Air compressor for home garage | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Air compressor for home garage

Something to watch for with electric impact guns, the cheapies on sale are often 3-4amp and the better ones are 7-9amp. Wait for the better one to be on sale, the 3amp would not loosen lug nuts on my F150, the 7amp spun them off.

The number one thing I hear (as a consultant for a tool company that sells compressors) , it wont power my 'X', The CFM ratings are usually optimistic, there is peak CFM, the moment you pull the trigger, and sustained CFM. In Chinese imports its usually "generous". Don't expect a small compressor to keep up with a die grinder, orbital sander or spray gun. Nail gun, blowing dust, pumping tires, air brush , no problems.
Even getting a tubeless tire to pop the bead back can be a challenge.
Bigger tank just means more initial air, you still need the right size pump to put air into that tank.

The air filters on compressors are crap, the import compressors are complete crap. If you blowing dust out of things or sanding / die grinding keep the compressor away from where you are, the pump (a vaccuum) just sucks all that dust into itself and grinds the valves and piston seals and the dust comes back down the hose and wrecks the seals in your tools.

sorry if this all sounds common sense, 20 people a week used to write into the company complaining tool X wont do Y. Nobody likes to hear you bought the wrong tool.

Know why there is a shutoff switch for low oil in a generator , because idiots would buy a generator, ignore the HUGE label that says must add oil before starting engine. Call later and say WTF , it ran for 20 mins and seized. Now the sticker says engine WILL NOT start until you add oil.
 
Thanks crankall. Good to know.
I am thinking about getting the Makita Mac2400. It's the smaller version of the 5200 that Matthew posted about before. These can be had off Amazon for $329+tax or used for around $250. It seems like the best for home use where sustained usage won't be that common. No wheels on it, but I would have it in a fixed spot with a 20ft hose. It would be used for air blowing, stapling, nailing, filling tires and light duty wrenching on the bike/car.
Thoughts?
 
I recognize some of these words!

What would be about the minimum(cheapest)compressor I would need to do a crappy paint job on race bodywork with an hvlp gun?

This is what I currently have in the garage

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probably not enough...

see here

http://www.spraygunworld.com/Information2/CFM.htm

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Paint guns usually operate at very low pressures but require a high volume of air at that lower pressure ("HVLP" means "High Volume, Low Pressure"). So if you're painting, check the compressor's actual air output ("free air" or "delivered air") @ 40 PSI. [/FONT]
 
Compressor discussion comes up on this forum every few years. Search for more info.

I agree on the Makita MAC5200 and bought one a few years back at amazon.ca. Got a great price; it's about 25% more expensive now.

IHL has free shipping to some GTA cities and a reasonably comparable current price on the MAC5200. Other options there as well. http://www.ihlcanada.com/11675.html

This is my previous advice and you can go back to that thread to read it all.
One can do much better than many examples here. And spend some more and you will get more utility and longer life.

Oil lubricated is better than oil free, though it does have that associated maintenance.

IMO, any large capacity compressor >10 gallons should be purchased at 220V, otherwise it isn't worth it.

Amazon.ca sells air compressors at some of the best prices I've seen. I went with this after much research.
http://www.amazon.ca/Makita-MAC5200...=1399927428&sr=8-3&keywords=makita+compressor

It has great specs, rates and reviews very well and is much lower priced than other places.

It's the same price as the MAC2400 at HD, with free shipping. I got it even cheaper a few months ago.

Amazon also has some great prices on quality air hoses and other related compressor tools.
 
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SK, I think the Mac2400 is a nice little machine, for what you've listed to do it would probably be just fine. Be careful buying a used one, if it came from a retired guys garage awesome, if it came from a construction site its best days may be behind it.

Kellen, you can probably paint bike bodywork with a HVLP gun with that compressor. Do consider the CTC and princess auto HVLP guns arent "true" HVLP guns and not professional level, as such they use less air. A top feed gun is more efficient than a siphon gun. And your not going to have the trigger on all the time anyway (if you know how to spray) you'll likely be around 35-40psi and spraying short light coats.

If you have a gun ,, take your parts, fill the cup with clean fresh water. Spray the parts pretending your painting. Can you coat all the parts with a even coat, like painting , and not run out of air? there you go
clean and dry the gun when your done

If you dont have a gun let me know and I'll drop one off in woodstock for you to test. It will be a Chinese 'HVLP' gun, a DeVilbiss knockoff
 
Ended up getting a brand new Makita Mac5200 for $260. I wanted the smaller one, the Mac2400, but this bigger one was actually cheaper, so I thought I would grab it. This thing is a much bigger unit than I think I will ever need.
 
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SK, I think the Mac2400 is a nice little machine, for what you've listed to do it would probably be just fine. Be careful buying a used one, if it came from a ret]

Kellen, you can probably paint bike bodywork with a HVLP gun with that compressor. Do consider the CTC and princess auto HVLP guns arent "true" HVLP guns and not professional level, as such they use less air. A top feed gun is more efficient than a siphon gun. And your not going to have the trigger on all the time anyway (if you know how to spray) you'll likely be around 35-40psi and spraying short light coats.

If you have a gun ,, take your parts, fill the cup with clean fresh water. Spray the parts pretending your painting. Can you coat all the parts with a even coat, like painting , and not run out of air? there you go
clean and dry the gun when your done

If you dont have a gun let me know and I'll drop one off in woodstock for you to test. It will be a Chinese 'HVLP' gun, a DeVilbiss knockoff
 
Well, it is still 90 PSI even at the end of a 1000 Foot hose...until you start to draw from it, then yes, the PSI can drop significantly. Hose length plays into it for sure, but hose size also plays a huge part. If you look at roadside service trucks for example (the ones that change big-rig tires anywhere, anytime) they tend to have a huge amount of hose to their compressor...simply because they may need to run their 1" drive impact guns potentially 80-100 feet away from their truck...but that hose is typically HUGE - 1" minimum, and I've bigger as well.

As for my own setup, I forgot to mention that I also bought an equally sized pig-tank at a yard sale for $10 a few years ago - for jobs where I know I'm going to consume a lot of air in a short period of time (impact gun, mainly), I setup the pig tank on a manifold at the compressor so that it basically doubles my tank capacity. Yes, it takes twice as long for the compressor to actually fill both tanks, and twice as long to recover them when I'm working it hard, but it gives me a lot more flexibility in the end...while still allowing me to keep the smaller compressor that is portable versus installing a much larger unit that could never leave my garage.

The extension to this plan if you are working far from the compressor is to put the pig tank close to your work area, then the regulator, then a short hose to your tool. It works very well. I had to run this setup with a compressor on a 100' 12 ga cord, then 100' of hose to a pig, then a 50' working hose. Having the pig sitting at 120 psi made things work much better than having 150' of hose at 90 psi. I didn't want to put a 200' extension cord on the compressor.

Great choice on the 5200 sk. I have a 2400 and 700 and neither have ever failed me. They are both ~10dB quieter than the 5200 but put out less air. I had planned to use the 2400 in the garage and as a portable compressor, but it's heavy and large enough that that plan got old really quickly so I picked up the 700.

I like quiet compressors so I bought my dad a Rolair JC10, it is even quieter than the Makita's, but puts out less air (although it is smaller and lighter). It is one of the few oil-free compressors that is quiet and has a decent service life.
 
The extension to this plan if you are working far from the compressor is to put the pig tank close to your work area, then the regulator, then a short hose to your tool. It works very well. I had to run this setup with a compressor on a 100' 12 ga cord, then 100' of hose to a pig, then a 50' working hose. Having the pig sitting at 120 psi made things work much better than having 150' of hose at 90 psi. I didn't want to put a 200' extension cord on the compressor.

Good idea, I'll keep this in mind.
 
I run an Ingersoll Rand SS5L5

http://www.ingersollrandproducts.co...compressors/electric-driven-single-stage.html

I put in some cast iron hard line to the front of the garage with a regulator/filter/water remover at the end of the line. From there it splits. One line is now accessible for clean air for say tire inflation, blow off, HVLP paint guns, or to run my plasma cutter, etc. And the other has an oiler on it for the pneumatic tools that require oiling.

Been running this for years now. Never had a problem. It's a 240V unit. Set up a 240V power supply with a big filter on it to help isolate from the rest of the house electrical. Only mod I've done to it is replace the crappy stock drain valve at the bottom of the tank with a ball valve with a large handle to make draining water from the tank easier.

Edit: oh and when I need something more portable, I have one of those small Makita, dual canister ones, and depending on my needs a "pig tank" as it seems some people are calling it. I got a big pig tank from CanTire years ago when it was 60% off. Handy for making the Makita more capable as others have suggested with smaller portable compressors.
 
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So what type of connectors are you people using (couplings/fittings)?

I'm using the Milton 'M' type and they bleed air. The air compressor itself came with 2 universal couplers attached, to which I connected the M types into and there is also leakage there and also at the end of the hose where any tool would be connected to. That doesn't seem right. The tank only takes a minute or two to fill up, but then through the bleeding air, it drops pressure enough that it tank has to come on again every 30 seconds or so.

Me want no leak.
 
Good quick couplers aren't cheap pm me and I can get you some

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Good quick couplers aren't cheap pm me and I can get you some

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Listen to Steve.The couplers he has are the best.And SO easy to use.
 
So what type of connectors are you people using (couplings/fittings)?

I'm using the Milton 'M' type and they bleed air. The air compressor itself came with 2 universal couplers attached, to which I connected the M types into and there is also leakage there and also at the end of the hose where any tool would be connected to. That doesn't seem right. The tank only takes a minute or two to fill up, but then through the bleeding air, it drops pressure enough that it tank has to come on again every 30 seconds or so.

Me want no leak.

Try some teflon, plumbers tape, before you start buying more couplers.
 
universal couplers are because the compressors get sold all over the world, they usually leak air.
Pick a style you like and as said above use a good sealer tape. I'm using the Milton M type only because I've been using them for years and have dozens that would need to be changed. There are much better systems and the new style you cant release by kicking are nice but pretty spendy. I would change out the fittings on the compressor.

Sad reality buying a new compressor and needing to update fittings immediately.
 

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