Air line couplings aaaaahhhhhh....

[alanambrose]

Hmmm,

I can't make sense of the apparent panoply of air line couplings. I have recently purchased a compressor and a tiny pencil grinder from Germany and also a Fogbuster kit from US (although sourced from Sorotec Germany). I need to get some kind of splitter and an oiler for the die grinder. I guess the compressor and die grinder have some kind of Euro fitting and the Fogbuster some kind of US fitting - none of the manufacturers specify which kind - they just seem to assume you'll know. Most of the UK-available stuff seems to be BSP, of course.

How do I make sense of this stuff ? :) - I've tried a bunch of reading and web browsing - all I'm finding is more connector types - which isn't helping any. For instance for 'Euro' connector, I find this:



- which is really not helping. Some advice?

TIA, Alan

[m_c]

The UK style you can find by search for PCL air connector, as it's probably the most commonly used.
Some people do prefer the Euro/German styles (I can't remember their proper names)

I will say if you do go PCL, buy genuine PCL, as there are a lot of cheap copies, that quite frankly are no where near as good, and will fail/ start leaking with little use.

In terms of fittings, nearly all air tool fittings will be some variation of BSP. 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2" depending on the tool. But it may also be described as G1/4, G3/8, or G1/2, which is just BSP with the inch bit dropped, and a G added to magically make it metric.

[routerdriver]

Once upon a time I worked in a building where each of the fiefdoms had their own preferred coupling for airlines.Not only was there PCL and Euro,a sizeable minority of the air tools had Broomwade couplings.Lots of us had convertors of one sort or other.

[Colin Barron]

Ring pcl they are in the UK, they have a technical dept. Screwfix stock PCL fittings

[magicniner]

Some advice?

TIA, Alan

Pick a locally available connector which you like and use it on all your air stuff, the later high flow PCL fittings are good.

[alanambrose]

Thanks for the advice. FYI, for anyone needing the same info, the Fogbuster, although US designed, has metric setscrews, euro couplings and 1/8th BSP threads - I'm not sure whether Sorotec are supplying a 'Europeanised' version.

Alan

[alanambrose]

For anyone playing along - here's most of the varieties of just the PCL range:



And I think I'm going to standardise here on PCL XFs as that's what the tools I have here have already.

Alan

[alanambrose]

Just to add a little bit of spice, whereas page 19 of PCL's catalogue (above) shows 'XF' and 'Euro' with distinct profiles ... PCL likes to call one range of their connectors 'XF-Euro' - go figure.

[Ollie78]

To add to the confusion some of the many fittings have cross compatibility as well.
I had a most confusing spreadsheet I found listing almost every combination.

I recently added a hardline air system and decided to make everything PCL XF quick connectors ( my kremlin sprayer requires the extra flow rate anyway) for simplicitys sake.

A quick note that coupling prices vary a great deal, one place might be cheaper on male 1/2 inch but more expensive for femele 1/4 inch no idea why.
Machine mart are quite expensive (but convenient) , also screwfix. I found cotswold engineering the cheapest overall for my total order.

Ollie

[alanambrose]

Ah thanks, I was also searching for some push fit connectors today for the 6mm tubing that comes with a fogbuster and found Cotswold had the ones I want.

Ollie, care to write a coupla sentences to describe your hardline? I think I may be headed that way at some point...

TIA, Alan