Air Compressor

I've got a 28 gallon 2 HP Craftsman... works fine for my impact wrench and air ratchet... got it on sale at Sears for around $300...

 

Sears, 30 gallon, sideways for mobility, (upright if you are short on floor space), 120V, noisy, but that is perfect for homeuse (10 years now). It is a marriage saver!

 

If you want to use a lower rate spray gun (HVLP), bead cabinet or die grinder - get the biggest HP you can on 120V.
I have an older 3-1/2 HP Sears 30 gal, 120V that is marginal for these tasks - but it works.
Sandblasting needs more HP.
Aim for an oil free pump.
Drain after each use.
Rgds,
Vince
PS: After you have air - it is guaranteed, you'll want to expand your uses...

 

I have a SEARS Craftsman 6.5 HP
2 Stage
60 Gal.
240V
Upright

 

Choices to consider - if you make a price decision you may regret it:

Tank: horizontal or vertical - Vert if it won't be moved...horiz otherwise for precious garage space.

Motor Speed: 3400 vs 1750 rpm - 3400 are cheaper but don't last as long. Don't relay on hp ratings but power input...3400 rpm motors cheat on hp rating making hp comparison meaningless.

Voltage: 110 vs 220 - 110 on 15A circuit limits power - 220 often requires special garage wiring. The best motors can be wired for both.

All told have some additional automatic means to turn it off. Most stay off until tank pressure drops only to turn back on about the time you just get to sleep. E.g. a 2 hour timer is great to prevent leaving it on when you leave for vacation. Motors are known to burn out causing great smoke and fire damage when you didn't realize it was still turned on.

It's a lifetime purchase...don't skimp or be swayed by the Harbor Freight sale.

 

The post before me metioned RPM and I'm guessing the high RPM is the direct drive. I owned a direct drive and got rid of it for a belt driven model and if you gave me a direct drive I would throw it away unless all you were going to do was fill up bicycle tires and basket balls once in a while. The racket from the direct drive units is horible.

My recomendation is find a old Sears belt drive unit. They last forever and are much quieter. I have an old 2hp sears that puts out more air than a new sears 5hp. When it comes to air compressors hp means nothing. You look for 2 numbers, the CFM @ 40 PSI and the CFM @ 90. CFM = Cubic Feet per Minute. The CFM is all that matters, you don't ever really need more than 100 PSI.

A small pancake compressor is very portable and cheap and is fine for filling up tires, nail guns for construction, taking off wheels with an impact gun even though you may have to wait a bit between wheels for the compressor to charge itself up.

Some tools require more pressure and very little CFM(volume) and vice versa

Tools that will run on 100 psi with low CFM:
nail guns
air chuck for filling tires if your not in a hurry
Impact gun
Air pop rivit gun
Blow gun for small jobs.

Tools that need a big compressor with lot's of CFM:
air ratchet
any sanders or grinders
cut off wheel
air drill
spray guns

The sanders and grinders use the most. Most of the tools have a rating for air in the description. If you buy a small compressor and try to run a sander with it you will notice it does fine for about a minute and then the tool starts slowing down as it drains the tank and the compressor can't keep up with the tool. Eventually you have to stop and wait for the tank pressure to build up again. If you are only using it once a year you may not find it to be a problem. I buy cheap air tools from Harbor Frieght and have often been surpized how well they work. I don't know if I would by the compressor from them? I might get one of the belt driven models from Home Depot with a 20 gal tank. Mine is 220volt and I play in the garage a lot but it's not very portable. Give us more info on what you'd like to do with it and I can give you better advice. You can do pretty well for $300 or less.

 

Excellent Post, Kevin... thanks for taking the time to educate some of us (myself included...).

Mike in Kuwait

 

I've had very good luck with cheap air tools. I've bought a bunch of stuff from Harbor Freight and from the Northern Tool catalouge. I have a decent .5 inch drive impact gun and an real nice Snap-on 3/8 drive air ratchet a mechanic friend was throwing away that I rebuilt. It's very narrow small profile and has a lot of torque. I know someone will tell you you get what you pay for and you should only buy Snap or Mac but a lot of the stuff I have I would not have bought if I had to go top quality. Here's some of what I have and most cost $30 or less:

Cut off wheel $25
air drill $25
air pop rivit gun(2, needed one that would pull 1/4 inch rivits for a one time use) $40
air saw $9
3/8 butterfly (one of my favorites) $19
nibbler $25
D/A sander $29
grinder $29
air chisel(long barrel IR) wanted quality and power so paid the price! $90 many years ago
angle die grinder. $15
paint guns(Binks mostly)$300 ea

I have a pretty decent home shop and spend a couple nights a week in the garage if not more. Most of the tools mentioned I've been using for over 15 years. I'm very surprized some of the cheap stuff still works. Especially the 3/8 butterfly and the cutoff wheel since they were cheap Buffalo Pnematic and they get constant use and abuse. I do recomend spending some extra money and getting the most powerfull 1/2 inch impact gun you can afford. Nothing worse than not being able to get a bolt loose.

I will buy cheap impact sockets but prefer to spend a little extra for Craftsman and I will not use a cheap hand tool. Craftsman or better only but I'm not opposed to the cheap air tools. I also will not use cheap blades and accys with the air tools. I bought a cheap cut off wheel for a electric 10,000 rpm 4.5 inch angle grinder and the first time I turned it on the wheel flew apart and hit me in the nuts. After I could stand up I threw out the others and bought Norton disks from Home Depot. Same with cheap wire wheels, I end up pulling quite a few wires out of my chest with the cheap ones. I put my wood floor in the kitchen down with a nail gun I bought from HF on sale for $15. I could throw it away today and I wouldn't complain since I don't plan on putting in any more flooring for a while but it did the job. I also did a very difficult pattern tile backspash with a tile saw I bought on sale from HF for $199. I did return the POS blade and bought a better one from a tile store but the saw worked fine and I sold it for $150 when I was done with it.

 

DeWalt now has an aircompressor at Home Depot, I would buy that. Their tools are usually superb. Its $350 or so...

 

I bought a 7hp 60gal compressor from Home Depot(about $500). To avoid the noise, I put it in the basement and just ran hose to the garage. It's a nice clean cool environment for the compressor and no noise in the garage. I've been doing it this way in every home I've owned for the past 30 years, it's great.

 

+1

Works perfectly for home use. A little loud, but not horrible when run inside the garage. (I live in a townhouse and the neighbors haven't complained... yet. ) Great for airing-up tires, running my impact wrench or any other air tools.

 

for a good price on tools I've found tooltopia to be the cheapest on cost. one workhorse here at the shop is my 1/2" IR titainium impact. worth every penny and is very very quiet and light @ 4lbs. as to the compressor, at home I've got a sears unit. but it doesn't see much use since I've got a 80gl 2 stage 220v one here, not recommended for home use.

Horsepower: 7.5
• Pump: T39
• Motor Volt/Phase: 208-230, 1 Phase.
• Tank: 80Gallon Vertical.
• CFM Displacement: 32.52
• ACFM @ 175 PSI: 22.28
• Max PSI: 175

http://www.tooltopia.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=27915

Specifications:
Blows per minute: 1,250
Free speed: 9,500 RPM
Max torque: Foward - 625 ft-lbs/ Reverse - 700 ft-lbs
Torque range: 50 to 600 ft-lbs
Nut busting torque: 1,000 ft-lbs

 

Great idea!

I have a vertical unit with a 5hp motor and a 26 gal tank. The configuration that is right for you depends on what you are going to do with it and how often you will be using it. I purchased mine to run a nail gun, but thought I might want to do some painting, so I went for the larger storage tank. Vertical tanks are great space savers, but can tip easily. One that stores upright, but runs horizontally is a good feature. I don't care much about the noise or longevity, because I paid about $175 and I use it less than once a week. There are so many configurations and brands to choose from, so look around and you will find what suits you.

 

My old belt driven is 10.3 CFM@ 40 PSI and 8.5 @90 PSI with a 20gal tank. If you want to run any sort of sander or grinder I wouldn't go any smaller, even for home use. If your not going to run any of the higher CFM tools I listed above and you don't use it very much you could go smaller. Mine does run on 220v. The direct drive ones also seem to wear out fast and the CFMs drop. There fine if you just want a pancake compressor to run nail guns and impact guns for removing wheels once every couple months. The only other reason to go direct drive is if you need something very portable that you can lay on it's side in a trunk of a car etc.

If you get one of the larger 120Volt compressors do not run from a extension cord unless it is a very heavy contractor type 12 ga or larger. The voltage drop will burn out the motor. Run more air hose, you will get a pressure drop at the end of a long hose but it won't damage anything.

When I had the direct drive unit I kept it in the house and ran a long hose to the detached garage. Since I live here by myself I didn't care how much noise it made in the house. Just didn't want to listen to it in the garage.

 

I've got a Sears 2HP, that came with a 20 gal tank. The tank got a leak, and I bought a 60gal tank to use with it. Works for everything that I need it for now.

Art

 

...It's a lifetime purchase...don't skimp or be swayed by the Harbor Freight sale.

LOL