Compressors

[Beefheart]

I am looking into buying a compressor with doing my own spraying mostly in mind, but as air tools are reasonably cheap It will be well worth while. 24 litres capacity seem are well priced would that be enough? I know that the more you pay etc but something around £200 should be adequate for home use. Your tthoughts please

[Stagman]

Through a very sad bereavement, I acquired a whole load of tools amongst which was a basic Clarke compressor unit
I pitched up at my local auto paint supplier (Harlow Essex) complete with pics etc
As I am a novice, the bloke recommended a gravity fed gun which I bought plus hoses, mixing pots and so on
With this plus paint, thinners, wipes and so on I resprayed my first bike (BSA Bantam) last year and I am really pleased with the result
So my thoughts are, yes, go for it
John

[adz25]

Personally would go with a 50litre minimum for running airtools and its the CFM of the compressor pump you need to look at, the larger the better. I have a clarke 3hp 50litre and it runs most of my airtools except the die grinder for long periods of time as it consumes so much. It runs my HVLP gravity guns perfectly ( with a water/oil trap) and my media blaster although again not for more than 15 minutes at a time. I had a 25 litre oil free thing and although i made do with it there were many jobs that took twice as long.

Hope this helps

Adam

[Mick D]

Hi

I have a twin cylinder 15cfm compressor with a 50L reservoir, I wouldn't recommend going any smaller and as said above you must budget for a water/oil trap if you intend to spray with it.

Air tools are like sweets, once you start you can't stop, they're addictive - I have a large range now but the ones in most use are the blow gun, cut-off tool, die grinder and tyre inflator. I also have a blow gun with a vacuum water feed which blasts water spray - it's brilliant for removing crud that's been soaked in Gunk.

Regards Mick

[Beefheart]

50 litres it is then, thanks for the advice chaps.
Colin