Airline Question

[Lift-off Oversteer]

what is the difference between Macroline and 1/4 OD Automotive Airline for Air brake system? can the latter be used on Paintball Markers?

[jetenginekyle]

I dont know anything about brake tubing but id say it depends on your comfort zone and the specifications of the tube. I wouldn't use any tubing with a max pressure rating less than 900 psi.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Air brakes operate at sub 150psi. Paintball markers not so much. It won’t work unless you went with a hard line design. Then you run the risk of needing it to flex on impact and it not having any flex. Just get the good thick walled stuff and call it a day.

[Trbo323]

I dont know anything about brake tubing but id say it depends on your comfort zone and the specifications of the tube. I wouldn't use any tubing with a max pressure rating less than 900 psi.

You should probably go look up the pressure rating of macro fittings then

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[maggot]

It's true, but is worth noting that those Norgren fittings were smartly designed for the collar to fail and then line to pop out LONG before the fitting would burst or anything of that nature. So yeah the rating is low, but they're safe to use.

[Jordan]

Short answer (that's already been covered by Chuck E) is no.

Long answer is no macroline is suitable for paintball use, as alluded to by Trbo323, but paintball specific stuff is at least acceptable, sort of. SS braid hose is the safest solution but not nearly as user friendly, and some people struggle with it. Your mileage may vary.

[Toestr]

Gang braided hose rise up.

[Chappy]

Braided hose 4 lyf

[Myrkul]

Braided line only here.

[maggot]

Based on what little I know, I'd say the opposite is true. I've had motorcycle/car drag racers buy paintball tubing from me for custom high-pressure brakeline routing.

[Grendel]

That is the difference between rating and what it is capable of doing. Most industrial pneumatics is relatively low pressure so the manufacturer test and certifies for those pressures (plus a little) but that does not mean the product doesn't have capacity beyond what they rate it for they just will not stand by it or be liable for use beyond the rating.

By the way I am not a big fan of Macro-line (or micro line) in paintball but sometimes it is the only reasonable solution and what I got off you [maggot] quite a while ago has never given me a problem. Unlike some of the other crap I have used and had blow out during play.

[maggot]

I appreciate that! I think one of the reasons macro can be so frustrating is that norgren uses poorly lubed, crappy o-rings in their fittings. Even for brand new fittings I immediately replace and lube the 010 o-ring inside and it will usually be a few years (if ever) before it springs a leak. It also helps to sand (or pencil sharpener) the leading edge of your macro line so that's it's not cutting the o-ring as you insert it.

[Grendel]

Yup, I keep a small pencil sharpener in my kit just for using on tubing as well as a small piece of emery cloth.

[Shane-O]

Based on what little I know, I'd say the opposite is true. I've had motorcycle/car drag racers buy paintball tubing from me for custom high-pressure brakeline routing.

Brake pressure is around 300psi. I have a poly brake line kit for my racecar, its Micro line sized and not as good as paintball line. Were they using micro or macro line?

[maggot]

Interesting. They were buying 1/4 1000+psi Macro from me. I assume the reason is that I sell full 10ft rolls of it instead of pre-cut short sections.

[Shane-O]

Here is what I have. May have to see if it works for paintball stuff, but it uses conpression fittings.

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Lightweight-Nylon-Racing-Brake-Line-Kit,1993.html

[Chappy]

Does anyone know what the prolite used? It’s not very flexible and the walls are super thick so there’s not much volume. They also used compression fittings. But I haven’t seen many busted lines.

[Toestr]

I think the spring also helped with the pressure rating. I remember watching a video on the manufacturing of the 68 Special and they gave the pressure rating of the internal airline before and after they added the spring.

[Grendel]

Those springs are called Spring Guards and their primary purpose is to provide extra strength and abrasion/cut/nick resistance and typically are not there to provide additional burst strength. They are pretty typical found on heavy equipment.

[William the Third]

Yeah, I've used air brake tube before. The tube I'm using I didn't originally buy for paintball use. It's actually 1/4" SAE J844 Nylon air brake tubing rated at only 150 PSI, but has a minimum burst pressure of 1,200 PSI, so I've never had it fail. I wouldn't recommend using air brake tubing, it's just what I had left over that just happens to work.

[markdem]

Ive used that pneumatic brake line stuff before. It will hold co2 in winter. However it would pop quite consitently whilst using co2 in the summer. Loud bang. Not dangerous but quite startling