Knowledge You Can Build On — Est. 1998
Air Compressor
Guy
>Hello folks, need some advise. I want to get a small compressor to blow air out of my turnings and use a small air sander. I have seen a Porter Cable pancake one that comes with a brad nailer. It has received good reviews for use with nailers but nothing about continuous/short burst use. My wife will also use it when with a mini air grinder for her scrollsaw/intarsia stuff.. Any advise will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Guy
Re: Air Compressor
gadi
>the pancake is too small for the uses you described -- mine will be blowing up soon. it recycles and eventually over-heats. not the correct a/c for the job.
Re: Air Compressor
john Lucas
>I'll echo that. I used a brad nailer size compressor for the last few years. It works great to blow out hollow turnings. It runs constantly for spraying but I was usually only spraying for a short time.
For Sanding it again ran constantly and still couldn't keep up. I sanded a little and let it cool. It was slow but lasted quite a while as long as you let it cool off. I now have a 4.5 horse 30 gallon compressor. It's still not good enough to sand for very long. I can usuallyl finish a bowl with it only recycling once or twice . I let it cool completely before doing much more.
Sanding is the most air hogging piece of equipment you can use with a compressor.
Re: Air Compressor
Barry Turner
>Go to Home Depot or Lowes and look at one of their 60 gallon upright compressors. I bought one and love it. Puts out lots of air. Just blowing out chips, it hardly runs at all. Mine was only $379, not a lot more than pancakes. It will put out enough air for all but the more demanding tasks.
Re: Air Compressor
Bob Hackett
>Look at the tools you plan to use now and in the future and find out what pressure they require and also the CFM(volume)required to operate correctly.
Your compressor should be sized to accomodate the tools which require the most pressure and cfm,say 8 cfm@70 psi.Add 20% and you`ll have a compressor that will serve till you decide to do something like sandblasting,then rent.
If you`re getting up there in size look for a 2 stage.They don`t labor as much or pull as much power at start up.A bigger tank also helps keep cycling down.
Once you start switching over to air tools you`ll wonder why you waited so long.They`re a pleasure to use,weigh far less and last alot longer.
Mainely,Bob
