I'd like some advice on how many cubic feet per minute most of you fellow home workshopers find adequate for general uses such as blowing down machines and cleaning crap out from intricate shapes etc.
While its always nice to have some extra capacity, I dont want to have to use 3 phase power if possible. I'm on a 240 volt single phase system and I think you can get about 12 CF/M easily on this power. Do most of you find that is enough ?
Thanks, Dean.
for just blowing air on stuff occasionally, any compressor will do, just add a storage tank if it does't have one. If you will run air tools, then you will need more. My compressor is a 5 hp Quincy, delivers 19.5CFM at 160 psi - I need that much flow for spray gun use primarily
You can *never* have enough air out of a little shop compressor. Well, not enough to run big air grinders or do sandblasting. I have a 5hp 2-stage Quincy which puts out something like 17cfm, and it works OK for me. I figure if I have to do jackhammering I'll rent a diesel unit on a trailer. You do *not* need 3 phase power. If you are going first class buy the I-R 7.5hp single phase compressor and buy a refrigerated air dryer and plumb the output of the air pump through the air dryer before it ever goes into the tank. That way your tank will last essentially forever. If I ever get rich ..
Grant
Dean wrote:
Mines 17cfm and has enough capacity to paint a car with. You want at least
12cfm. For blowing down machines that should be more than enough. Once you get a compressor you generally go wild buying airtools afterwards so you are better off going too big than too small and running out of capacity. Mine runs off single phase power.Fraser
Fraser
I was aways told never clean a machine with an air hose. It drives the chips into places they should not be, including your skin and your eyes.
Air consumption depends greatly on your air tools. Air sanders pull the most. Painting pulls a lot. So unless you are sanding and painting cars you don't need a huge compressor. Impact tools and die grinders are intermittent and can be run off any reasonable Air compressor. Something that pumps 8cfm with a 20 gal tank is more than enough.
cs
Harbor Freights "Puma" brand TK5080, 80 gal 3 cylinder is damn hard to beat for $999.99. Been running mine all summer and 16-18 CFM is plenty, and the 80 gal tank is nice...build it up once and plasma cut for 20-30 minutes. Ronnie
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