new compressor, couple of questions.

[mr_magicfingers]

Hi all, after reading through here over the past few days, I've chosen a Wolf Dakota 100l compressor to replace my 18 year old power craft direct drive unit that has done far more than I ever expected it too. It was bought before I even had a workshop and for the past 13 years has done everything on the little farm we ended up buying. It lives by the door of one barn and I've run copper pipe to the workshop at the back and plastic pipe to the garage in the other barn. None of it was really figured out, just cobbled together out of stuff lying around as needs arose. At each section of run there's a shut off valve to isolate the legs so I'm only sending air where it's needed (garage/barn/workshop) and there's a retractable hose in each. In the workshop and garage there's plug in's for individual hoses. There's drain valves along each leg at the lowest point but I've no additional regulator or filter beyond the regulator on the compressor. I'll add a couple of photos so you can see some of it.

Now that I'm getting a bigger and better compressor, I figured I should ask if there's anything I could do to improve the connection to the pipework beyond the braided plumbing hose off the regulator that's currently in place. I've seen people take the output from the tank directly and do things like put coils of copper pipe and various filters and dryers in theirs when looking through here. Does that give better airflow with less restriction? I'm guessing I'd need a separate regulator and filter if so.

Use case is mostly running air tools (ratchets, blowers, light sanding) and filling all the various tyres on the machinery around the farm. I don't, at this point, do any paint spraying but I have an old Mazda MX5 that I inherited when my bother died and it's in need of a fair amount of renovation which is going to be a learning project (welding/fabricating/wiring/painting etc) for the next few years and the impetus behind the new compressor.

I'd appreciate any advice that folks here could offer to make my install neater/better/more efficient etc. Thanks.

 

[dave h 2]

I've never used one, but those air line reels are said to be too restrictive for high consumption tools.
I would tee into the black hose to connect the new comp

 

[mr_magicfingers]

That one is just for doing tyres, and tee's into the copper. The compressor is connected to the copper pipe which tee's into the black pipe. I have a 10mm rubber hose reel in the garage for using with tools.