Thread: Shopping For Pneumatic parts

Tweet

I'm having a pneumatic episode! I picked up a cheap 8" throw cylinder for $24 from eBay and thought I'd just go to Harbor Freight and pick up cheap connectors. Well, come to find out, this cylinder has 1/8" inputs and Harbor Freight only has 1/4".

So with tears in my eyes, I left Harbor Freight for the first time in my life, without buying anything! I get home and start searching the internet for what I might need. First, I only found one place that seemed to have everything, Grainger. But they want $60 for a solenoid! I continued to bounce around and this stuff is not cheap. Monster guts has some stuff but not everything and it still looks expensive.

I want to raise the coffin lid on my situp coffin guy project. I imagine it will take some power to lift it and I want to be able to control the speed of the lift and the close. Where is the best/cheapest place to buy the stuff I need for that?

I already have a 110volt solenoid. I think I need a pressure control valve and a flow control valve and various fittings. Oh and either an adaptor or a new cylinder. Can you believe, I couldn't find a 1/4 to 1/8 reducer?

Is this the fitting you need?
http://www.automationdirect.com/adc/...y%29/MSR14-18N
They have a pretty good selections of parts and the prices seem good.
I've bought from them before and have been very pleased.

I'm not really sure. 1/4" fittings are too big for the ports on the cylinder. The hole is definitely larger than 1/8" so maybe I'm not really sure of what 1/4 or 1/8 refers to. Maybe the outside diameter of the line? Anyway, I found a "kit" at frightprops.com that I ordered. It was just shy of $40. They had a little video that showed how it was connected and they called it 1/8" fittings but again, clearly the holes are larger than 1/8". The kit has a solenoid and fittings to hook up the cylinder I have. I guess now I just have to figure out whether I need 1/8" or 1/4" flow control and pressure regulators.

I bookmarked that site though. Their prices look a bit better than the others I saw. Thanks for the link. If anyone else has a favorite source for pneumatic stuff please chime in.

Hopefully this might help

This is from the Frightprops catalog.

Determining thread sizes

Have you ever tried to order a fitting that has pipe threads and had difficulty determining the threads that you need? If so, you are not alone. The reason may be that pipe thread size does not refer to the inside or outside diameters of the pipe fitting. It refers to an industry designation (NPT-National Pipe Thread), not actual size.

Determining the size to order: use a tape measure or scale to determine the inside diameter (ID) of the threaded hole where you would like to install the fitting or the (OD) of your existing fitting then consult the provide chart.


Crude drawing

Order this size
1/8 1/4 3/8 1/2

Picture of threads here

3/8 1/2 5/8 3/4

if it measures this size

Once you figure out the size you've got, you might want to check out smallparts.com as a potential source. Here's a page with compression fittings.

- Hook

have you checked surplus center? or ebay for connectors?

Depending on the Country of origin of the 8" cylinder, it might conform to ISO or DIN standards. I'd determine the correct size and availability of fittings before investing any more $'s on it (of course you and babe will make excellent use of any misfit extras you have). I'd suggest bringing the cylinder to a machine shop, they won't charge you for that.

i live in canada, so we have princess auto,
litterally the BEST store for halloween, sure its an automotive store, but they have
everysize for push on connecters, the cylinders themselves (up to 15" throw)
solenoids for only 30 bucks, air tanks, air compressers, switches, motion sensors, air horns, EVERYTHING!

I like Poweraire...and you can get 10 free fitting from them (just pay shipping)

http://poweraire.com/

If the actual measurement of the fitting is 1/8" then you might need 10/32 UNF i spent a long time trying to get the right fittings from several stores for a dozen pistons i had with the 1/8 sized hole. poweraire.com has them cheap and like mentioned above as a free sample.