I am kind of new to the woodworking and home repair fun and could use a little help. I am in the market for a compressor and don't know what size to get. I don't care about the brand so much as the type. LIke what HP or gallon size or oilless. Most of my jobs will be light, from nailing trims and baseboards to painting(indoor) and most hobby stuff. No big jobs like deck work or outside painting or nailing. Can anyone help with this?
What makes you think nailing is a "big job"? A die grinder is a CFM hog; not a nailer. An air drill is a CFM hog. An HVLP conversion gun is a CMF hog. A 1/2" impact gun is an air hog. An air nailer is NOT.
dave
can't keep my CFM's and CMF's straight! replace "CMF" with "CFM".
Most of your better tool manufactures offer combo's that include the compressor and the nailers. I know Porter Cable had a deal where you get a pancake compressor, finish and brad nailer for ? 299.00. I have that setup and I'm happy with it. Have used it even with a 16 penny nailer and it works fine. Also to spray texture coat on ceiling and walls. Think it's a
125-135 psi and 5 gallons. Not sure the cfmRV
To answer the question, I have an oiless that I take to the job that powers my trim nailers and will run my framing gun for light framing. I have also used it for roofing with no problems. To get something useful in a lug around compressor you will need to get something that will kick out at least 2.5 CFM at 90 lbs. And of course, MORE is always better depending on your needs.
Oiled compressors are generally quieter than oiless, and both of my oiled pull an amp less than than the oiless. In this case I believe the amp rating because my oiled compressors never blow a circuit, and the oiless frequently do. Taking the oiled out to a job where the breakers frequently blow seems to solve the problem.
For me, I actually prefer the oiless since there is no maintenance to keep up with, and no oil to leak out when it has ridden around in the back of the truck and been banged around on the job for a while.
Lots of talk about oiled compressors lasting longer than oiless, but in actual everyday use for me that hasn't necessarily been the case. I haven't actually had the pump itself fail on any of the last several compressors I have owned, it is always something else that gives up, breaks, or wears out. If it is a shop compressor, made for you to goof around with on the weekends and evenings on projects and then maybe some light remodeling, I would probably go with the best deal dollarwise. Sears has some good sales on occasion on compressors that have the same pump assembly as some of the Bostitch, Senco, and Porter Cable compressors (made in Taiwan or Itay).
If you don't have your nail guns yet, there are some great combo deals floating around out there.
Robert
Holy cow - if you think any of those are CFM hogs, wait until you get a DA in your hands.
First you need to do some research on what tools you will expect to use now and in the future. Get their CFM requirements and the compressor that will at least match the tool that uses the most/volume of air is the one you should consider. You mention your jobs will be light however spray painting is typically a heavy use job for a compressor as compared to any nailing job. Deck work is actually quite easy on a compressor when using nail guns.
A good minimum size would be in the 20-30 gallon size as it will let you do small spray painting jobs with out having to wait on the compressor to recharge constantly. Oil lubed will typically be quieter/more tolerable and last much longer.
... : What makes you think nailing is a "big job"? A die grinder is a CFM : hog; not a nailer. An air drill is a CFM hog. An HVLP conversion gun is : a CMF hog. A 1/2" impact gun is an air hog. An air nailer is NOT. : : dave
Ataboy David, right on! You managed to waste ether without saying a single useful thing. You might's well use your regular name; most everyone know who/what you are anyway. Come back when you learn how to read/communicate.
To tag on to Leon's comments - spray painting is certainly more demanding than running a nail gun, but don't confuse that with demanding of a compressor. Spray guns typically require 10-12 CFM, and that's quite easy to find in a compressor. Air tools such as impact guns, die grinders, etc. will all work very well with a compressor of this capacity. Some other tools such as a DA will not, but unless you're getting into autobody work, that will never become an issue for you.
For spraying, most everyone in this group can be well served with a 20 or 30 gallon tank. Certainly, the bigger the tank the better, but again, everything is relative. Most woodworking spraying is small volume and a small compressor is just fine. I sprayed cars, doing complete re-finishes, with just a 30 gallon compressor for a long time. You need to install good water separation and drain your tank frequently when you paint something as big as a car with a small compressor, but it will do the job and when it's done nobody will know that you used a dumpy little compressor.
The one piece of compressor advice that I have taken to pushing obnoxiously on people, based on things that have been posted in this group, is *do not install an oiler*. Oilers save you a second's worth of effort on a very occasional basis, but they make an otherwise acceptable paint system almost totally useless. Oil and water in your lines are both your enemies when you are spraying finishes. Oil goes in tools, not in air lines.
Glad I didn't say I was going to tag on with "one brief comment"...
OK thanks everyone. I take it the important thing is CFM and I will go and investigate what my requirements will be for future air tools and then maybe go one bigger just in case.
Are the pancake compressors like were mentioned (5-6gal) enough for blowing dust off the project pieces you just finished sanding, along with shooting a few brads in? How long would it last doing things like that before it had to recharge the tank?
Pick any nail gun that you load with a strip or coil of nails and you will probably get 20 - 100 shots between recycles of the compressor. Blowing off dust will probably get you 5 to 10 seconds with out the compressor running and then it will probably run continuously never really catching up until you stop blowing.
I picked up one of the nailer/compressor combo kits from porter cable. It includes usually one or two types of nailer, some hose and fittings, and a compressor that can wake the dead. For nailers, this is almost overkill. You'll empty the nailer magazine before the compressor kicks on. It's more than enough for filling tires on cars.
For other things, it's not enough. I framed an entire basement finish with a full size framnig nailer hooked up to this compressor. For me, it was ok. For a pro, it would be woefully inadequate. Once 8' high wall with 16" OC studs totally framed, emptied the compressor. So it ran after every wall frameup. This didn't matter to me since it ran while I was lifting the wall into position and lining it up.
I also use it with a 1/2" impact wrench. It can remove maybe 2 to 3 lugs, then has to run again. It's similar with the air ratchet.
I haven't tried to use it with anything like an air sander or an hvlp gun, but I know it won't work. I'm shopping for a much larger compressor, like an 80 gallon unit. But it's way down on the priority list as I have other machines I want first.
I wouldn't try to paint with a smaller one. But the other things you mentioned should be no problem. I wouldn't hesitate to use the little porter cable and the full size framing nailer to put up a deck.
brian
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