For #4, what exactly do you mean by a "base and acid with no conjugates"? Are you saying that you do not know what the conjugate base of piperazine-N,N′-bis(2-ethanesulfonic acid) is?
And this might be an oversight, but it might also indicate why you are having a problem - "the usual (NaCH2COOH/CH3COOH)" should read "the usual (CH3COONa/CH3COOH)?" - the conjugate base of acetic acid is CH3COO-. You are not pulling a proton from the methyl group but from the carboxylic acid group. If you look up the structure of PIPES on wikipedia, you may understand why this is important.