The cruel hoax of air tool ratings

On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 14:49:15 -0600, Richard J Kinch brought forth from the murky depths:

I think their performance specs were all off by one decimal point to the right. 3cfm should have been 0.3cfm. That's a tire filler, not an air compressor.

-- Remember: Every silver lining has a cloud. ----

Anyone who has a calculator and has used that calculator to multiply amps X voltage from the motor plates of an electric motor on a compressor, and divided by 750 watts / horsepower, knows full well that all the manufacturers of public-consumption compressors are a pack of liars and thieves.

Anyone who is cynical about compressors is not surprised about real-air-tool air consumption as well.

To get the truth you have to measure it yourself. Otherwise you don't know what your variables are. A person practicing science writes three pages of set-up notes for 1/4 page of data. Common folk like most of us don't have the patience to do that, and when we tell somebody something, they should think seriously about where the truth lies in our statements. I include myself in the "common folk" category, and people in the High Fidelity and Air Compressor business as, as I have already stated, packs of liars and thieves, because they know better, and do it anyway.

Of course (in this case) amps * volts doesn't give you watts- it gives you VA, but VA

Hah!! I would be a rich man if I could get phase-shifted amps to show up as torque. Someday I must tell you of my experience with the three-phrase motor used as a rotary transformer to get three-phase power in my shop from single phase line current.

Brownnsharp