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Something I haven't heard too much about - air compressor fittings

jtrux

jtrux

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As much as I hate to admit this, I will frequent Harbor Freight for little oddball stuff as well as frequently used things (fittings, for example). Some of the stuff works very well and some of it is OKAY at best but I've finally had it with the fittings.

I love to walk in with a handful of coupons and buy a few cheap packages of fittings, but they are pretty much throwaways and never last long or leak right out of the box.

Now I'm to th the point where I want something quality. I'll even spend a little money on them. I'm not too overly concerned about the "safe" disconnects ( the ones that don't "pop" ) but I'm more concerned with overall quality and something that doesn't leak.

Any suggestions?
 
Air fittings will all leak at some point but the real trick is to replace both male and female ends at the same time.
 
The ones that supposedly "fit ALL nipple styles" aren't worth squat,they leak and are hard to get on and off with greasy hands...I wont buy another one of those,even though it was convenient not having to worry about the nipple on the tools being different...

I am going to get Tru-Flate or some "name brand" couplers someday that might last and not leak or snap off--those discount store cheapies are usually cast aluminum or die cast zinc crap and wear out in short order--they are "almost" the same design as the name brand ones,but not quite close enough to actually couple with one of them too--makes it frustrating when using your air tools and one of the "cheap" fittings wont snap onto the coupler..

Those cheap tire chucks for filling tires suck too--haven't had one yet that will work on every valve stem,or doesn't need to be leaned on so hard to let the air go in the tire without risking harm to the valve stem...have to loosen the "nut" that holds the guts in on it to get it to work half the time..

I'm as cheap as can be,but some tools are worth paying good money for..good air HOSE and fittings is one of them!..I'll never buy a "lightweight" nylon air hose again,they are stiff as a board,wont roll up easily,and slag from a torch will melt thru them almost instantly..the light weight is about the only "advantage" to them I can see...
 
Get some genuine "Milton" fittings, they are better quality. The I/M series are most common but I recently upgraded to all the V couplers, they flow more with the same size fitting on the OD. Also, the female V coupler will still work with the I/M male portion(if you use an older tool), but not the other way around.

My rule on harbor freight stuff is, don't buy anything there unless you PLAN to throw it away, then and only then is it worth it.
 
The only "good" things I've read about things they sell are some people who bought those small gas engines that are clones of Honda's and some of their winches (smaller ones under 2000 lbs) seem to hold up OK...

I have no complaints with a truck crane I bought second hand that was bought at Harbour Freight originally--but I did pay only 20 bucks for it,because both the hand winch and hydraulic jack on it were broken when I got it..(mostly I wanted the base and mast,and didn't really care about those 2 things,if nothing else I could have used a chain falls or come-a-long on it,or one of my electric winches)...

The winch's larger gear was a laminated affair riveted together in 3 sections,and the outer edge was all worn down--I was able to grind the rivets off and flip it over to the "good" side,and it worked OK,but I put a better winch I already had on it and saved that one for some other less demanding use--the bottle jack on it had the little pivot pin hole in the pump piston wear so badly it pulled right thru it--I was able to braze the hole shut in the pump plunger and re-drill it by submerging the piston and seal in a bucket of wet sand and it now works fine again..

Their stuff is OK as long as you dont plan on using it every day,and expect it to last a long time..and dont trust the welds on some things,like an engine stand I had from them--it had 3 "tack welds" holding the ring that joins the flat plate you bolt to the engine to the "pipe" it rotates on,and the first time I used it I saw that ring try pulling away from the plate...

I took it off and blasted it with my arc welder all the way around,so I wouldn't have an engine crash to the floor some night and crack the block..the thing is built ruggedly enough,it just looks like a 5th grader with a 110V mig did the welding..
 
herkdriver007 said:
Sig worthy :)
Click to expand...

:haha:



Just about every fitting to include the tire chucks leak at work. Bought a 'kit' to have double everything for each side of the shop, brand new tire chuck doesn't even work it's such garbage. So I'm still walking back and forth depending on what I'm airing up on whichever side of the shop. The only good thing I have is some old air nozzle from back when things were built right. It's all brass and flows a lot of air.
 
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