I am going to be purchasing an air compressor very soon. I want to run all my tools off it such as impact wrench, grinder, ratchet etc. I know I want to have a pretty good supply of sustained air. I am rebuilding a f250 highboy and do not want to be limited. So my questions are:

1. Should I get a twin cylinder or single cylinder?

2. Belt drive or direct drive?

3. Oil free or oil resevoir?

4. What brand names should I look at?

5. 1 stage or 2 stage?

I know I will need to get a 220V machine.

All sugggestions are appreciated.

Tony

 

I got a twin cyliner with oil resevoir, belt drive, 110v with the ability to switch to 220v. I like it cause it's very quite and drives all of my air hog tools. Snap On 1/2 impact wrench takes a lot!

 

what brand is it?

How can it switch from 110 to 220? Sounds great

 

It's a Ciasons made in Santa Ana, CA. I picked it up at the factory a few years ago. I think I have to do some kind of re-wiring to switch to 220v, I'll have to find the manual.

 

You want a two cylinder, 60 gallon, 220 volt, oil-type compressor, one stage, or preferably two stage.. It is the standard "real" shop compressor without getting waay expensive.


IMHO.

 

Before he went to work there, I always thought Ingersoll-Rand were "THE" compressors to own.

BZZT! Nope. His opinion of I-R. "JUNK". They do mostly industrial compressors but some "industrial" sized ones are as little as 60 gallon.

There's piston and screw types. Supposedly screw types are more efficient.

 

So what exactly do you want? how many cfm? Do you want to be able to sand blast?
use air sanders, Paint? how much do you want to spend.? I know of a good unit but it might be too big for what you need.

 

I dont need to be able to paint, but I'd definately need to be able to sand body repairs such as welded panels etc. , possibly sand blast the under side of the truck. The unit I looked at at Lowes was Ingersoll-RAnd and was $637. It was 2 cylinder, oil resevior, 60 gallon, I think 13 CFM, 220V. I like that one. what do u think?

Tony

 

That sounds pretty good. 13 CFM at what pressure? You may be limited for blasting.
I do alot of blasting for resto work and need a lot of air. Like 25 cfm at 90 psi. I think I'm gonna get the upright at the bottom.
http://www.asedeals.com/air_compressors.html

 

The question was on converting from 110 to 220 on compressors. It is done in the motor by changing the connections on the motor windings. If your compressor can do this it will be indicated on the motor nameplate. The connection diagrams will be on the motor nameplate or under the motor wiring cover. Basically you are reconnecting the 110 motor windings in parallel or series. The current will change inversely. For example my compressor is 110v 15amp or 220v 7.5amp.

 

If you plan on doing some serious work I would stay away from the box store compressors. You will pay more for a machine from someplace like WW Graingers but you also get much more too. I would look at CFM @ Pressure only. The number of cylinders is meaningless. You will get around 4.5 CFM per horsepower of delivered air. A piston machine is slightly more efficient than a screw compressor and much lower initial cost. Also do not consider an oiless direct drive unit. Not very efficient and very unreliable. Will need lots of maintenance.

I would recommend a two stage machine for any shop doing automotive repairs. Any of your tools will work better @ 150 PSIG than @ 100 PSIG. If you have a tool that absolutly cannot use high pressure, such as a paint gun, then reduce the pressure with a regulator.

A few good brands of commercial compressors are Quincy, Ingersoll Rand, Champion, Speedair. These Mfgs. all make machines designed for homeowners use, single phase 110/220 volt.

On the higher end as far as price and quality goes is Gardner Denver, Sullair, I/R, Quincy. These are industrial duty and quite a bit more expensive. There is of course other brands available but for the sake of brevety I have only mentioned a few.

You need to look at how much air in CFM you expect to use ( Your sandblast cabinet will probably dictate ) and buy one of enough horsepower to cover that. Good luck.

 

I picked up a 60 gallon 5hp ingersol rand. twin cylinder, oil resevoir, external driven upright. One of the best purchases my shop has seen so far, it'll run basically anything ill need to
Brian

 

Thought this might be a good place to post this. I got it off another Ford site I frequent (Mustang site). May involve some of you guys.

http://www.aircompressorsettlement.com/index.php3

 

Great, it closed Oct. 21st. Oh well, $50 in air tools doesn't buy much, especially when you have to pick from the manufactors tools and from a predetermined list - at retail cost...

 

I've looked at the same compressor at Lowes: 13 CFM @ 90PSI.