Dear Professor Compressor,

[Guest Anonymous]

I am finally ready to purchase a compressor to get the real restoration in action. I am considering the usual _okay_ brands such as Ingersol-Rand, Craftsman, CH and others. They all flow about 10cfm at 90psi. Harbor Freight has one by US General that flows over 12cfm at 90psi, for the same price as the rest... I am wondering if this would be a decent purchase? I can't find anyone that can attest to the quality. Any ideas?

Also, love my hostname.

-Patrick

[Guest Anonymous]

I have the standard 120v 6 HP home compressor of 30 gal and roughly 7-8 CFM at 90 psi. It's great for nail guns, some wood finish spraying, impact guns, air ratchets, and other low air use tools but can't handle the big stuff.

I'd highly recommend getting the highest CFM you can afford. That would allow you to run the real cool air tools like the drills (for extended periods of time,) sanders, nibblers, etc. There's nothing worse than running air tools with too little pressure or waiting constantly for the pressure to keep tanking up.

I seem to remember seeing something at Home Depot in the $600 range that did 15+ PSI at 90 PSI.

[Guest Anonymous]

URL: http://www.2002tii-restoration.org/compressor.htm

If all you plan on doing is inflating tires and running tools that don't use too much air (ratchet, impact wrench, etc) you'll be fine. If you want to get into body work, you'll soon regret your purchase. Trust me, I've made this mistake...twice. I would consider a low end two-stage compressor (like the units Home Despot is selling) to be the bare minimum if you want to get serious with a die grinder or a DA, not to mention painting. You'll never hear someone complain that they've got too much air.

Good luck,

Martin

[Guest Anonymous]

URL: http://www.bmw2002faq.com/store/index.html

(nt)

[Guest Anonymous]

I've read a lot about compressors (in the market also) and everybody wrote the same thing, size matters 80 gal 2 stage 240v. will cost around 1000 bucks.

Check pacific air compressors, they are in Oregon

link: www.air-compressorsvacuum-pumps.com they sell Champion and ship for free. Quincy is a good brand also. This is stuff your heirs will fight to get after you are gone

Sam's Club has a Delta 80 gal 2 stage 240v. for 767 bucks (here in Ca). Don't know about Delta though but it looks very well made.

Another site to check is www.industrial-air-compressors.com/

HTH

[Guest Anonymous]

tests, and that US General is one of those companies that would

do that. They would probably present false, or not entrely true

information. For example some computer companies post

performance specs on their audio cards that are not what the card

will actually give you, and it's not because you have lemons. Either

they could be testing a one-off, non-production unit under

utopian-like conditions, or they could be giving you the specs of

components alone. They could sneek that in by saying something

like, the D/A converters boast a 109db signal to noise ratio. But,

the card as a whole may only give you 99db s/n ratio when

assembled and working in the un-utopian real world.

A compressor is something that most peole just want to work for

what they need it to do, but you're obviously more keen than that.

When I was working at Mesa/Boogie Jim (the VP) bought a

$160,000 screw type compressor for the factory because that's

what they needed.

You get what you pay for.

-El

[Guest Anonymous]

(nt)