51dan79,
The key to removing the water from the air is to cool the air and allow the water to drop out. If you work your compressor hard, the air in the tank has no time to cool, and water is pulled into your air line in suspension and blown out your air tool.
If you can pull air for the compressor from a heated space it will be more dry. The easiest 'garage' method would be to run a adequate water trap (filter) in the line you are using followed by a desiccant filter. This will catch most of the water, provided the air isn't super hot.
Make sure you are drawing air from the top of the storage tank and make sure the tank is drained of water weekly.
A small, overworked compressor will pump hot air, which means 'wet' air. I haven't seen HF's dryer, but it is probably a fan cooled heat exchanger. If it is cheap enough, you might use it in conjunction with the filter and desiccant dryer.
You can also make a do-it-yourself heat exchanger out of a couple of runs of 1/2" black pipe. This is just a device to allow the air to cool before it reaches the tank. Good luck
Stuart
