adding air to shop

K

killerknives

Joined
Jan 17, 2001
Messages
44
need advice on how large of an air compressor
to purchase. planning on buying a small sand
blaster, and using it for house keeping
purposes home depot has 6.5 hp husky 60 gal.
tank for $385. what do you use ? thanks
 
Sears has small sandblaster units for 50 bucks. Mine holds about 25 lbs of sand and is stupid simple. No cabinet though, so I just go outside and use a respirator and face shield. Sand is about 6 bucks a bag for 100 lbs. It works very well.

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Peter Atwood

email:fountainman@hotmail.com
 
Just reread your post and realized you wanted air compressor advice. I need to know myself since my compressor is old and very small. I'd like to pick up a new unit this year too and don't know what to get.

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Peter Atwood

email:fountainman@hotmail.com
 
For what it's worth, I feel that no matter what size you get, it's never big enough. Mine keep getting bigger all the time.
 
That 6.5 HP 60 Gallon will do just about anything you want, including running your air tools, sandblaster, ect.

I have a 6.5 HP 60 Gallon vertical that runs my air bearing, vac unit, and shop air in my lathe/mill area. (Also has my wooworking crap, too) I use a 10HP 100 Gallon vertical unit to run the automotive side of my shop. I built this unit myself from salvaged parts for less than 200 bucks. I purchased the 6.5 HP/60 Gal. from Sears. It is oiless. The other one is a traditional type, with a seperate dual stage compressor that is belt driven.

Either type will do just fine.

Mike

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DISCLAIMER:

The opinions expressed here are my own, and in no way reflect the opinion of any other person, living or dead. Of course, your opinion may vary, in which case the prevailing laws of your jurisdiction shall apply.

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E Mail me anytime:
INVADR1@aol.com
 
I have a C/H quadzilla w/ a 80 gal. reciever, 17 CFM @90psi single stage. Buy the biggest, baddest compressor you can afford and get two stage if you can. Use's for air in a shop keep on growing at an astounding rate
 
The size of the air compressor really depends on how much you will use it. I do a lot of bead blasting, and my compressor runs almost constantly when I'm doing this. I also use compressed air at every other machine to to keep things cool and blow away chips and dust.

My 6.5 hp oiless 60 gallon air compressor that lasted about 3 years (6,000 hours)before it required a complete rebuild. I now have a 7.5 hp 80 gallon 2 stage oil bath compressor on order.

Oil bath compressors run much quieter than oiless compressors. The slight increase in maintenance with my new oil bath compressor should be well worth it.

Air compressors are like dust collection systems and belt grinder motors to many knifemakers: Work with a piece of equipment that struggles to keep up with what you're doing and you'll soon agree that bigger IS better!
smile.gif


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Tom Anderson
Hand Crafted Knives
 
These folks are right about HP,years ago I bought a 3 1/2 hp Quincy,and have regretted ever since that I did'nt get at least a 5 hp minimum.

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MIKE
 
I've got a 7hp 80 gal upright, and just added on a 100 gal sch. 80 tank I got for $15 at an auction....needed volume to run a 1" impact wrench....works gr8 now!
 
One other bit of advice I will throw out here. Keep the compressor itself as far away from the bead blaster as possible or enclose it to protect your compressor from sucking in the fine dust from the bead blaster. The fine dust that is associated with a bead blaster will go through most air filters on most air compressors and greatly reduce compressor life.


Dennis
 
What you really need to do is look at the air tools you want to use then buy a compressor to match. All quality air tools will be marked with how much air they require in terms of cu/ft per min at a specified psi. You need a compressor that can keep up with the most air hungry tool you plan on buying. In the end it doesn't hurt you to much if your compressor is a little slow for most jobs as long as it recovers quickly when you shut the tools off. You just can't run things like air sanders very well.
You definitely want a compressor that uses oil, they're quieter more efficient and last longer.


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I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer... but I've got the sharpest knife in the room.
 
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