workshop air

[john hennessy]

so i need an air system for my shop at minimal cost using mostly stuff i already have, (cheap ass)

i have a small H/F oil-less compressor bought on sale for $112 .00, this is only 4 cfm, not enough for painting a car and only has a 30gallon receiver.
i have a 50 gallon receiver from an older compressor that i have tested the condition of with a hydraulic test.

i considered using galv pipe as i have used this in the past on more sofisticated systems, (i designed and installed air systems for 8 years) but cost
and difficulty in cutting pipe ends did not look favorable.
i will never use white ridged PVC pipe because it can explode.
copper pipe is usable.PEX is also usable but soldered joints are the weak link in copper and PEX crimp joint are suspect.
i chose to use brass sharkbite fittings that push together having watched several you tube videos where they were taken to destruction way beyond the pressures i intend to use. (100psi) and can be used on copper and PEX.
for any longditudinal runs i chose copper due to the average temps in the shop in summer exeeding 100 deg. causing the PEX to droop between the mounting bracket but using PEX for the vertical drops.
my compressor is mounted upstairs together with the secondary tank.
so from the compressor built in regulator i used a flexi hose to a moisture trap raised above the outlet of the tank so moisture could run back to the tank, from there i used another flexi hose to the top of the secondary with an internal drop pipe to almost the bottom of the second tank, then from a different port in the top of the secondary tank to the air main via another flexi hose with a loop to again allow moisture to run back to the tank.
all this was designed to keep moisture out of the air main and in the compressor and/or the secondary tank.
the connection to the air main was directly in the top of a vertical drop almost to the floor so any moisture would fall to the bottom where i installed a drain valve, in this vertical pipe i had a tee about one foot from the top to feed the shop air main and another take off at 5ft from the bottom for the spray booth outlet, any moisture still in the system should now drop to the remaining 5ft. vertical pipe to be drained.
on the horizontal main i kept a slight slope to allow any moisture to run to the nearest vertical pipe which always had at least a 3ft. dead pipe after any takeoffs to catch any moisture that could be drained.
in the booth i had an additional moisture trap located higher than the main takeoff then a regulator to control pressure, this then fed into a desecant filter to remove the last droplets of water.
seems like a lot of trouble when as most youtuber prefer a cooler of some kind but when the ambient temp is 100 degrees a cooler will not do much without fan assistance.

[KB58]

PEX B is crimped but PEX A is not and is less restrictive.