Air fitting education

I grabbed an air hose I picked up at an estate sale and discovered that its fittings do not match anything I have. I looked at my pile and saw a couple of different styles, some look alike. The ones I usually use are the type sold in packages at the big box stores and HF. The air hose came from a guy who was a machinist for the Southern Pacific and retired from United Airlines.

So what are the various types suitable for a home shop and what are the recommendations?
 
Fittings typically come in two flavors; Industrial or Automotive.

I always get the two confused. What you typically find on new compressors sold at the big box stores are industrial - or else it's the other way around. I know that all my air tools have just the opposite of what comes on new compressors and I always have to swap connectors.
a178464.jpg
 
It may be regional, but the most common I see are type M couplers. But whatever the majority of your hoses and equipment already have, or whatever is readily available, should work just fine.

What you don't want is to get a mix of styles that wont interchange or some odd coupler only available in the eastern province of Yong Chin! LOL
 
I had a similar situation when I bought some extra hose and a set of "fittings" that were made in China. Although they looked the same, the quality was so poor that you couldn't connect half of them. I went to Lowe's builders supply and purchased all industrial fittings, problem solved.
 
(quoted from post at 22:55:29 01/05/15) I grabbed an air hose I picked up at an estate sale and discovered that its fittings do not match anything I have. I looked at my pile and saw a couple of different styles, some look alike. The ones I usually use are the type sold in packages at the big box stores and HF. The air hose came from a guy who was a machinist for the Southern Pacific and retired from United Airlines.

So what are the various types suitable for a home shop and what are the recommendations?
orry, but there are many more than 2 styles fellas. Life is never simple.
 
There is also a short lincoln/aro fitting that is quite similar to the industrial, but slightly different. I use universal couplings that will accept all three. Home Depot has them.

Charles
 
I have worked with air tools and repaired them when I worked at Tracker Marine. There is probably at least 5 differentiate types of them just like hyd fittings
 
WRONG! Those silly colored fittings made by "Legacy Manufacturing" introduce their own "standard", A, B, C, or D, while the rest of the industry still goes by "M" for "Milton", "T" for "Truflate", etc., etc..
 
I bought some new-in-plastic-wrappers air hoses once from a big-box store. Ends wouldn't fit anything I had. Took'em to a hose shop, they were acetylene ends! Chinese made, of course. Had to cut the ends off & buy ends from NAPA.
 
I like the universal couplers. I've been installing the Bostich quick connect ones on all my stuff. Started out with the automotive style, that my father and grandfather used. When I started working in a shop, I had to convert some of my stuff to industrial. I still have the problem of fittings that don't match up many years later.
 
It's just like everything else, some different companies make their couplers proprietary so you have to buy couplers from them. If you bought a hose with a different one I would change the couplers to what you normally use.
 
The link goes to a Milton chart of various styles which should give you some idea. Note that this is by no means exhaustive--I've got a couple styles in my garage that aren't shown on the chart and I'm sure others have more--but it's a start. Unfortunately, "the type sold in packages at the big box stores" swings too wide a loop--even a small hardware store will sell three or four styles, and the difference between styles is often subtle enough that it's difficult to tell by eye which is which. A good general purpose compromise is the I/M (Industrial/Milton) style, though of course if you already have another style you may need to go that route. In most cases, the female coupler is several times the cost of the male coupler, and therefore is usually the determining factor. As has been noted, buying cheap, particularly buying cheap female couplers, is false economy--they tend to leak, wear out quickly, and often don't fit at all. Get some good ones of your chosen style, or at a minimum get a couple good ones to go on the ends of your most-used hoses--it will save you far more than their cost in downtime and aggravation over their lifetime.
Air coupler plug ID
 
Isn't the solution as simple as:

1. Remove the ones that don't fit.
2. Chuck them in the scrap bucket.
3. Install the ones that do fit.

???

Pick a style and stick with it. Makes life so much more enjoyable.

Of course, all the fittings on Dad's equipment are the old ARO "A" types. Those are getting hard to find. Most stores handle the "T" and "M" types.
 
I carry three different adaptor couplings in my tool box and another style I can adapt if necessary. Never know what kind the farmers have on their air supply.
 
M is pretty much the standard basic fitting around here, but I'm changing over my stuff to V fittings. I like V's. I've made up some adaptors as well.
 
Number 2 is very important if you are like me. Always say I might use it someday. But, I sure learned over the years throw any air fittings that do not work.
 
At one time I somehow started to get a mix of the short stem Milton type to the longer thin one and thet was annoying whenev you would encounter the mismatch and couldn't plug in the hose. I made up my mind to convert all to one type and stopped the aggravation.
 
My question is, is there really any advantage to one type over another?

I have been trying to keep all my air stuff as the universal style, but can anybody make the case for one over the other?
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top