Since a bad solar flare could mess up our electronic stuff we should at least keep the equipment we need to rebuild society not sensitive to EMP.
Pneumatic air is usually supplied with plastic tube and hose. There are no unexpected electrical circuits coupling to unrelated equipment.
The less basic infrastructure which is wiped out the faster we can rebuild. Right now it looks like we will be falling back to whatever cam-actuated automatic lathes which have not been sold below scrap value that are left. And I hear those things are a bitch to set up.