HevD
Well-Known Member
What size (gal) air compressor would you recommend to run pneumatic tools and do some painting?? I don't have a clue... Thanks!
Hevd
Hevd
Air Compressor question
- Thread starter HevD
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70Duster440
Well-Known Member
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.
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.
Rob
Well-Known Member
It's all about CFM, anything that spins like a die grinder for instance requires a lot of CFM, you don't want your compressor running all the time as they put a lot of moisture in your lines and are often noisy as hell. If you'er painting, HVLP guns require a lot of CFM as well and you REALLY don't want moisture in your line when you paint. Get the biggest you can afford and use a water trap at least 25 feet from the compressor, you can get cheap ones but for painting you would be well served to get a desicant filter of some sort.
kennmadruga
64dart360
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rob is right...get the biggest ..... you be happier................
mguner
How many is too many?
Size really matters here! You will not be happy with low volume small units. At least a 60 Gal and 5 HP with high CFM rating pump. My $0.02
2 Darts
A-body Addicted
Yeah CFM is what you need to watch for. Go for as much as you have space for and can afford.
We used a pair of 250 cfms in our shop and could keep six guys busy. As far as moisture is concerned, we used moisture separators on the lines to our pneumatic motors. These are about the size of a big rig oil filter and have a drain provision. We also found it practical to drain the big air tanks daily and leave them open. When we'd fire it up, we let the compressor run 15 seconds or so before closing the drains to blow any water out of the system. Heating and cooling a sealed tank during the course of a day would cause condensation to build up inside. The condensation promoted rust and played havoc with the motorized tools.
We used a pair of 250 cfms in our shop and could keep six guys busy. As far as moisture is concerned, we used moisture separators on the lines to our pneumatic motors. These are about the size of a big rig oil filter and have a drain provision. We also found it practical to drain the big air tanks daily and leave them open. When we'd fire it up, we let the compressor run 15 seconds or so before closing the drains to blow any water out of the system. Heating and cooling a sealed tank during the course of a day would cause condensation to build up inside. The condensation promoted rust and played havoc with the motorized tools.
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