I look at all the customer pics and I'm like...man, they have the best lowes ever. it actually stocks stuff in 1-1/4" its amazing. so yeah, after about 3 trips to my local lowes on james island (which is tiny and sucks) I bit the bullet and went across the drawbridge to the big local one and bought 3 of everything.
finally got it to stop leaking once pressurized and its amazing how well it works with this valve on it compared to before. 60psi head pressure and 30 psi constant past the valve...pump sounds weirder as well. almost like a sewing machine. then got as much of the pump house built out of old fencing as I could before I threw my hands up in the air for the day and went home to mow my own yard. lol.
oh and the weird angle on the output is because I didnt feel like pulling the piece of wood I used as a weight prop once I got it all together. meh. why not.
once I realized you REALLY need to adhere to the "8 wraps of teflon at least" rule it all worked itself out lol