Air compressor fittings - help....

[lee]

Hi

I was given an air compressor and when I decided buying a combined nail/ st aple gun and hose for it.

I ended up buying the recent one in Lidl together with the retractable hose reel - all have quick release connectors.

When I went to plug it all together it seems that the fitting on the compre ssor is slightly smaller than that on the hose. Hose and air gun are compat ible. So... I decided to pop along to screwfix to get a new 1/4" coupler fo r the compressor assuming it was non-standard. Curiously it was the same as the one on the compressor already!

Clearly wrongly assuming these things were standard I have done some invest igations and believe the following is the case although I don't really know anything about this :)... It seems that the compressor (and Screwfix) fitt ings are "PCL" where as the Lidl fittings seems to be slightly bigger. I th ought I found somewhere where they called it a NPT or DN fitting but can't for the life of me find it again.

Anyone have any ideas? I guess my key question is which end to I change. Ul timately I want the hose to be the "standard" fitting (if there is one) suc h that if I buy another air tool I don't continually have the same problem .

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

Lee.

[Nightjar]

There are several 'standard' fittings. Offhand, I can think of XF, Euro, Schraeder, B12, KF and PCL, which may be PCL standard, PCL 60 or PCL

100. You need to choose one and adopt that for your own equipment. PCL standard is a good, all-round, choice and is fairly readily available.

[T i m]

Just been there and still going with a new water trap and recoiling hose. ;-)

I might eBay my ever growing 'collection' of all the non PCL connectors as it seems to be building. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[F Murtz]

Something called Nitto seems Prevalent here in Australia

[F Murtz]

Years ago I standardized on one called Ryco but it is not as common now so all my new stuff and hoses have nitto and I made an adapter with male Nitto female ryco for my old stuff.

[Bob Minchin]

The OP mentioned NPT. This is one of the many threads that can appear on the other end of tools/coupling. NPT is National Pipe Taper an American standard often found on imported tools. It is NOT the same as UK BSPT threads.

[leenowell]

This seems even more complex than I initially thought.... :) So in the UK, if I were to buy an air tool, is it vendor dependant as to which fitting they use?

[Harry Bloomfield]

[e-mail] formulated the question :

I fell into the same trap. What you will find is that all of the Lidl/ Aldi equipment will use the very same fitting type. Anything you buy from other sources in the UK will have the usual common for the UK PCL fittings.

I kept to the Lidl / Aldi standard throughout, as it is perfectly adequate as are the tools. I did end up with some UK tools with PCL, but converting them to my standard is easy enough, the difficult part is sourcing the fittings. I tried several sources, amongst them Thorite and Machinemart, none were able to help. I eventually got some from a small independent source in Leeds LS11 or LS12. I also think I spotted some on Ebay, but without the name for the fitting, it was difficult to be certain.

[leenowell]

Thanks Harry

I don't suppose you have any links etc do you for the fittings you bought. I have now found my scribbled notes and the manual seemed to say the fitting is DN 7.2. Does that ring a bell?

If PCL is the UK standard and ties up with my compressor, I think I might go for that then. I can fairly easily (and cheaply) source a replacement PCL x 1/4" fitting to replace the one in my lidl nailer.

[Harry Bloomfield]

[e-mail] submitted this idea :

It was around a decade ago, so sorry I cannot now remember.

[Adrian]

Many air tools come with no connector - you fit the one you want. I've just bought a new air nibbler - it comes with two, PCL and one other, to use as appropriate.

[F Murtz]

If you hav two different types do as I did and get a male that fits your hoses with a male thread and get a female socket that fits your odd one with a female thread and screw the two together. This is Nitto to Ryco.

[IMG]

[T i m]

I've done similar (and with 2/3 pin in-line rubble plugs on portable equipment and a matching end on an extension lead) and all is fine until you can't find the adaptor or long lead. So, as I come across / need such stuff now I generally re-fit the (de facto?) std PCL (it seems) connectors or Uk 13 pin plug top. ;-)

Looking at the water trap I have here it seems I set it up to be portable, with a PCL male and female. Thinking on, it might make more sense to replace the input with a std hose fitting and make up a short tail to the compressor but leave the output connector a PCL female for flexibility.

Cheers, T i m

[Nightjar]

If you bought the equipment from Lidl, I would guess that the fitting is PE4, which is commonly used in Germany. Despite suggestions about making adaptors, I would still recommend choosing one standard for your own equipment and sticking to it. Every coupling is a potential source of air loss and you want to minimise that.

The only good reason to have more than one fitting is if you have something, such as a blow gun, that needs to work on a lower pressure and you don't want it to be possible to fit it to a full pressure connector.

[newshound]

Machine Mart have various fittings, I have (more or less) standardised on one of theirs.

[rick]

I started off with Schraeder air fittings ... but they have volume flow issued when used with a 65mm staple gun. RECTUS type 25 ... larger bore = better flow rate.