Hi
Im in the market for an air compressor for general garage duties
Ive been looking at what machine mart have to offer for about £130
But also what ebay has to offer for the same money
Some of the machines offered on ebay appear to be far superior in spec
ie 50lt tank larger cfm

Im not going to be using it everyday just weekends so having something that can be abused
everyday for years and years isnt necessary
should i steer clear of the more atractive specced items or go with machine mart offerings ?

http://toolstoday.co.uk/product/81153/sip-airmate-hurricane-v245-50-50-litre-2hp-air-compressor-230v-06246?gclid=CMrk1evE-LsCFdOWtAodeQoAUg

Russ off here just got one of them and a coleague has one he has used it to spray a kit car with no complaints.

Alot (not all ) ebay stuff is optimistic about cfms – usually quoting unloaded cfms.

Wolf vtwin compressors have a good reputation though but iirc they are about 200 quid,

Trail rat
I like the look of that havent seen an upright one before
That would work in with my garage space a treat
Thanks

I have a 25 ltr and is great for general duties. I would possibly go to a 50 ltr one next, but annual oil changes and tank drain downs, means it will be a while yet before I will be.

The key if CFM ,
Things like airguns and airdrills like high cfm 8.5 and above
Airblowers and tyre inflators air nailers req lots less
The size of the tank just determines how long you can go before you have to stop
For a airnailer/tyre inflator try axminster tools
The cheap stuff is generaly the same just repainted or rebranded chinese stuff and hard to get parts for
For car stuff budget 350 . 500
Pain in arss waiting for a compressor to build up after 2 nuts
A cheap tyre inflater size and a battery snap on or Milwaukee buzz gun does me..
Just checked a snap on 1/2 gun requires 17cfm and 68ltrs of air a minuet

What you going to be using it for mate?

chunkymonkey – Member
What you going to be using it for mate?

Was going to use it mainly for tyre inflating (cars and bikes )
Airgun for wheels etc
Air blower for tidy up duties
Sand blasting
Possibly a air vacuum but not seen one working yet so on the fence on that one
Im never going to spray anything

so i suppose general duties really

Be careful with old second hand units as the air receiver could have rusted from the inside and be rather dangerous.

And as said above look for the highest CFM you can afford on a reasonable receiver. Make sure it is FAD (free air delivered) and not displacement, as the FAD is what you actually have to use.

As for tools, the easiest way to judge how much air you will need is by how the tool functions and how you will typically use it.

For instance a tyre inflator is simply putting air into an enclosed space at a much lower pressure than the stored volume in you receiver – so it does not take much air.

An impact wrench or drill have a vane powered rotor in that spins to provide the force. The air is then exhausted so it will take a large amount of air if you sit with your finger on the trigger. However in practice you drill or screw/unscrew over a short time period and then put the tool down, so the net air consumption is relatively low.

An air vacuum invariably uses air pressure passing over a machined venturi to create the vacuum. This is a real high user of air and whilst beneficial to industry for the average diy’er I’d advise against their use.

Hope this helps a bit, and I could go a lot deeper into it if needed 🙂

I’m sure we’ve introduced them into our product range at work, I’ll have a look tomorrow and if it’s something along the line’s you need I’ll send a few details over and see what price I can get them at.

Another important thing to check is the duty cycle. Most piston type air compressors have a duty cycle of around 60%, especially in the price bracket you are looking at. This means you will only be able to run the compressor for 6 out of every 10 minutes. This will be a big issue if you have a small air receiver (tank)and want to use some air tools, shot blasting or painting.

Some sound advice as usual
Many thanks

Chunkymonkey id interested in what you find out

I’m sure we’ve introduced them into our product range at work, I’ll have a look tomorrow and if it’s something along the line’s you need I’ll send a few details over and see what price I can get them at.

Me too chunkymonkey, please – email address in profile.

The SIP compressor linked above has a free air delivery of 5.4CFM. This will be ok for inflating tyres etc but will be useless for running air tools. You may get one nut undone at a time using an air impact wrench but you will have to wait to recharge the tank before doing then next nut/bolt. It certainly wont do shot blasting. I have a hydrovane with FAD of 8.5 and 100% duty cycle and it struggles with some air tools and will run constantly for hours when using the shot blast pot.

Unfortunately compressors are one of the things where buying cheap will always leave you very disappointed.

Good luck getting hydrovane for 130 quid

Tbh you have no chance running decent quality air tools ( air gun , impact driver – even a cutter ) off anything for under 200 quid imo.

The vtwin wolf might….. But as stated above only for short times

I wrongly assumed that like most folk on here its for inflating tubeless and a drying a few items with the air blower…..

I’ve looked at these often. I’d only use it for inflating car and bike tyres, drying off wet/washed components, clearing dust and light paint spraying duties ie car bodywork touch up and possibly random other small objects.

I thought a cheap one would work for this, but I would need oil-free no? Also small physical size a consideration.

I just bought a new air compressor for work – from machine mart.
I plumped for the Clarke Panther 10/240 as it ticked a lot of boxes, namely discounted(!) 9.5 cfm, 24l, 2.5hp and less than £200… what I found help full was to take the spec list from the machine mart page, paste into excel and sort the columns so that you can compare like for like. I was happy buying clarke as Machine Mart can get you parts if need be, unlike most brands these days.
The other thing I noticed is that the cheaper models are basically if not essentially all the same – compare the lower end models in the draper/scheppach/clarke etc ranges…
HTH.

That clarke panther is 9.5cfm air displacement. This is not the same as 9.5cfm free air delivery. You will be lucky to be getting 3.5cfm FAD out of that. It will be perfect for inflating tyres and blowing dust of things but will not run any air tools with much success.

Stating displacement instead of FAD is a common way to make the small compressors look more capable than they are.

If painting you done need an oil-free compressor but you will need a good coalescent filter to remove oil residue. This will have to be fitted right at the air receiver outlet. Be aware that most HVLP paint guns these days need a FAD of around 8 or more.

Trail_rat, I picked up the hydrovane 502 for £75 from a dentist who had just spent £400 having it serviced. Apparently they changed the regulations so dentists had to use screw type compressors so she just wanted to off load the hydrovane.

My stepson has this for sale if you are interested . . .

comp1 by manoirdelourde, on Flickr

comp2 by manoirdelourde, on Flickr

Not sure what he is asking for it, but I can find out, collection would be from Newbury, Berkshire.

Hi manoirdelourde
Id be interested in that
My email is in my profile
Please supply spec
in particular the
Free Air Delivery

Thanks

That compressor would be worth buying. I suspect it will be quite expensive though. Specs can be found here:-

http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.asp?gotonode=ViewProduct&method=mViewProduct&productid=15087&productdescription=&productcode=&category=11&catgroup=112&catmicrogroup=1022&analysiscode=&requiredresults=16

Don’t expect the Aldi offerings to be able to undo car wheel nuts, well mine won’t anyhow. Great for pumping tyres up and blowing things off though (!).

Not much point in a home mechanic buying air tools, surely? I mean the tools are cheap but the compressor you need is going to cancel out that benefit isn’t it?

For anyone interested, the compressor above is for sale for £400 collected from Newbury.

I got a Wolf one for around a £100 with 5 tools. The compressor works well enough but the inflator is useless so just by a compressor and seperate tools.

Can anybody recommend somewhere for decent tools?

Aldi air tools are good and cheap when they have them in. Other than that Machinemart are the next best value.

Ta.