peabe

ok, ive read all the complaints about PTC fittings, so just to be super safe im going with all brass fittings.

question is...how do these brass fittings connect to the airlines? i used to work on paintball guns and i totally understand how PTC fittings fit, cause cats had the option of going with steel braided or airline w/ptc.

so how do you connect the airlines to the brass fittings?!!? help please!

magicmanjk808

when you say brass, you mean compression fittings i'm assuming.

i kind of suck at explaining, but i'll try. ok, imagine the fitting, a brass sleeve and a brass nut... the brass nut will go on the airline followed by the sleeve. then, you put the airline into the appropriate hole in the fitting. the brass sleeve is now sandwiched between the fitting and the nut. tighten the nut, but do not overtighten it. then you are done. i'll see if i have a fitting lying around, then i'll do a pictoral.

peabe

oh ok. a pictorial would be great! is there any need for loctite? or is that only needed for the tank itself?

Lance

not loctite that you put on bolts so they dont back out, but loctite thread sealant and it should be used on all threaded fittings (tank, valves, and bags). A quality PTC is just as capable as a quality compression fitting....

rebelMan

i don't really have any close up pics of my fittings, but if u want i could get a pic. Majicman described them well. Anyhow, i have a mixture of brass compression fittings, and ALL brass PTC fittings (the plastic ones suck i hear). I would find where a Parker Store is close to you and buy your stuff from them. They carry all DOT fittings, compression and PTC DOT brake line fittings rated up to 1000 PSI. I haven't had any problems with them so far.

I'm going to switch out my compression fittings for all brass DOT fittings when i add my front struts on i think, i don't like having them mixed and the PTC's are easier to use.

And definitely use some sort of thread sealant on all your fittings. I use some stuff called Rectorseal from Home Depot, works pretty damn good ... no leaks so far. You only need to use the sealant on threads, you don't need anything on the ends of your airline where they connect to either PTC fittings or Compression fittings. Also for comp. fittings, you don't need to put thread sealant on the threads that the nut goes on that crush's the sleeve around your airline. At least to my knowledge u don't need to

peabe

oh. this is kinda off. but where do the water traps go again?

jct

goto a national pipe thread fitting store, they'll be more then happy to show you how its done/how it works

Lance

Quality plastic PTC's (smc and the like) are one of the easiest to use fittings. They actually have a higher crush rating then there brass counterparts. Any issue had with these is user error.

Cut line perfectly straight, Slide collar, insert line, slide collar, and pull the line outwards as hard as you can, line is now seated and just as reliable as any compression fitting.

--PEABE---

water trap goes between the compressor and tank

Spider13

I agree with this. Unless I was going to hardline or SS braid, I doubt I'd waste the time on compression fittings. When I first started playing with air i was really worried about PTC fittings. Me and my brother hung on airline that was attched with a PTC fitting and it never let loose. Besides if I damage a piece of airline now its a toolless repair, I carry a little bit of airline in my car and its a 5 minute swap if a wheel rubs a hole. With Compression fitting you can be SOL. You can't use the little brass compression things twice so you always need to have some extras. Also have to carry tools to do the repair.

RTon20s

I threw together a quick CAD drawing that may help.

peabe

thanks rton!

RTon20s

No problem. It is super rough and not quite right, but close enough to get an idea of how it works.

rebelMan

You are right, you would need extra sleeves and inserts. This is why i want to run only PTC fittings but i still wouldn't choose the plastic ones over the all brass ones. The plastic ones are easier to damage and can wear out after taking airline out and putting back in etc. The brass ones never wear out from what i'm told and it makes sense to me. I haven't really had the bags on that long to really choose one type of fitting over the other based on reliability, but so far i haven't had any problems with either type (comp. or PTC).

Nice pic RTon, it's good enough man.

TRDBox

parker store sells all the fittings to make a leak proof system
mine is leak proof so far
i used liquid teflon sealant on all except where the s/s line bolt on
NO sealant there it is a self seal fitting

RTon20s

What brand stainless braided line are you running TRDbox?

Or did you just have a local shop create all of the lines for you?

peabe

hmmm...maybe ill look more into PTC fittings...how do i find a parker store?

anyone have a link to a list of shops?

rebelMan

http://www.parker.com/distloc/english/indexv4.asp

TRDBox

RT
i had them all made
took the guy at parker all of 20min to do