air compressor recommendations

[fsj-earl]

You can never have too big of a compressor. I have a 6 HP with 80 gallon tank and is a 100% duty cycle which is nice, but the DA, the cutoff wheel, and the die grinder use a LOT of air. I am not sure what the CFMs are but it does a pretty good job of keeping up.

 

[whitexj98]

I would recommend Lowes Cobalt 60 Gallon 220, 13.4 CFMs @40 PSI, 11.5 SCFM @ 90 PSI 3.7 HP.

Its pretty quite as well.

It runs for 499 with a 3 year warrenty. I bought a 10% off coupon off ebay for 2.99 and bought the 2 year extended warrenty for another 50. So 550 out the door with 5 year warrenty.

Then I went to Harbor frieght and plumed it all with shut off/ regulator/ water sepreator for another 60 bucks... If you put in the crawl space, you could get fancy nd put an auto tank drain on it... water kills tanks so you got to drain them regulary.

 

[cdrake261]

I bought an old craftsman 2 stage 33gal off of craigslist...you never know what you'll find there

 

[Lincoln]

I bought an Ingersoll a little over 10 years ago. It's an entry level model.
http://www.maxtool.com/us/products/SS3L3.asp

It's been good and I haven't ever wanted more capacity. The only problem I had was when the temps were pushing 115 degrees in the garage and it was being used heavily that day the air filter melted. The local ingersoll dealer sold me a metal cleaner off one of the larger machines and welded a fitting to it so it would fit mine. The larger filter actually quieted it down as well.

They used to sell a horizontal tank version too.

The HP rating doesn't really mean much anymore. I believe Ingersoll recommends a mag starter on the 5 HP model. Their compressors are rated at running HP and a lot of others else rate them at peak. Just watch the cfm's and what pressures to compare models and brands.

 

[16vvincent]

You can never have too big of a compressor. I have a 6 HP with 80 gallon tank and is a 100% duty cycle which is nice, but the DA, the cutoff wheel, and the die grinder use a LOT of air. I am not sure what the CFMs are but it does a pretty good job of keeping up.

What he said!

Impact guns and Ratchets don't need a lot of air capacity, however when you start using air sanders and (the worse) air board sanders, you will need as much air as you can get.

My compressor is a Blue Point 7.5 hp and 80 gal. I have had it since '96 and it has served me very well indeed. You can easily get that much compressor now, for less then half of what I spent.

The garage is plumbed with 3/4" sch 80 PCV water tubing (sch 80 is the thicker pipe). The stuff is rated for 250 psi and works just fine for a non-production shop. Just make sure that you isolate the vibrations of the compressor from the PCV tubing.

A good addition is a couple of Harbor Freight hose reels. If you get their fliers in the mail, you can occassionally get a coupon for their 50' real for under $60.

 

[joe_peters]

How much compressor does a homeowner/hobbyist need?

Well, sit down with a tool catalog or get on the internet and research EVERY TYPE OF AIR POWERED TOOL YOU MIGHT WANT TO OWN SOMEDAY. Then research that type of tool and find out how many CFM you will need to use, with reserve capacity, and then buy that big of a compressor preferably in 220, as you already have that power.

Unless you are having a barn raising, or an auto dismantling competition, you likely won't be running more than one air tool at a time.