Air compressor questions

As Xmas nears and one ponders gifts for ...well, craftsman in self :), I could not help but think of finally getting an air compressor.

Many great uses come to mind ... and with HF offering these great deals on the machinery, it's well within reach.

To get the regular nay-sayers outta way: I have great many HF tools (mill, lathe, bandsaw, buffer , TIG, MIG etc) and LOVE them. For the price they ALL were great deals for me and have been serving me faithfully, some for few years by now. I understand the limitations too.

I am thinking about using AC to power ligher grinders, engravers, spray painting, occasional nailer - all with fairly light usage patterns. In other words - if I do use it with nailer, I don't expect it to be able to drive a 2" nail into oak every

2 seconds or anything like that or use spray painter to shoot a gallon of paint in 2 minutes.

What would be a good CFM raiting to get ? Will , say ,4 CFM @ 90 psi drive all these tools ?

What is a difference between SCFM and CFM ? Most newer and cheaper AC are rated in SCFM and am sensing a little gotcha there.

What about gallon ratings ?

Any advice is much appreciated

Reply to
rashid111
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well, my first air compressor was a Sears unit with 7.2CFM at 60 PSI - it was barely adequate, but then again I paint cars occasionally - the spray guns (craftstman) I used also used 7.2CFM (but at lower pressure) so the pump bascially ran 100% of the time while I was painting. This was a 2 HP compressor - the HF 5 HP compressor puts out less air, so beware, and use only CFM at pressure ratings.

by the way, if you are near Los Angeles, I am thinking of selling the Crafstman compressor (it works fine, I just don't use it) - just contact me off list and make arrangements

you can get my email off my web site

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or you can write to bill at that web site and it will reach me

Bill

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to contact me, do not reply to this message, instead correct this address and use it

will iam_ b_ No ble at msn daught com

Reply to
William B Noble (don't reply t

From my page at

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:

An "SCFM" (standard cubic foot per minute) is a CFM produced with input air at 68 deg F, 36 percent RH, and 14.7 psia pressure (the mere letters "SCFM" refer to no official standard, and while various temperature and RH values are in use, these are the most commonly accepted values). "Displacment CFM" is the rate of volume displaced by a reciprocating piston compressor, which is compared to the delivered CFM to evaluate volumetric efficiency. "Peak horsepower" typically means the electrical power drawn by the motor at the instant of starting; this figure is a meaningless specification because it says next to nothing about the sustainable horsepower delivered by the system. "Peak horsepower" most definitely does not mean anything like "what you get if you run this unit full throttle", "what the motor can deliver for short periods of time", or "what the motor can do if heavily loaded". Also, rated CFM at "90 psi" can really mean the inflated value measured from the CFM input during a pump-up from 0 to 90 psi. This is what you get in the absence of well-defined engineering testing standards and methods, which is to say, "consumer" mentality.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

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