.
Nitto Australia Pty Ltd - Industrial Tools

The Nitto fittings have the biggest internal dimension allowing for more air flow.
The Quick-connect ones where you just push in are luxury.

I made an adapter hose that has one type of fitting on one end and a different on the other end so I can use my long hose on a mates compressor when I do stuff there.

A couple of other tips I've picked up:

1) don't put a quick connect directly onto a tool that vibrates a lot (scaler, rattle gun, etc). The vibration will either wear out the connector, or make it drop off altogether.
Instead, use a barbed fitting on the tool, then a 'tail' of air hose about a foot long, and the quick connector on this.

2) a T-piece (manifold) with one male and 2 female connectors means you can use two tools at the end of the hose without having to swap connectors back and forth. Just like a double-adaptor.

3) if you are worried about oil in your lines, use an in-line oiler with quick connectors, and just attach it immediately before the tool(s) which need oiling.

4) you'll find some interesting reading about enclosing noisy compressors in boxes by searching these forums.

5) you get what you pay for with connectors. The cheap and nasty ones leak and/or don't *quite* fit with other brands. I've gone with the Champion ones from Super Cheap Auto - they look nicely finished, don't leak, and go "snick!" which you click them together.

Cheers,
Andrew

Originally Posted by touchstone

G'day all,
I guess the reason for the question is that if I need to borrow or lend tools, I can have a reasonable degree of confidence that I won't have to replace fittings to make them match!

It's OK to borrow tools but haven't you heard that you . . . Never lend out your tools or your girlfriend . . .

Originally Posted by arose62

A couple of other tips I've picked up:

1) don't put a quick connect directly onto a tool that vibrates a lot (scaler, rattle gun, etc). The vibration will either wear out the connector, or make it drop off altogether.
Instead, use a barbed fitting on the tool, then a 'tail' of air hose about a foot long, and the quick connector on this.

2) a T-piece (manifold) with one male and 2 female connectors means you can use two tools at the end of the hose without having to swap connectors back and forth. Just like a double-adaptor.

3) if you are worried about oil in your lines, use an in-line oiler with quick connectors, and just attach it immediately before the tool(s) which need oiling.

4) you'll find some interesting reading about enclosing noisy compressors in boxes by searching these forums.

5) you get what you pay for with connectors. The cheap and nasty ones leak and/or don't *quite* fit with other brands. I've gone with the Champion ones from Super Cheap Auto - they look nicely finished, don't leak, and go "snick!" which you click them together.

Cheers,
Andrew

Touchstone read these tips again , espically about the oiler , other wise have a bottle of air tool oil by the compressor and put one or two drops directly into the air fitting on the tool every time you connect it to the air line and after every 1/4 hour of continious use, except for spray paint guns that is

Originally Posted by Bazzmate

It's OK to borrow tools but haven't you heard that you . . . Never lend out your tools or your girlfriend . . .

Does that mean it's ok to borrow girlfriends?

Yup - learnt the lesson the hard way on lending out tools - Farmboss came back with no oil in the fuel, but fuel in the oiler - couldn't believe it was still running!!!

Remind me again never to lend the missus out!

Plans to move the compressor outdoors - brother in law has sourced a 2.5cu.m receiver that I can hook up to the McMillan 16cfm. This should give enough air to pump up the kiddies bike tyres OK.

Good advice on the fittings Andrew - looks like I'll have to visit the toolshop for some more parts.

Once again - thanks all.

Hi all,

the answer has already been given a few times over and quite exquisitely, too, but i couldn't help myself wanting to have a go as well.

Compare an air pressure delivery system with a mains power delivery system, including extension cords and plugs and all. The wall socket is female and contains the power. The male plug taps it and transfers it to whatever is behind it. Exactly the same with air systems. The female plugs have automatic valves to prevent the pressure from escaping. The compressor has such a female plug, just like a mains wall socket. This is where it all starts. A mains power extension cord transfers the power from the wall as far as the female mains plug at the other end, and so does an extension air hose. So it too has a male plug at the front and a female plug at the back, just like an extension cord.
Air driven or air consuming tools (air drills, air torque wrenches, spray guns, dusting nozzles, etc.) all have male plugs. You stick the female plug of the hose on the male plug of the air tool and away you go.

A nice example are the Formula 1 pit crew wheels nut guns. They are laid out neatly on the tarmac on their proper spots, then the hoses come out (hanging from arms above the car) and the guns are plugged in. A crew consists of approx. 27 men, 4 of which are assigned to change tyres. Two men at the left of the car, two at the right. Like the arbour thread on a bench grinder, each car side has different thread directions for the wheel nuts. On the left side the nut fastens clockwise and comes loose counterclockwise. On the right side it's the other way around. So some costly mistakes were made when on several occasions the pit crew tyre changers got the air gun lever positions mixed up. To avoid more of such mistakes, the guns were since made in mirrored versions. The ones where CCW is "loose" and CW means "tight", were painted red and were to be used exclusively for the car's left side. The mirrored guns had levers behaving exactly the same for "loose" and "tight", but in this case they turned CW and CCW respectively for loosening and tightening. The mirrored guns were painted blue. That's why there are always red guns at the left side of the pit and blue guns at the right. Even the wheels nuts are painted accordingly.

Just a bit of trivia, but still a nice story. I'm fond of F1, especially Ferrari. With all this red, you can't miss the blue guns sticking out. At the pic's top rim you can just about see a few parts of the red guns.

Greetings from Holland!

gerhard

Gerhard,

Love the bit of triva in the blue and red guns.