Air Compressor question

You can run the standard complement of air tools on the smaller compressors. However, when you get into paint and body, they just don't cut it... unless you want to run a DA, or die grinder, or inline sander for 20-30 sec. and then wait a few minutes for the compressor to catch up just to do it all over again. It's a serious pain. And, you need a consistent volume and pressure for painting. Believe me, when I went from the 25gal./9 cfm Craftsman, "drive you up the wall", buzz bomb diaphram unit to a 60 gal./18.5 cfm @ 100 psi compressor - there was no looking back.

Understandably, they're more money which can be an issue. So my advice would be to buy the biggest (cfm is more important than hp in my opinion) unit you can afford.