Eric:
I have plumbed three home shops for air. My choice is black iron pipe.
It has one significant advantage over copper and the PVC designed for
compressed air.
The iron pipe serves as a massive heat sink and does a great job of
condensing the moisture out of the compressed air. Copper also works in
this fashion but does not have the mass of the iron pipe. I also had
copper fittings fail that were near the compressor. They melted from
the heat generated by the compressed air. I had to silver solder these
connections.
The hot, moisture laden air, generated by the compressor hits the walls
of the cooler walls of the iron pipe, causing moisture to condense on
the interior wall of the pipe rather than being carried downstream to
your air tools or paint gun. If you install the pipe correctly, you
plumb the lines so air comes out the top of the pipe (risers) and water
drains from the bottom. I posted a PDF file from TP Corporation that
shows how I plumbed my shop.
http://www.irinfo.com/images/airline-piping-diagram.pdf
I installed a full loop around the shop, like a large rectangle of pipe
around the ceiling. The whole loop is installed with one corner being
the high point and another corner being the lowest point. I feed the
air into the loop at the high point and have a drain at the lowest
point. Moisture that condenses on the pipe walls flows by gravity to
the drains. I also have a drain at each air outlet as shown in the TP
diagram.
My installation was a major pain to install because of all the fittings,
but it was well worth the time and money I spent. I have had no
problems with my moisture in the air lines gumming up my bead blast
nozzle since switching to the iron pipe layout.
I used 3/4" pipe for the loop around the top and 1/2" pipe for all the
risers and drains. The larger pipe has the advantage of being a large
heat sink and also serves to hold more air, sort of an extension of your
air tank. I would recommend extensive use of compression couplings in
the lines since it makes it easier to install and to take down or change
in the future.
Gil Fuqua
Nashville
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