Air Comp Plumbing

My wife got me this for Christmas:



Now, what's everybody's advice on plumbing this bad boy? Dryer? Oiler? Filter? What type of pipe?

I plan on having it bolted to my garage floor.

 

for pipe, i seen people use threaded galvy pipe and black pipe and even copper. i would definitly put a filter for the oil in the air. and a filter for the intake.

 

Also helpful to plumb the bottom of the tank with an extension instead of draining the tank on the floor(easy to do when you can tip the tank). How good of a dryer depends on your humidity level. You use an oiler for air tools, but not for body work, paint. I used 3/4 galv. for mine, but there are much cheaper plastics. Depends on how long you want the piping to last.

 

i plumbed my air with pvc pipe, my shop is 48 by 26 an i have a air hook up every 10 feet around the inside wall. never hade any prpblem with it,a am in new mexico and dont have a dryer.XX i did this in 1980 and the plastic is still working i run 125 psi

 

We have a big shop compressor and installed an automated drain valve that has controls to set how long and how often it blows down to dump the condensate from the tank. The shop compressor is plumbed with steel pipe, it is cheaper than copper or galvanized. We sandblast with a portable 175 cfm unit and have a centrifugal separator on it to remove the oil and moisture from the line.

 

I used schedule 80 pvc and fittings when I plumbed my shop about 14 years ago. Haven't had a problem with it. I poured a small slab out back and built a shed for the compressor so I don't have to listen to it run. Put drains all around and a dryer for the sand blasting cabinet. I paint with a HVLP turbine unit, so moisture in the line isn't a problem there. Besides, we're about fifty percent down on rain this year so there hasn't been much moisture to remove anyway.

 

Put a ball value at the compressor and then start your air line runs. This way you can close the value when not using the compressor and isolate the compressor from the lines which will be where a leak may be.

If you use black iron or galvanize pipe, a trick a sprinkle fitter showed me. Put Teflon tape on the threads and a little Teflon pipe dope too, then screw together. Some might think this is over doing it but I am not a pipe fitter. They do this on larger diameter pipe which is more susceptible to leak at a joint.

I am getting ready to add some lines to my compressor, I am thinking about using PEX water piping lines

 

I've seen these products in use and when I upgrade it's what I'm using... http://www.rapidairproducts.com/choose.asp
I'd also make the compressor to wall connection flexible.