Tips..
Foil tape your seams..
Economy Aluminum Foil Tape w/o liner or heat rated is all you need as long as it's not imported or the cloth duct tape... use the plain tape w/o printing on it... printed on tape is spec'd tape and overkill for your application...
if you want to ''weld'' the tape on, clean the metal w/ DNA 1st to remove the salts and oxidation..... Distilled white vinegar works too but you need to thoroughly rinse...
use steel rivets and not SM screws...
''paint'' the inside of joints w/ rubber cement to make a gasket.. let it dry before installation...
If you make your own saddles, fibered joint mastic w/ mesh tape is the best way to seal the joints of the take offs..
A better grade of Siliconized Caulk will work, as in a quality polyurethane caulk from OSI or PL (I'm not a fan of DAP)... Vulkem (Tremco) 116 works 1st rate...
Vulkem is my 1st choice after mastic but it's a product you need to learn and it has a long cure time... It is pretty much bullet proof after it's cured, it also tools beautifully w/ a thinner wetted finger at application and a little goes a long ways... Once cured, it's there for the duration or a lot longer than that....
It's great for gaskets too BUT if you put your parts together while it's still wet/tacky/uncured you can give up on the idea that you'll be taking things back apart w/o destroying something...
Vulkem cleans up well while it's still fresh/wet w/ turps/thinner...
if it dries on your hands, it's there for the duration... (week or two).. scrubbing w/ a coarse rag and baby oil will help get it off of your skin sooner.. other wise you'll loose hide if you try and force it by other means... So, clean while it's wet...
DO NOT use pure silicone caulk... Pure silicone WILL ''eat'' the metal... GE's silicone is the worst culprit...
ALWAYS clean before you tape, mastic, caulk or rubber cement...
Design for the shortest possible runs, least amount of flex, avoid lifts, turns and wyes when ever possible to get more efficiency out of your system..
NEVER FORGET that you can only get so much air through an
X sized pipe...
if a machine needed 2 pickups go w/ 2 separate pickups instead of using Wye's... way more efficient..
in most cases, larger is better...
DC hoses/fittings...
After struggling for a while trying to get the wire reinforced vinyl hose ends on to ABS fittings and idea was struck...
i
Went and found several metal shoe horns and used them to facilitate getting the hoses on to the fittings along with some dry lube...
No muss no fuss.. The hose fittings slipped together so sweetly, as in right now...
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