Price of copper tubing!

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Ya look at the price of everything, no more $15.00 per hour min. wage now we have to make it $25.00 per hour.
 
DrCharles said:
So I'm old-fashioned. Sue me :p
I don't use black pipe because I don't want flecks of rust traveling through the system; PVC is a shrapnel bomb waiting to happen.
What would you use in your "modern" shop?
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Copper is great. It cools the air quickly so it turns the water vapor back to water so you can filter it out and it's super clean. I'll be using it in my shop!
 
My son just got a quote for work on his double garage. Insulate,vapour barrier and sheet with aspenite. $5700. outside house wrap and metal siding. 7500. Aparrently contractor labour has gone up too. Bet his workers get paid typical crap wages though.


sheet of aspenite 15 years ago was $8/sheet. Today its $32.
I bought a couple sheets last year,$15.
 
Tooljunkie said:
My son just got a quote for work on his double garage. Insulate,vapour barrier and sheet with aspenite. $5700. outside house wrap and metal siding. 7500. Aparrently contractor labour has gone up too. Bet his workers get paid typical crap wages though.


sheet of aspenite 15 years ago was $8/sheet. Today its $32.
I bought a couple sheets last year,$15.
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Since you used labour instead of labor am I correct for assumed the “$” was Canadian maple bucks and not American freedom dollars?
 
I've been wanting to run copper lines in my garage for my compressor. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.
I was all ready to go and plumb it, but I have a cousin in industrial maintenance that at the time said to wait, the price of copper was coming down at the time and was really gonna plummet. Wait till it does.well, still waiting.
My compressor is a 5hp 80 gallon 2 stage upright, cuts off at 175 psi. I figured I would run up the wall from the compressor along the ceiling, down the 36' (long) side, then across 15' above the garage door to the center, and back down the center pier between the two overhead doors/ also across the back to center / with drops at front, back, 1 approx center along the long side wall, and 1 in the front corner for the blast cabinet.
I'm also looking for a deal on a refrigerated air drier at a cheap price, would be the 1st thing the air would pass thru once it leaves the air tank. I found a couple at an industrial supply place (used) for a decent price, but the cfm rating is about 60% of my compressors rated output so I'm still looking.
Related; what's the difference between cfm and scfm ratings? My unit is rated 17.some (almost 18) cfm at 175 psi. The drier I found is rated for 10 SCFM.
 
Google is your friend! :p
From Campbell Hausfeld's website:

To calculate scfm, the air is expanded to a standard condition to take into account the variables of pressure, temperature and humidity: 14.7 psia (0 psig), 68 degrees Fahrenheit at 36 percent relative humidity. As a result, scfm values are larger. Campbell Hausfeld typically uses cfm values when talking about air compressors and scfm values when talking about air tools.
 
So then cfm and scfm are different from each other?
 
I guess it is, just looked it up, scfm appears more accurate being at a specific temp and humidity.
 
volaredon said:
I've been wanting to run copper lines in my garage for my compressor. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.
I was all ready to go and plumb it, but I have a cousin in industrial maintenance that at the time said to wait, the price of copper was coming down at the time and was really gonna plummet. Wait till it does.well, still waiting.
My compressor is a 5hp 80 gallon 2 stage upright, cuts off at 175 psi. I figured I would run up the wall from the compressor along the ceiling, down the 36' (long) side, then across 15' above the garage door to the center, and back down the center pier between the two overhead doors/ also across the back to center / with drops at front, back, 1 approx center along the long side wall, and 1 in the front corner for the blast cabinet.
I'm also looking for a deal on a refrigerated air drier at a cheap price, would be the 1st thing the air would pass thru once it leaves the air tank. I found a couple at an industrial supply place (used) for a decent price, but the cfm rating is about 60% of my compressors rated output so I'm still looking.
Related; what's the difference between cfm and scfm ratings? My unit is rated 17.some (almost 18) cfm at 175 psi. The drier I found is rated for 10 SCFM.
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You should braze the lines. If you have a tig welder you could practice some welding on them if you have the time.
 
I was just gonna sweat solder them like I do when I do water lines. I had a hotdog twin tank unit that the tanks sprung pinhole leaks, so I bought a dead oil-less pile o'crap and put my gas engine and good pump onto that tank, and when I did that tank swap that was all I did, and several years later that hybrid compressor still works fine, no leaks and it gets used ALOT. Though that is a single stage pump, where my garage compressor is a 2 stage that has higher pressure. I could regulate the 2 stage down a bit right out of the tank, what would sweat soldered copper tube be safe to, PSI wise? I can weld well enough but never done TIG. I can also braze sheet metal with oxyfuel pretty decently, but I've never brazed copper.
 
You should braze them because of the higher pressure. If you can sweat you can braze. Just use plenty of flux. Practice on some small stuff.
 
Yeah I have brazed plenty of sheet metal (steel) over the years, none recently though. Never tried to braze any other type of metal.
I know that with copper there is a type k,L and M kind of like pvc or steel with the different schedules, (40, 80, 120) for different pressure ratings, but are there different fittings L,T, cross, etc for higher pressure copper?
 
You know I've looked for this info many times but never came up with anything. Maybe there's a plumber out there that can help both of us.
 
volaredon said:
Yeah I have brazed plenty of sheet metal (steel) over the years, none recently though. Never tried to braze any other type of metal.
I know that with copper there is a type k,L and M kind of like pvc or steel with the different schedules, (40, 80, 120) for different pressure ratings, but are there different fittings L,T, cross, etc for higher pressure copper?
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The OD on K, L and M are all the same. It's the ID that gets slightly smaller with the thicker wall. Don't use the M, it's about as thick as tinfoil.
I haven't seen any thick-wall fittings but then I didn't worry about it. The "normal" plumbing and big-box store fittings are fine!
I have run my (soldered) 1" type L system at 140 psi for years with no problems.
 
DrCharles said:
The OD on K, L and M are all the same. It's the ID that gets slightly smaller with the thicker wall. Don't use the M, it's about as thick as tinfoil.
I haven't seen any thick-wall fittings but then I didn't worry about it. The "normal" plumbing and big-box store fittings are fine!
I have run my (soldered) 1" type L system at 140 psi for years with no problems.
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I too have run normal fittings but I was just curious if they made something heavy wall.
 
^^^^I read above of concerns for PVC but I have used the heavy stuff in 2 shops over the years. No problem maybe just lucky! Hopefully I will build a place to work this winter.
 
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