Confusing compressors
 

Afternoon all

I currently run a small oil less 25l compressor and it is ok using centain tools but runs out of puff quite easily on others.

Looking around there is a large amount of variations out there , psi , cfm ,hp , bar etc.

Anyone got an idiots guide to what is best?

Budget will be between £300 - £400 and was thinking 100l tank.

It will be mainly used with a da sander , 1/2" buzz gun , spraying(biggest thing being a bumper) and cut off tools

Any help gratefully received

Stan

cfm is the amount of air it can shift per minute, this is important
psi and bar I'd describe as the same as mm and inches, the same thing by a different name, pressure, the amount of pressure the compressor can generate when pumping something up. This again will be important as your air tools will have a working pressure
hp, horse power.

25L is small and will run out of air causing the motor will keep restarting.

Before you buy another compressor think about what you want it to do, you mention spraying, I suspect that take a lot of air.

I have a shot blaster and the compressor is 270 litres Sealey SAC1276B and this still starts every few minutes. Unless doing a lot of work at one time involving air, I'd not start mine up.

Your air tools should have a guide on what they need to run properly.

http://www.truetex.com/aircompressors.htm

macafee2

Look at SGS. (https://www.sgs-engineering.com/)

I've got one of their 50ltr 2.5hp compressors, just under 10cfm.

As already said, it depends on what you are planning to use it for. Obviously if you're spraying, you'll need filters to 'clean' the air and possibly even driers, but that's into a lot of money.

Look for the cfm (i.e. the air consumption) of the tool you'll use for the longest duration, then at least match it.
E.g. let's say you've got a DA sander needing 6 cfm, and a wheel gun needing 10 cfm - you size the compressor for the 6, as that's needing a sustained flow of air. The nut gun only needs short bursts, the tank will handle it alone.


The other spanner to throw in: how much electric power have you got available to run the thing?
If you can only plug into a 13A socket then you're limited to about 3hp compressors off-the-shelf.


Another option is to buy just an extra cylinder, and connectit it with the existing compressor...

Only running off a normal plug socket in the garage.
Don't think I have enough brain cells to start linking cylinders together .
The main things I will be painting are fairings and tank off the bike and the front bumper on the mg as its looking a bit tatty at the moment.
The rest of it is just general fiddling on the fleet.
Stan

cfm = cubic feet (per) minute. This refers to amount of air delivered.

psi = pounds (per) square inch. This refers to the amount of force generated.

The Gardner-Denver portable compressors of the 60s,70s and 80s were designated as SP600 (Standard Portable 600)or D800 (Diesel powered 800) cfm.

A compressor should be measured on how it fairs removing a diesel crank pulley bolt.

Hopefully not:icon_lol:

Just bought this one and I can highly recommend it, it's the larget you can go on a standard 13 amp socket:-

https://www.sgs-engineering.com/sc10...air-compressor

For £239.00 they also do several different deals with accessories added.

I spent a while searching and it was the cheapest I could find a 100L with 14.6 cfm, Machine Mart do the same compressor, for £311.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clar...e-air-compres/

sorry I think that is a bit misleading. With 240v, 3hp I think is the maximum motor size due to start up consumption. Mine has two 3hp motors and works from 240v. One motor starts and then a few seconds later the second motor starts, my compressor is 270 litres.
whilst what you say may be correct for a 3 pin plug and socket, change the plug and socket to a different type and you can run a bigger compressor


macafee2