What type of air compressor is suitable for home shop?

Nelson,
DO NOT GET AN OIL-LESS compresser. As some have indicated the noise of one of them will make the dogs leave home and cause little children to go running for their mother's skirts. other than that....get a decent storage tank model ( 30-50 gallon ) motor on top of an upright tank taloes less space 110 volt and hase wheels and a handle cause sooner or latter you will want to take it outside for some damn thing temporarily
that's it bud,
joe
 
I will try to be as diplomatic as possible in this reply, as some controversy seems to have arisen (since 2008 or so) about Eaton compressors and/or pumps, disputed country of origin claims, and heavy-handed tactics. It's not that I don't care about such issues, but I think the forum rules here rightly discourage adding fuel to that fire.

That said, my personal experience with a shop air compressor involved building my own using a Baldor 5hp 220v motor ($280 new), a craigslist 60 gal vertical tank ($100), and an Eaton 3 cylinder 18cf bare pump ($280 including UPS shipping?), have been very positive.

My choices ($$ constrained) at the time (2007 or so), were the Chinese units from the usual box stores or HF, no Quincy at NT. No US manufactured pump was in my price range, so I was happy to order a bare pump that had uniformly positive reviews. I was less concerned about the pump on any consumer-grade unit than I was the motor. For about the same money as the box stores/HF, I at least had a solid US motor.

I was not concerned in the least about country of origin of the pump. In my price range, I assumed it would be an import. I was more concerned about first choosing an appropriate size & style, putting the thing together, and finally, parts availability should something break in the future. The Eaton staff was knowledgeable and very helpful, even though I just wanted a bare pump.

I opted for a single stage, multi-cylinder over a 2-stage (higher pressure capable) simply because I'd rather run more cfm at a lower pressure, and that was the biggest pump I could find that didn't involve freight bills higher than the pump cost. My pressure cutout is set at 125psi. The Eaton pump has simply purred whenever I asked it to for the past three years. While no compressor is silent when it's working, the Eaton is quieter than most I've heard. Yes, you can carry on a conversation while standing next to it while it's running.

Just wanted to toss this idea out. I'm a happy camper with my choice, no connection with Eaton other than a satisfied consumer of one of their products. As always, YMMV.

Doug
 
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author=Gravy link=topic=156.msg693#msg693 date=1289094895
I'd say that most would do well with an old-school 2hp 20 gallon portable horizontal unit - oil-lubricated, belt-driven, about 5.8cfm@90psi. Sears and Grainger and just about everybody else have sold millions of that type for decades, and for good reason. Reasonable price, reasonable performance, reasonable noise level, reasonable space and electrical requirements. It will run an impact wrench well enough to rotate your tires. It will not run an air sander for long.
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Absolutely agree. I missed one of those yesterday for $95 because I thought it would still be around after lunch. It wasn't.
Search on Speedaire|Champion.

I've had a top-line Sears Craftsman Professional the last 6 or 7 years. Oilless. the noise will drive you out or make you deaf. I'll hang onto it for a while, because it's portable.
Now I have a 60-gallon upright, plus several smaller ones for portable use.
If you ever expect to have a blasting cabinet, you will need a big compressor - 13 CFM at 90 psi recommended.

As for putting it outside in Noo Yawk, might be an issue with cold starts and condensation in the dead of winter.
Not a problem much here in Texas. especially right now =:O
 
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I have owned several compressors down through the years. The first two were Sears. One was very small and seemed to run constantly. It was suitable for small spraying jobs and blowing up tires but it would overheat after a few minutes so I eventually sold it. The second one was also Sears with a larger compressor unit and a ten gallon tank. It was OK for spraying and could run some air tools but, generally it was too small for something like a beed blasting cabinet which I wanted to buy. I gave that one to my brother after about ten years.

With that as a background, about 15 years ago, I decided to solve my compressor problem. I went to a local store and bought an American-built unit. It was assembled by the air compressor store using a vertical 80 gallon ASME-certified tank, a US-made two stage cast iron compressor and a five hp. single phase Canadian motor. It's been running ever since without so much as a single fault. It wasn't cheap but, after the usage I've given it, I can't complain.

I change oil about every six months. It holds a quart of 30 wt. non-detergent that I get from the local Tractor Supply Co. I drain it about once a week from the petcock on the bottom, It usually doesn't have much water in it.

One feature I like is that there are two large (2-1/2") threaded bungs on the side of the tank that are sealed with O-rings. This makes it possible to remove them to look inside and see if there is anything going on, like rust. The last time I looked, it appeared that all was well. The tank, as I mentioned, has an ASME cert. tag welded onto it. The walls are about 3/16" steel. It's set to shut off at 150 psi and the motor draws 23 amps per line, although it seldom runs and will pump back up in less than two minutes. It's rated at 21 SCFM and will keep up with my bead blaster so no complaints there, either.

If I can make a pitch for spending your money, I would suggest that an really good air compressor is a good place to put it. You will find yourself using it all of the time. I have cutters, drills, hammers and die grinders that I use almost daily when I'm working in the shop. They are all H.F. and plenty good enough for my needs since I'm not buildiing nuclear submarine parts. LOL.

I like the vertical style for its smaller footprint. I left it on its original wood pallet until just last year since it's heavy and I didn't want to move it (600# more or less, I think). Last year the pallet started to fail so I had to remove the motor and compressor unit so I could lift the tank. I made some steel feet that have 1/4" of rubber under them.

That's my compessor story. Here's a picture.






AircompressorXX.jpg
 
As much as I hate the noise of the oilless, if I were going to dedicate a compressor to spraying paint, an oilless might be the correct choice.
But i don't expect to be painting anything like a show car ever again, so it's a non-issue for me.
 
author=woodspinner link=topic=156.msg712#msg712 date=1289188648
My compresser is in a quit room in my shop........,still can talk and hear normally even use the phone no problem .
Hope this helps.
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I wonder if i could build a "quite" room around the headstock of my noisy lathe? ;D
 
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the biggest you can afford!! I have a 80 gal 6hp vert. 220 and until I was given a big bead blast cabinet it was great, now I wish I had another one just for the beadblaster!. You can never have too many tools or too much air
 
have a Broomwade compressor, twin cylinder, single stage,max pressure 125 psi.
it has a 3 hp electric motor and delivers 12cfm at 100 psi. its is 240 volt.
that is the biggest motor that can be run at that voltage here in New Zealand.
ThI is is an English compressor, but The American compressors are really good to,
I suggest you buy a belt driven pump, as opposed to a unit construction (motor and pump in one unit) buy a cast iron as opposed to aluminium, if you are going to use a lot of air, have it set up so you can run it on (continuous run) ( load , up to pressure then unload without stopping) or( light duty stop start) motors don't like stopping and starting, so the rule of thumb is more than nine starts an hour, put it on continuous run. By all means build a little house for it outside! (they like clean air!) dirty air laden with paint fumes only block the air intake, vales, and coat the piston in grime, eventually building up reducing the bumper clearance between the piston and head and starting to make knocking noises.but don't forget, it is air cooled! make provision for cooling air.
or it will fry in an airtight box. regards Bob
 
My opinion is that the compressor you need depends on what you will be doing in your shop. Lots of body work or porting heads? You need way more compressor due to the volume of air required for those operations. Running impact wrenches and air ratchets, occasional spray paint job, blowing parts dry, not nearly as much compressor. I fall into category two and have a Dayton belt driven 2 horsepower compressor with cast iron pump and 20 gallon tank that is over 35 years old and it still works well. In fact the tank gave up before anything else due to rust. Unfortunately the tanks aren't usually coated against corrosion inside. I welded in new metal and coated it myself with epoxy 20 years ago and all still works well. The only other trouble I ever had was the motor capacitor. The unit is so old that a factory replacement wasn't available so I got a near match and all is well again.

I would like to mention that I did a port/polish job on a set of V-8 heads years ago using the same compressor. It ran almost continuously and didn't keep up with the die grinder I used. The job got done but I felt as if I had abused the compressor and decided not to undertake anything similar again unless I got something bigger.

As others have said, stay away from oil-less types. They are very limited in service life.
 
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