Susan Thomas wrote:
Am looking to buy an air compressor for my son for Christmas somewhere in
the $200-300 range. I have looked at several Craftsman models but unsure
about which would be better.

People don't respect the Sears Craftsman brand anymore. Ingersoll/Rand
is a brand of compressor that I know people do respect. Here is a link
to a compressor in your price range from a well known supplier:

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...ne&rotate=none

The tools and tasks your son are planning will determine the type or
size of compressor he needs. compressor output is measured in cubic
feet per minute or cfm and air tools are rated the same way. that not
the final word however since the size of the storage tank greatly
influences the work you can do. You can't have too big of a tank.
That's why I reccomend a compressor with a medium sized tank. It's big
enough to increase it's usefulness yet is still portable (on wheels).

Best of all is a stationary unit. Them things are so noisy so you
just put it where the noise bothers you the least, maybe in another
room. Beware of putting it outside or in an unheated room because my
compressor won't run when the temp goes below zero.

The cool thing about compressed air is that you can run as much hose or
pipe as you want, anywhere you want, and there is no loss of power.
More pipe also means more storage and one place where I worked ran lots
of pipe back and forth just to increase storage.