Air Compressor

[FootNote]

Lots of good advice here. For a fixed garage application get the biggest tank and best motor/head you can afford. Ive been running the same Snap-On 30 gallon horizontal tank with Dayton 110/220 motor and Dayton V-Twin oil-bath head unit for 20 years myself. I bought it used as well. Mounted and plumbed in both of my garages since I've owned it.

Outside price, going bigger would be nice, but being in the military I move around a bit so it being somewhat portable is good.

I think 15g is a pretty good size for me. But this could just be me trying to justify the DeWalt compressor. Just fond memorys of my dad using DeWalt tools.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

I went through two oil less models in 6 months before getting my money back and buying a 20 year old craftsman with a hole in the tank for way cheap. Patched the tank and its still going 6 years later.

The oil less are beyond loud, I wouldn't even think about running it late at night.

 

[88vmx12]

let me help you out..... first of all look at your ultimate wish list of an air tool. Then look at the CFM consumption then multiply that by 1.25 then you are in the ball park. Get one with cast iron sleaves in the cylinders and bearings on the crankshaft. I can tell you from personal experience those items are a must! The slower it spins the longer the life of the compressor. If I was there I would help you find one on Craigslist, honest to GOD the older ones are ten fold better than what you can buy today. If I was there I could help you look into the used ones, but without you knowing what to look for all I can tell you is the X 1.25 , cast sleaves , bearings, tank size go atleast a 30 gal and the slower the RPM the better. I have had some small portables for my business and personal use. I have had a Dewalt and it was ok but not much better than to drive nails, blow up a tire etc. but it had small tanks. The Ridgid which I bought for the replacement of the Dewalt was way better in quality hands down. I used to have a 30 gallon craftsman years ago and was doing some spray painting etc. wore out 2 pumps on it. aluminum sleaves and bushings for bearing what a peice of crap. Now I have a 80 gallon horizontal ingersol rand that was meant to have a 15 hp 3 phase motor on it, Did some research put a smaller motor on it, rebuilt it and I wouldn't take less than $4,500 if someone wanted it these days. Compressors IMHO is something that if you buy , buy good quality and it will last you your life time. If you buy crap like I did when I first started you will keep buying for your entire life.

G

 

[dannymax]

Been thinking for awhile now how nice it would be to not have to go running for ear protection everytime one of the two oil-less compressors fires up, and it looks like I may have a line on a dual head Copeland dental air compressor.

Supposed to be an extremely quiet, high quality machine. Not cheap by any means, tho.

I'm assuming the cfm output would be fairly high considering the demands it was designed to meet. Does anyone know about these dental compressors, what to look for, questions to ask? :confused2:

Don't mean to hi-jack but might provide add'l. info for someone looking for a shop compressor.

 

[[email protected]]

I can't tell you what kind of compressor to buy. But, I can tell you which NOT to buy.
http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hard...=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#specifications

I received one of these as a gift. All I can say is that I am glad I did not pay for it. I hate it! Its loud, takes forever to fill the tank, and can't keep up with demands. I don't even bother to break out air tools, it just get frustruating

 

[Redbone]

Here is some information that I found while doing some research on air compressors. I am in the process of building a 30x40 garage (should start building after spring thaw, 2013) and will need to get a bigger air compressor for the air tools I want. I have a Campbell Hausfield that will work for time being, it's like this one: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Campbell-Hausfeld-8-Gallon-Air-Compressor-Kit/12441872
Coupled with the great advice here and what I found on the web I should be able to get just what I need.

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

I do find myself waiting for the compressor to "catch up" when working on heavily torqued things and when running my muffler cutter. That is the baseline you need to look at....if you are going to be working on small projects like a motorcycle, then you wont need a huge compressor. Bigger projects require more air, and the oil less compressors sure make a lot of noise....my wife always plugs her ears when she comes into the garage when its running!

 

[alorio1]

There is about 4 Copeland dental air compressors on Ebay this morning. But no specifics listed on CFMs or max air pressure listed. The pricing was on the high side for me, but if you have a lead on one cheap enough I would certairly look at it and see if there is a tag on the unit giving CFMs and max operating PSI. Another thing to think about parts for medical eguipment is very costly........Joe

Been thinking for awhile now how nice it would be to not have to go running for ear protection everytime one of the two oil-less compressors fires up, and it looks like I may have a line on a dual head Copeland dental air compressor.

Supposed to be an extremely quiet, high quality machine. Not cheap by any means, tho.

I'm assuming the cfm output would be fairly high considering the demands it was designed to meet. Does anyone know about these dental compressors, what to look for, questions to ask? :confused2:

Don't mean to hi-jack but might provide add'l. info for someone looking for a shop compressor.

 

[dannymax]

There is about 4 Copeland dental air compressors on Ebay this morning. But no specifics listed on CFMs or max air pressure listed. The pricing was on the high side for me, but if you have a lead on one cheap enough I would certairly look at it and see if there is a tag on the unit giving CFMs and max operating PSI. Another thing to think about parts for medical eguipment is very costly........Joe

I saw the ones on ebay too Joe....they sure don't give them away!

Got an email in to the guy and hopefully I'll get to talk with him about it.

 

[FootNote]

Hey guys, I went ahead and got the DeWalt compressor.

I got a lot of good advice and the majority did say to go with one that needed oil, but I went with the oiless DeWalt because it seems 99% of the reviews on it were positive side. I also got the three year warenty so just incase it does crap out on me, I am protective.

I did start it up, and yes it is loud but I am in a two car garage, and if I am in the garage I plan on haveing the doors open so the noise is not all that bad, this is not a tool I will be using all day long, several days a week.

Bottom line I am pretty happy with it, even though I did not follow all the advice, I am greatfull for it anyway.

Thanks!

 

[RaWarrior]

For intermittent use you should be fine. The best advice I can give for these is to keep in mind they're only good for roughly a 50% duty cycle.....so for 5 minutes of running, they need at least 5 minutes off to cool down.

Though I would have skipped the warranty. Where did you buy it from? Those checkout-lane warranties are thinly veiled scams. Buddy bought a table saw from lowe's or one of those places, the motor shit out, he went to the store to claim the warranty. They just handed him a card with an 800 warranty claims number. They said he needed to ship the saw in for repairs, and include a prepaid label for the return shipping.

He paid like an extra $100 for the "no questions asked" warranty and found that it gave him the opportunity to pay more than the saw cost to go get it fixed "for free".

 

[FootNote]

For intermittent use you should be fine. The best advice I can give for these is to keep in mind they're only good for roughly a 50% duty cycle.....so for 5 minutes of running, they need at least 5 minutes off to cool down.

Though I would have skipped the warranty. Where did you buy it from? Those checkout-lane warranties are thinly veiled scams. Buddy bought a table saw from lowe's or one of those places, the motor shit out, he went to the store to claim the warranty. They just handed him a card with an 800 warranty claims number. They said he needed to ship the saw in for repairs, and include a prepaid label for the return shipping.

He paid like an extra $100 for the "no questions asked" warranty and found that it gave him the opportunity to pay more than the saw cost to go get it fixed "for free".

I got it at home depot. Honestly the comments as far as the life expectancy did worry me a bit so thats why I got the extended warrenty just in case. Normally I dont, but between Home Depot and DeWalt, I am relitivly confident I wont get raped on it.

 

[gamorg02]

For intermittent use you should be fine. The best advice I can give for these is to keep in mind they're only good for roughly a 50% duty cycle.....so for 5 minutes of running, they need at least 5 minutes off to cool down.

Though I would have skipped the warranty. Where did you buy it from? Those checkout-lane warranties are thinly veiled scams. Buddy bought a table saw from lowe's or one of those places, the motor shit out, he went to the store to claim the warranty. They just handed him a card with an 800 warranty claims number. They said he needed to ship the saw in for repairs, and include a prepaid label for the return shipping.

He paid like an extra $100 for the "no questions asked" warranty and found that it gave him the opportunity to pay more than the saw cost to go get it fixed "for free".

the trick is it was under $200 so its a replacement on site warranty, no send your crap in warranty. i don't deal with those.

 

[dannymax]

For intermittent use you should be fine. The best advice I can give for these is to keep in mind they're only good for roughly a 50% duty cycle.....so for 5 minutes of running, they need at least 5 minutes off to cool down.

Though I would have skipped the warranty. Where did you buy it from? Those checkout-lane warranties are thinly veiled scams. Buddy bought a table saw from lowe's or one of those places, the motor shit out, he went to the store to claim the warranty. They just handed him a card with an 800 warranty claims number. They said he needed to ship the saw in for repairs, and include a prepaid label for the return shipping.

He paid like an extra $100 for the "no questions asked" warranty and found that it gave him the opportunity to pay more than the saw cost to go get it fixed "for free".

They held up their end of the deal Ryan....they didn't ask any questions.....just told him what he had to do and walked away!! :rofl_200::rofl_200::rofl_200: