Airlines in the workshop

[Justintime]

Just bought an Omer gun. I have the compressor setup at one end of the bench. I'm looking at Lion 3163 Overhead Sliding Track Kit for the balancer. (Thinking there must be a cheaper place for this??)
Wondering if anyone could send a few pics of their setup? Specifically how to setup the airline tidily to the ceiling and along the track. Some time ago at a trainer's I noticed that she had the airline attached to the balancer and removed the gun each day after use, stored safely under the bench. I can't figure out how the airline was attached to the balancer. Any help out there?

[vintage frames]

I've had some experience of using tool balancers.
Rubbish!
I've got one somewhere- you can have it (when I can find it).
All you need is a good quality curly airline coming down from the ceiling.
Build some sort of a wooden cradle to rest the airgun when not in use.
'Can't think why you would need to disconnect overnight and -
£80 buys you 3 x decent bottles of champagne.

[Gesso&Bole]

I'd also go for the champagne!

Tool balancers will drive you nuts! They don't retract, and balance without lots of TLC.

Fix the airlines in place with cable ties or velcro straps across the ceiling, get a nice cheap curly pipe, and build yourself a little shelf suspended from the ceiling to put the gun on when not in use.

[Justintime]

Champagne it is then!
So curly josé, is PE better than nylon?

[Justintime]

So I have a multilingual keyboard, josé meant to be hose...

[Fruitini]

I’m an upvote for a tool balancer. We’ve had one for 6 months or so above the assembly area holding a pneumatic framemaster gun, also with a curly whirly airline attached so if I’ve got a very large frame or need to assemble something the other end of the workshop it can still be unclipped and used elsewhere. I find they need a little tweak every couple of weeks so it returns all the way back to the balancer but other than that it’s a smashing bit of kit. You can literally throw it up in the air when your done and there it stays. No fancy track for us though. Do it, you know it makes sense. And then buy some champagne to celebrate!!! I’ll take some pics for you tomorrow.

https://www.lionpic.co.uk/p/41737/Tool- ... 1kg-to-2kg

[Not your average framer]

I've never bothered with tool balancers, or curly airline hoses. I bought a long rubberised airline hose from Machine mart, with superior hose couplings pre- fitted and it's never been a problem for me. I use lots of air powered tools, so I am often changing from one tool to another. I like a quick and easy change over. I have two different types of staplers, a 18 guage brad nailer, a 23 guage headless pinner, and a flex tab gun. I use my flexi tab gun to fire both flexi tabs and rigid tabs.

I do a lot of stacked moulding frames, some I like narrow crown staples, but my staple guns will only take staples upto 22mm long and where I need anything longer, I use my 18guage brad nailer which is good for upto 50mm long brads. I also have a wide crown stapler for stretching canvases as well. My headless pinner is very good for very difficult to see, hidden fixings. My saples and headless pins are all rustproof stainless steel types. I use my narrow crown staples from inside the rebate of stacked moulding frames, so these are not visible on a finished framing job.

[pramsay13]

I just use a curly hose although mine is for the stapler as my tab gun is a hand tool. It is around 1m long although in theory stretches to I think 5m but I only need around 2 or 3m. The stapler just gets hung on a hook near the compressor when not in use.

[Justintime]

Thanks Pramsay. Yes narrow crown stapler to replace manual tabs on deep packages. That's something I'm wondering. Mine has to go about 6m. How long a curly do I need? Or maybe straight pipe to above head and short curly from ceiling down (with a little pressure loss)

[Tudor Rose]

We have had curly airline hoses over the years and then changed them to airline reels, which made life a lot easier. We thought about the counterweight pulley version, but this seemed neater in some ways.

https://www.axminstertools.com/axminste ... eel-104350

One in the dusty/prep room and one above the main assembly bench for finished work. The hose extends to 10m which has been really useful when we're dealing with larger items on our main central workbench. Quick release fittings on everything means we can swap tools easily as and when we need to.

[Justintime]

Thanks all, plenty here to get a plan together. Photos still welcome Fruitini!
I have already bought a balancer so I'll give it a go, but can see that a simple hook on cord from the ceiling to hang it on might suffice. The track now looks like total overkill.

[Fruitini]

Nothing groundbreaking but useful to see what someone else does I guess. We have a very handily placed beam right along the length of our big bench which carries the airline as well as a couple of useful industrial basket cable trays which hang beneath and carry all the cords, wires and useful bits and bobs I like to have close to hand.

[Justintime]

Very helpful, as I know so little about air tools...
So a pressure regulator and oil filter for each tool/line to ensure correct pressure for each tool. I was wondering about that.

[Fruitini]

I believe the chambers on the regulator are an air filter to remove moisture and debris from the air and the other for lubrication, although I do this manually directly into the stapler/driver rather than in the chamber. We also have a tundra air drier near the compressor that removes all moisture from the air in the first instance. Happy healthy air machines and tools. Currently extending the airline down to the cellar and building a paint spraying booth. Big learning curve!

[vintage frames]

Personally, I only ever used the one regulator as the one fixed to the compressor. The air fed all the tools and the underpinner had its own regulator and moisture trap included.
It worked for twenty years but maybe it was WRONG!

[Justintime]

I was assuming I'd need a regulator for the hand air tool as it wants 4-6bar and the underpinner (which you are correct does have its own regulator inside, who knew?) wants 7 bar.

[Fruitini]

Our airline feeds the Valiani, minigraf, 3x air tools and now a spray gun so lots of different pressures required. Mark & Jamie at TGS installed it for me so I assume it’s the recommended method?

[Trinity]

It's just me, but i never leave the tab gun connected when not in use for safety reasons. I have a coil hose and find it a pain at times however not so muxh as to spend money on anything else.

[IFGL]

We have a couple of 24l noisy compressors that I have linked together and set so they come on at slightly different times that live in the cellar, so if only one air tool is being used then just the one kicks in, when we run the saw and other stuff together, they both kick in, piping goes up through the floor to the under pinner, cmc and saw, we have another pipe that goes up the wall and through the false celling, then curly airlines coming down over each bench and two over the big benches.
There are several advantages, moisture never makes it up to the equipment, the 24l compressor's do not require insurance inspections, they are cheap to replace if one goes wrong, which so far I have replaced one in the last 5 years and the smaller compressors are more energy efficient than large ones, we cannot hear them in the shop and can only just in the workshop.

[Justintime]

Another question is there a recommended internal diameter for a stapler airline??