As Xmas nears and one ponders gifts for ...well, craftsman in self ,
I could not help but think of finally getting an air compressor.

Many great uses come to mind ... and with HF offering these great
deals on the machinery, it's well within reach.

To get the regular nay-sayers outta way: I have great many
HF tools (mill, lathe, bandsaw, buffer , TIG, MIG etc) and LOVE them.
For the price
they ALL were great deals for me and have been serving me faithfully,
some for
few years by now. I understand the limitations too.

I am thinking about using AC to power ligher grinders, engravers, spray
painting,
occasional nailer - all with fairly light usage patterns. In other
words - if I do
use it with nailer, I don't expect it to be able to drive a 2" nail
into oak every
2 seconds or anything like that or use spray painter to shoot a gallon
of paint
in 2 minutes.

What would be a good CFM raiting to get ? Will , say ,4 CFM @ 90 psi
drive all these
tools ?

What is a difference between SCFM and CFM ? Most newer and cheaper AC
are rated in SCFM and am sensing a little gotcha there.

What about gallon ratings ?


Any advice is much appreciated

well, my first air compressor was a Sears unit with 7.2CFM at 60 PSI -
it was barely adequate, but then again I paint cars occasionally - the
spray guns (craftstman) I used also used 7.2CFM (but at lower
pressure) so the pump bascially ran 100% of the time while I was
painting. This was a 2 HP compressor - the HF 5 HP compressor puts
out less air, so beware, and use only CFM at pressure ratings.

by the way, if you are near Los Angeles, I am thinking of selling the
Crafstman compressor (it works fine, I just don't use it) - just
contact me off list and make arrangements

you can get my email off my web site www.wbnoble.com, or you can write
to bill at that web site and it will reach me



On 2 Dec 2005 15:07:29 -0800, "rashid111" wrote:

As Xmas nears and one ponders gifts for ...well, craftsman in self ,
I could not help but think of finally getting an air compressor.

Many great uses come to mind ... and with HF offering these great
deals on the machinery, it's well within reach.

To get the regular nay-sayers outta way: I have great many
HF tools (mill, lathe, bandsaw, buffer , TIG, MIG etc) and LOVE them.
For the price
they ALL were great deals for me and have been serving me faithfully,
some for
few years by now. I understand the limitations too.

I am thinking about using AC to power ligher grinders, engravers, spray
painting,
occasional nailer - all with fairly light usage patterns. In other
words - if I do
use it with nailer, I don't expect it to be able to drive a 2" nail
into oak every
2 seconds or anything like that or use spray painter to shoot a gallon
of paint
in 2 minutes.

What would be a good CFM raiting to get ? Will , say ,4 CFM @ 90 psi
drive all these
tools ?

What is a difference between SCFM and CFM ? Most newer and cheaper AC
are rated in SCFM and am sensing a little gotcha there.

What about gallon ratings ?


Any advice is much appreciated
Bill

www.wbnoble.com

to contact me, do not reply to this message,
instead correct this address and use it

will iam_ b_ No ble at msn daught com

rashid111 writes:

What is a difference between SCFM and CFM?

From my page at http://www.truetex.com/aircompressors.htm :

An "SCFM" (standard cubic foot per minute) is a CFM produced with input air
at 68 deg F, 36 percent RH, and 14.7 psia pressure (the mere letters
"SCFM" refer to no official standard, and while various temperature and RH
values are in use, these are the most commonly accepted values).
"Displacment CFM" is the rate of volume displaced by a reciprocating piston
compressor, which is compared to the delivered CFM to evaluate volumetric
efficiency. "Peak horsepower" typically means the electrical power drawn by
the motor at the instant of starting; this figure is a meaningless
specification because it says next to nothing about the sustainable
horsepower delivered by the system. "Peak horsepower" most definitely does
not mean anything like "what you get if you run this unit full throttle",
"what the motor can deliver for short periods of time", or "what the motor
can do if heavily loaded". Also, rated CFM at "90 psi" can really mean the
inflated value measured from the CFM input during a pump-up from 0 to 90
psi. This is what you get in the absence of well-defined engineering
testing standards and methods, which is to say, "consumer" mentality.