Air Compressors

[smo]

Can anyone reccomend me a decent air compressor, needs to be able to run the usual impact wrench, cut off tools, spray gun, tyre inflator, drill and possibly sand blaster. (I know thats a lot, but only one at a time, and most for short bursts rather than prolonged use)

EDIT: For future reference it would be handy if it could cope with a small plasma cutter, just in case i get the urge!!

So - what would you reccomend and er, why?

[TDi90]

interested to hear the responses from this!!

[Mudlark]

12 or 240 volt?

[Range Rover Blues]

As big as you can afford.  Ã‚£100 will not run the stuff you list above, not even for short busts, go on, ask me how I know :roll:

Cheap, get to a scarp yourd, buy a bus compressor, fit a lawnmower engine.

[muddyman]

As big as you can afford.  Ã‚£100 will not run the stuff you list above, not even for short busts, go on, ask me how I know :roll:

Cheap, get to a scarp yourd, buy a bus compressor, fit a lawnmower engine.

ok how do you know?

[discomummy]

Hi,

believe me, if RRB sez he knows.......he knows :lol:

regards

ela

[Tailendcharley]

:)  :) I'm also interested in this one...surely there's something relatively cheap out there to sort these little matters out...waiting in my corner 8)

    Terry Smith  

[clbarclay]

How about second hand industrial units, Provided they haven't been kiked about then they should not be to expensive to overhaul the wearing parts.

[smo]

12 or 240 volt?

Are you serious, we arent talking an in car tyre inflator - Air tools man, proper compressor so 240V, single phase as i dont have an industrial supply.

clbarclay - The problem with industrial units is they usually run on 3 phase systems, or draw massive ammounts of current which my supply cant handle, i'm upgrading the garange main to cope with 30A instead of 13 but that still rules out the big jobbies, oh, and then there is a question of space!

[paul_humphreys]

Just look for a 3hp motor, belt driven with at least 12cfm FREE air, then it will do what you want. But make sure its a good make.

Paul

[smo]

Paul - why belt driven, are they much better than direct drive?

also finding one with 12CFM free air is er, difficault without spending £500+, my budget is ideally £250-300.

[Tiki Al]

a mate of mine just got a Clarke SE16C150 (OL) nice bit of kit, got it from machine mart on a vat free day so was just in the high end of your budget and should be more than able to do the jobs your after as he bought it for the same reasons, and as i seem to remember you saying  like you he's an engineer so he's looked into it a great deal before he made his mind up  :)

[smo]

Hi Al, you remember correctly, i am indeed (by qualification) an engineer so am a bit anal about some things, i just dont see the point in buying one that only just manages, or cant do some of the things (like plasma cutter) i will want in the future.

I've just missed a recent machinemart vat free day too, which is a pain!

[Tiki Al]

LOL didn't want to say that myself, must be an engineers trate, seems like you have the same uses as my mate and i know he wouldn't have got it if it had not done all the stuff you mentioned and you both seem to have the same budget. any luck with your decision making for your next project ?

[smo]

Aaah, well thats what this is all in aid of...looks like i might have a buyer, so forging ahead, i've cleared the garage, building a car port outside and getting some air tools to make the job easier :D

[paul_humphreys]

Belt driven are better than direct drive. But I have both. My direct drive 50l tank with 3hp motor and 12 CFM free air cost just under £300. I also have a 250l tank belt driven one with a 3hp motor its about 25cfm. It takes a long tine to build up, thats why I have the smaller one as well.

Paul

[Range Rover Blues]

VAT free day due in Jan or early Feb apparently.  Ã‚£250-300 gets you just inside the sort of thing you wnat and if you are going to use it a lot then avaid oil free, unless you are spraying as some folks don't like the oil in their air when the rings start to go but typicaly a well maintained oily compressor lasts longer and is cheaper to fix when bust.

Have a trawl round the auto jumbles.

BTW, MAchine MArt do a couple of 12.5 CFM compressors with decent sized reservoirs for around £200, I've just looked.

CFM is what you need, anything other than a spray gun and you need some cubes.  The figure is free air delivery BTW so when looking at the consumption of your tools, when they say 4 CFM that's at pressure, double that at least if not treble and add one for good measure, 4 cfm tools need at least 9cfm FAD.

[smo]

Most of the figues MM quote are displacement and not free air, i was looking at a hunter 60, which seems a bargain as its quoted as 12.5CFM....displacemetn, the FAD is 9.3cfm.

Not very clear labelling!

[Range Rover Blues]

But with 9.5 FAD, yes it's a bit of a con, but you could happily run most of the tools they sell, one at a time.  What gets me is they sell all these tools alongside compressors that can't run them, even briefly.

[ringo]

Im not a big fan of resurecting old threads, but im really intertested to find out what the outcome was of this.


So smo, what compressor did you get ?

Thanks

Ringo

[smo]

I went for the hunter 60 on a vat free day in the end, seems excellent i'm very impressed with it so far :)

Much better than most offerings as its a V-Twin so kicks out a good volume of air and has a 50l res so is nice and small but capable.

[Bush Tucker Man]

I went for the hunter 60 on a vat free day in the end, seems excellent i'm very impressed with it so far :)

Much better than most offerings as its a V-Twin so kicks out a good volume of air and has a 50l res so is nice and small but capable.

That's the one I want!

[ringo]

Thanks for that - looks the business.

Will have to find out when they (machinemart i pressume) do a vat free day next......

Ringo

[smo]

That's the one I want!

Its very good too Richard, plenty of grunt.

I went for tools from Axminster, they are "trade" rated and very well made, and an excellent price too. :)