Air Animations with quick connections

[Marr Branch]

I have some animations that use the 1/4" black tubing that connect into the "quick connections" thats what I call them anyways. What can I do to keep them from leaking air? They leak like hell.

[Tom]

I have some animations that use the 1/4" black tubing that connect into the "quick connections" thats what I call them anyways. What can I do to keep them from leaking air? They leak like hell.

Cut off the old tubing the quick connections go on to and reconnect. They shouldn't leak at all unless you have bad connectors. Replace them if you have to.

[screamforadream]

and how much psi are you at???

in addition to what tom said, if the psi is WAY too high the valves will release enough to keep them from bursting, atleast that's what we noticed this year.

[Brandon_K]

The fittings are called "Push to Connect" and generally, in our industry at least, use 1/8 or 1/4" (OD) polyurethane, polyethylene or nylon tubing.

As was already mentioned, cut the tubing, CLEANLY and reconnect it. A good, straight, square cut is important. Don't use your wire cutters or dykes and please don't double the tube back on itself and use a pocket knife to try to slash through it. Use a sharp, straight edge blade. A new razor knife works well for this. If you deal with the tubing on a daily basis, they make specialized tubing cutters that work great.

Regarding the pressure, PTC connectors will take a lot of pressure before they blow apart. And they shouldn't "release enough". It either works and doesn't leak, or you have a bad piece of line or a bad fitting. I have seen haunt vendors use the wrong size line in a PTC fitting, rather often actually. IE, they had a bunch of 1/4" fittings, but got a great deal on 6mm line. 6mm does not fit SAE fittings well, at all. PTC fittings seal on the outside of the tubing so it is imperative that the correct tubing be used with the correct PTC fitting.

If it still leaks, check to make sure the PTC fitting is actually wrench tight in the valve / regulator / etc. We got a bunch of Dark Raven and Hazard Room stuff last year that almost nothing was tightened down. In fact, I plugged in the exterminator that we got from Hazard Room last year and one of the fittings promptly blew off of the valve. It wasn't even finger tight, let alone wrench tight. I haven't seen many PTC fittings that don't come with sealant already on them, but they are out there. Make sure the fitting has either pipe dope or (preferably) teflon tape on the threads.

The elevator motion simulators that I just finished building for my place utilizes a total of 210 PTC fittings. Not a single one of them leak.

[Allen H]

Brandon,
what a great post. thanks for taking the time to write that.

[screamforadream]

That was great Brandon, I know jack-$#!T about it, just enough to get me by lol.

I thought Marr was referring to manual triggers such as this one, http://www.automationdirect.com/adc/...s/AVS-527D1-PP

This year I bought a few animations from Iron Man from Iron Kingdom, the guy was extremely helpful in making them as simple and idiot proof for me as possible. The 3 I bought from him run solely on air, no electricity and all have manual triggers, one in and one out, and I noticed if I ran the PSI too high by accident, air would leak from underneath the trigger button. (IDK if that's normal or not, but i tightened all the tubes up and lowered the psi a bit and the problem fixed itself)

It'd be awesome if someone in the haunt industry made like "An Idiot's Guide To....Animatronics!" I know I could stand to learn a bit more about them! lol