I have occasional need for an air compressor and have been sharing a small unit with Number One Son. I use it mostly for brad nailing, once or twice a month. So I don't want to invest big bucks. I'm thinking
125 PSI will be all that I need. I've heard I should go oiless. Any specific recommendations? Any thoughts about HF models?TIA,
Larry
I would ~not~ go oiless. Oiled compressors last way longer. There are people that love HF. I try to buy brand name. Your call Sir. I have Bostich and Emglo. There's lots more out there.
RP
I'll second RP on oiless. They wear faster and are noisy (none of them are quiet, but some oiless remind me of scratching fingernails on a blackboard).
I have had two Campbell Hausfelds (sp) during the past 30 years and have been very happy. That said, I have also seen some pretty good comments on HF compressors.
RonB
nailing a few brads twice a month he will be just fine with oil-less. Go for light weight and low price in this case.
Have to agree here. I'm just in the process of buying a Senco PC1010 compressor. Small and really quiet. Great for carrying around if you need to. It will attain 125 psi which is great for those few brads a month as Ed phrased it. About $125 in the US, almost twice that in Canada, but you can find a few US companies what will ship up here. At
20 pounds weight, it won't destroy the shipping budget to get them sent to CA.
the little porter cable pancake compressors will more than fill the bill for what you want to do.
I once had a HF oilless compressor. Loud, but I kept in in a separate room in my shop. Then a part failed. It was a non-standard part (the capacitor, which had to fit in an unusual place). I ordered the part from HF and it took over 3 months to get it as HF did not stock it and it had to come from China. When I got it up and running I sold it.
Oilless these days are much better than they used to be.
Having said that,
They are noisier than a oil compressor and mostly because they run faster. Annoyingly noisy. If you ever would consider painting there is more chance of an oil unit adding oil to your mix. Oilless will not last as long, all things being equal. 125 psi will run most anything tool that you want to use. Nail guns are very low volume users so the size of the compressor does not matter. BUT once you have a compressor at you immediate disposal you tend to add more tools to be used with the compressor. So keep in mind that a larger volume CFM unit will work out better. Try to buy a compressor with the CFM specs to match a tool that you might consider buying in the future.
Also keep in mind that if you buy cheap it will most likely fail sooner than later and once you have a compressor you never want to be with out a compressor. So do you buy better and cry once or buy cheap and cry twice.
Larry,
I have a 4 gallon, twin tank, oil less, Porter Cable compressor that has served me well for over 11 years. We initially bought it to run a framing nailer and roofing nailer when we built our garage. We also used it to build our house a couple years later. I use it frequently for woodworking and remodeling projects to power a variety of finish nailers and brad nailers.
It is perfect for running nailers, but not so much for high volume tasks like airing up tires. I can fill up a car tire, but the compressor kicks on quickly and runs constantly till I am done. It's OK for short random tasks like that, but I wouldn't want to run it that way for long periods (paint spraying, air tools, etc.)
The Porter Cable is quite loud when the compressor is running, but it doesn't run much when using nailers as they have low air requirements.
I would like to have a larger compressor that could handle a paint sprayer, but that would require a lot more space than my little Porter Cable needs. For the same money, I would probably buy a dedicated HVLP sprayer that would use less space. Then again, I don't use any air tools like wrenches, grinders, cutoff wheels, or that sort of thing.
Anthony
Good point. For occasional use, oiless probably doesn't matter that much. You might also keep your eyes open for combo packages. There are a lot of good deals with small compressors matched with one or two nailers and other accessories. Even if you have a nail gun now it doesn't hurt to have a back-up or another size. Some of these package include accessories for about the cost of the compressor.
They want to sell nails in the future.
Ron
Leon wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
*snip*
I'd consider buying two: A small portable unit (easier to run an extension cord than an air hose) and a large more powerful unit.
Puckdropper
I've have a small HF pancake compressor that I use for running framing, finish, brad and pin nailers at various job sites. It's about five years old and gets used often. It's an older model similar to:
Maybe, the farther from the electricity the heaver gauge extension cord you have to use.
Thanks, friends, for the good counsel. I've selected a factory refurb Porter-Cable, 6-gallon pancake compressor for $120. Good reviews and it seems like it will meet my needs.
I've have one of those (and a larger upright DeWalt) for five or six years. It's plenty big enough to run any sort of nailer. As long as you don't want to do something like spray paint with it, you'll be happy.
What is the minimum to spray paint (like for furniture)? Is it in the neighborhood of 40# @ 7.2 CFM, or am I looking at the wrong sprayers?
That will handle the Harbor Freight HVLP "purple gun" or the TCPGlobal HVLP sprayers, which will work fine. I'd go with the TCPGlobal just because you can get accessories for them easily--I made the mistake of getting the "purple gun" and trying to get a different nozzle for it a year later at which time HF told me that they didn't have parts for that model anymore--they've always got a purple gun but the model number keeps changing.
Almost any compressor is capable of providing the pressure, but it depends upon the quantity of spraying that you require which will determine the needed compressor volume and storage.
To spray an entire automobile, you might need a 10CFM pump and an 80 gallon tank to be comfortable. Production shops need even more.
For a chair or a door, a 1CFM pump might do it with a 5 gallon tank since the whole spray job would be done in under a minute.
For airbrushing, a much smaller pump and/or tank would do.
Your particular spray gun and required spraying time will determine the proper storage and CFM requirements of your system.
Many of us get by with a 3-5CFM system and HVLP gun. Added storage gives added spray time, so smaller systems can work.
-- Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace. -- Robert J. Sawyer
Thank you. That is helpful.
Better to run hose than wire if you want to save your motor.
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