About 5 years ago I designed and installed an air distribution system
in a 13 bay auto garage for a friend (the owner). It was all 3/4" copper
lines with brass ball valves throughout. The tool connects and lift
connections all had condensate blow-off drops with valves. He chose
to use a commercial air dryer in line with the compressor. I soldered
all of the connections with Harris Stay Brite 8 and Harris Stay Clean
flux. Not a single leak or problem to date.

My advice.. Do it.. You will be very happy with the results and never
look back.. It's super easy to do also..
Just my 2¢..
PJ

"Barry Jarrett" wrote in message
...

i need to rig some sort of air cooler/dryer for my compressor w/o
spending a lot of money or taking a lot of space. i've seen some
drawings of nice setups using iron pipe to cool the air and provide a
drain for water. any reason i can't use hard wall copper pipe
instead? max pressure is 150psi, which is about what the copper
tubing in an espresso machine deals with. copper, for me, is much
easier to work with, and means i can build something nifty, like a
water-cooled condenser to pull the moisture out of the air system.

--barry