air compressors

I was thinking about getting an air compressor but I dont know what will be good for an impact wrench and a spray gun. How many gallons should the tank be and how many cfm and psi? Help me out.
Taras

 

I'll be asking the same question.

 

It really depends on the tools, most tools will list the minimum cfm required to run them. I know impact wrenches can vary a lot on required CFM depending on the size of the wrench. I'd say go do some shopping and look at the requirements of the tools and compare prices and see what you can afford.

 

if you plan to paint with it you need a larger ready source of air and the higher the PSI the better

 

honestly, you need a ton of air to make it worthwhile

i'd go 50+ gallons if possible

I have a very old school belt drive air compressor (porter cable) from the 70s filling to converted lp tanks with a custom air dryer built in. I do a lot of sanding with tha set-up and it's amazing.

-drew

 

So 25 gal 4 cfm and like 90psi won't cut it?

 

Taras: IMO it's not the airtools that require all the size and PSI, but the paint. You want to make sure that you're getting a constant flow.

I have a little 11 gal compressor that works great for my airtools, but i'd never think about painting on it. If I was to paint on it, i'd prep for a long, slow, painful process which could be messed up from runs.

 

the only things I would paint with of would be like fog covers and maybe a lip or side skirt. So nothing huge.

 

you won't be able to sand anything either-

 

I'd also google search the unit and see what the noise is like. Some of the cheaper units that are large enough to use air tools seem to get poor reviews on that category... if that's a concern of yours.

 

Taras, you can fit like a 100gal up in yo crib dawg!

 

You can in fact, run most air tools on a much smaller compressor than people say.

I've got a 4.5gal Porter-Cable plus a 10 gallon air tank with a few extra fittings allowing me to use the tank in-line with the compressor. It runs impact wrenches just fine. Die grinders and air hammers have a pretty short run time and a lot of recovery time, but it all depends on how much you're going to use them. I wouldn't use a sander on this rig, but I have successfully used HVLP paint guns for small parts.

It's hardly ideal, and eventually I'll replace it with a ~60gal belt-driven oiled unit, but it does get the job done.

 

When buying any long term-expensive tools, it's always best to buy the biggest/nicest you can. If you can afford a $1500 compressor, do it, you'll be happy when you have it the next 50 years. When i bought mine I could manage about $5-600, and I ended up with a 60gallon 12.5 cfm unit.

 

the cheap ones cost enough that it's worth using a friend's or going big- to put it simply

sort of like welders