In article ,
Chris Shearer Cooper wrote:
How do I know if the compressor I bought to power my finish nailer is strong
enough to blow out my brother's sprinkler system?

It's just a little pancake compressor (Porter Cable, 6 gallon tank), it says
it can do 3.7 cfm at 40 psi or 2.6 cfm at 90 psi, but I'm thinking those are
continuous numbers? And I need like 10 cfm but only for like 30 seconds?

do the math:

6 gallons is somewhat less than 1 cu ft. Approximately 0.8 cu ft, in fact.

At +90 psi (6 atmospheres above ambient), there's just about 4.8 cu ft 'usable'
air in the tank.

In 30 seconds (1/2 min.), the compressor could contribute another 1.3 cu ft.

You're now up to 6.1 cu ft out of the 10 you claim you need.


Find a 15 gal tank that you can pressurize to 90psi and you've got the
30 seconds @ 10 cfm.

If I'm doing the math right, charging that 15 gal tank to 90 psi should take
only about 5 minutes.