Considering to buy a larger air compressor

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I am a DIYer, mainly for car maintenance. What do you have at home if you use a 1/2 impacy wrench? I mean capacity of tank, and brand. Thanks.
 
Depends upon the size of your garage, and what you want to do. You can run a 1/2" impact off anything with a regulator. It depends upon how much you want to do without waiting for it to re-pressurize.

My dad's shop/garage, we have a 60 gallon with a 5hp motor. No waiting. I can sandblast parts and it can keep up. Run air tools including a 1/2" impact, snap on a hose to blow off the concrete pad, pretty much use it all day.

Brand is honestly not that important as a) quality of your fittings downstream to not leak matter, and b) Motor on different brands changes year to year it seems to me.

I love to sandblast and refinish stuff; to me that is the best use of an air compressor. Impact, when I need it, I can substitute a hammer unit or a large lever to get the job done. Not the most important use of an air compressor to me. Thus, I love the 60 gallon and 5hp set up. Once you have that, you will be surprised how cheap cabinets are and the new things you can do. The marginal cost on slightly larger compressor tanks vs. 20 and 30, and motors, can be small. So don't go too small, if you have the space, is my opinion.
 
Thanks. Harbor freight has a vertical tank, 21 gal. What do you think? No heavy use, just for car. Mainly busting frozen bolts. I have a 3 gal pancake, certainly won't work with half in impact wrench. My electric impact corded which is also from HF does not have enough loosening torque.
 
I have an oil-less 20gallon Husky that seems to do the job. I figure when the motor goes I'll get a better setup but keep the tank and plumb it in. It does seem to run near-continuous when I start spraying FF.
 
Whatever you run on a 120 volt, 15 amp circuit will all be +/- 20% of each other. To go really big you need to rewire. Max power from a normal wall socket is just shy of 2 hp-- there were some marketing liars a while back. (cough Sears cough)

Look up the spec for sustained cubic feet/ min at 90 PSI. IIRC most are 4.5 or so.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
I like compressed air, but I don't like hearing the compressors run.


Amateur.
wink.gif
I love the sound of compressed air in the morning. It sounds like... (wait for it)... "Victory."

Had to throw that in. I watched "A Night in Ole' Mexico" last night. Robert Duvall is unbelievable. Great movie, great actor. Guy is in his 80s and out-acting guys 1/4 his age. And it's not just experience or youth. He uses his body, is there making you buy the character. Bowed legs and pot-belly and all. Smells like "Victory" to me...
 
Battery impacts are not environmentally sound. They make 110v electric impacts.
 
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Originally Posted By: Vern_in_IL
Battery impacts are not environmentally sound. They make 110v electric impacts.


Find me a 800lb-ft one for 300$ please.

you must really hate hybrid and electric cars then?
 
I have a Campbell Hausfeld 20 gallon compressor that has served me well for almost 20 years. I can't think of a job outside of auto body work where a 20 gallon would not be sufficient.
 
I too have an older CH 20 gallon compressor that I scored on CL for $50. It still has the original manifold and holds air 100%. I just used it this weekend to remove the front brake brackets on my T-Rex to get the rotors out.

I have a 10 year old HF Earthquake 1/2 in impact that just laughs at lug nuts and caliper bracket bolts, although the new design of the Earthquake makes me jealous.

I even use the compressor to run an angle grinder with finishing disks and it keeps up well. I don't paint or sand, so I've never wished for a larger capacity.
 
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Originally Posted By: windeye
I am a DIYer, mainly for car maintenance. What do you have at home if you use a 1/2 impacy wrench? I mean capacity of tank, and brand. Thanks.


You have to be careful not to underestimate your future requirements for additional air tools once you start using them.
Air buffers, sanders, spray guns, undercoating guns, sand blasters, air hammers are all cool tools to own but many require a bigger tank and more HP.
A 2HP 20 gallon might be okay for the impact and an air ratchet but some of the tools mentioned will need 3-5 HP and 60-80 gallon.

For one tool at a time a 60 gallon 3HP single stage will work fine, for high CFM tools a 2 stage is more desirable. Try to future proof your choice.
 
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