Air Compressors

[JudgeRob]

So my air compressor took a dump.  It was a Harbor Freight piece of crap anyway.  I don't need anything high powered or anything.  Just some general sporadic use for hobbies. 

Any recommendations for something decent in the $200 range?

TIA

[jennifer]

  Go to the pawn and look for the discontinued Craftsman 5hp/30 gal....If you cant find one Campell hausfield 20 gal (At W/mart) is a good second choice as far as portable goes, It has a smaller tank but recovers quite nicely, and is even capable of doing small sandblast projects. (big air suck tool) but as the compressor runs constantly on such a small tank moisture becomes a problem....Quincy apparently makes a nice compressor too, I haven't tried one yet, but they cost a bit more and claim to be 20% quieter.

[Nephasth]

It's all about that CFM...

[Vigo]

I bought an air compressor last year, and had a budget of $250. I ended up going cheaper and picked up a 6 gallon pancake compressor. I got a Senco ($130 @ Menards). It was cheaper than the DeWalt equivalent 6 gal ($170) and had a higher CFM to boot. I've been happy with it. I think it had a 1.5hp pump motor vs the 1hp or less offered by most others of that size. Been very happy with the Senco.

To be honest, I felt the $200 - $300 price range was a pretty terrible price point for compressors. Paying more just seemed to only offer a larger tank, and little seemed to be offered for a more powerful pump motor. At the end of the day, you get a longer burst of usage of some tools that are rated above the compressor, but I didn't see it open the door to heavy usage of anything new, and I didn't want to lose the portability of the pancake compressor for only a larger tank without a better motor.

[Donkey_Kong]

I would highly recommend the California Air Tools ultra quiet models. They are great compressors and really quiet, prices seem great also.

https://www.amazon.com/s?url=search-alias%3Dtools&field-keywords=California+Air+Tools

[Mike A]

An oil free compressor will be much louder and fail much sooner than an oil lubricated compressor. Oil free compressors are the worst. They are loud as hell. If yours is quiet it is not pushing much air.

[JudgeRob]

Thanks for the replies.  I'll swing by the local pawn shop and see if they have anything decent.  I'm going to do some sandblasting, but just little stuff, nothing real big.

[jennifer]

An oil free compressor will be much louder and fail much sooner than an oil lubricated compressor. Oil free compressors are the worst. They are louyd as hell. If yours is quiet it is not pushing much air.

  A diaphragm compressor is light, portable and every bit as dependable as its cast iron counterparts....In fact probibably even better for a home hobbiest/non commercial application, given the air is cleaner and only needs a watertrap as opposed to the slime trap too dealing with the blowby....I run mine in the house all night and the noise is not all that bad for bystanders/neighbors, But Jenn wears hearing protection while working around ALL machines and can barely even hear it run.

[Mike A]

Too many people go without hearing protection.

[lilshawn]

So my air compressor took a dump.  It was a Harbor Freight piece of crap anyway.  I don't need anything high powered or anything.  Just some general sporadic use for hobbies. 

Any recommendations for something decent in the $200 range?

TIA

It's really going to come down to what you consider a "hobby". just sporadic use with a small air nailer or filling up the kids floaties.... a name brand 1 or 2 gallon 149.99 will do just fine.

You want to maybe run an impact gun to change over the winter tires or get a bigger air nailer in the future?... you're gonna need a bigger boat. Do you really want to buy again later?

OR...save your shekels and get yourself a good branded campbell hausfeld or a chicago pneumatic... and save yourself the headache of dealing with this again in 2 more years...sure you'll spend easily double of what you are looking to spend, but you'll see it in how long it will last...and the support for parts when it comes time to actually fix it.

[cw]

As someone who works on compressors everyday I would go with the makita mac700 its right at your price point.  The #1 reason I get them in at all for repair is oil level. Just keep the right amount of a non detergent oil and drain the tank and you will never buy another compressor..

[JudgeRob]

OR...save your shekels and get yourself a good branded campbell hausfeld or a chicago pneumatic... and save yourself the headache of dealing with this again in 2 more years...sure you'll spend easily double of what you are looking to spend, but you'll see it in how long it will last...and the support for parts when it comes time to actually fix it.

Damn you and your logic!  I do find myself spending more as I get older.  Some things are disposable, but others are worth the investment.  I wasn't sure I would use a compressor much so I bought the HF one for like $50.  Seeing the limits and ear-splitting noise of it, I've decided to quadruple my budget.  I could go a little higher, maybe $300...

As someone who works on compressors everyday I would go with the makita mac700 its right at your price point.  The #1 reason I get them in at all for repair is oil level. Just keep the right amount of a non detergent oil and drain the tank and you will never buy another compressor.

That's actually a nice looking little compressor!  CFM looks pretty good for the size.  I didn't think there are oiled compressors around that price point.  Everything seems oil-less. 

I have some worries about using the oiled ones with the sand blasting gun.  Will it gum up the gun?  I put a little water/oil catcher on the gun.  Will that be enough? 

[Nephasth]

That's actually a nice looking little compressor!  CFM looks pretty good for the size.  I didn't think there are oiled compressors around that price point.  Everything seems oil-less. 

I have some worries about using the oiled ones with the sand blasting gun.  Will it gum up the gun?  I put a little water/oil catcher on the gun.  Will that be enough?

What do you plan on sandblasting? If you plan on sandblasting anything as big as a license plate, you're going to be pretty ---smurfing--- frustrated pretty ---smurfing--- quick. If the compressor can't put out 15 CFM or more, you'll get short bursts of sandblasting followed by longer periods of waiting for the compressor to catch back up. An oiled compressor will not put out significant enough amounts of oil into the air that it would cause a sandblasting tip to gunk up.

Have you sandblasted before?

[JudgeRob]

I just started experimenting around with the blasting a couple weeks ago.  I'm not restoring a car or anything like that.  I'm mostly just etching some glass for fun.  I'll probably clean some rusty tools.  Stuff like that.  I haven't had it long, so not too sure what other uses I'll stumble across...

[ivwshane]

For and blasting, I'll lend my experience.

I've got an oil less, two stage, 3.5 horse, 25 gallon, porter cable air compressor that does 5.1 CFM @90 PSI.
I've been sandblasting, using the harbor freight cabinet (the larger one) and I've been able to do valve cover size parts or larger.

However...

CFM makes all the difference and tank size helps you go longer. At 90psi I can do a large valve cover in a five minutes. The problem is that my air compressor cannot maintain 90psi for 5 Mounties, it can do it for maybe 1-2 minutes and then it slowly drops the psi to around 30. At 30 psi I can still sandblast but now instead of being able to do a whole valve cover in 5 minutes, I can do a 5"x15" section in five minutes.

However...

I was not always able to do any sand blasting once my compressor got below 45psi UNTIL I upgraded to high flow fittings. The high flow fittings have me a huge increase in performance, not only with my sandblasting but also with my harbor freight short nosed impact gun (earthquake xt or something).

Ideally I would want a two stage compressor with an 80 gallon tank, and a cfm rating as close to 20 @ 90psi as possible for the best results as a hobbyist. In order to get that performance though, you would not only have to spend $800-1400, you would also need to have a 240v receptacle available to plug it in to (lucky for me, I was capable of doing that myself and saved around $500-1000 for an electrician).

Anyway, that's my two cents.

[nitrogen_widget]

So my air compressor took a dump.  It was a Harbor Freight piece of crap anyway.  I don't need anything high powered or anything.  Just some general sporadic use for hobbies. 

Any recommendations for something decent in the $200 range?

TIA

how old was it?
My harbor freight pancake is almost 17 yrs old.
I bought it when I renovated my house and it's still running.
almost every piece of trim and hard wood floor slat was installed using it.
probably jinxed myself.

[nitrogen_widget]

Too many people go without hearing protection.

what?

[JudgeRob]

UNTIL I upgraded to high flow fittings

I didn't know there were high flow fittings.  I wonder why those wouldn't just be standard?

how old was it?

About 5 years.  I really didn't even use it much.  It still "runs", but it takes like 20 minutes to get to 70PSI and won't ever get to 100PSI anymore.  I assume there's something to replace but the ---goshdarn--- thing is so loud anyway I don't mind the excuse to upgrade.

[ivwshane]

The high flow fittings aren't standard because of compatibility issues.

[lilshawn]

some bumblefuckery making your own high flow air fittings... NSFW obviously...

[dkoiro]

  Go to the pawn and look for the discontinued Craftsman 5hp/30 gal....If you cant find one Campell hausfield 20 gal (At W/mart) is a good second choice as far as portable goes, It has a smaller tank but recovers quite nicely, and is even capable of doing small sandblast projects. (big air suck tool) but as the compressor runs constantly on such a small tank moisture becomes a problem....Quincy apparently makes a nice compressor too, I haven't tried one yet, but they cost a bit more and claim to be 20% quieter.

If you go this route, be sure to check the voltage of the unit, a lot of the larger ones that are at pawn shops sit because they are 230V. I was looking for exactly that when I shopped for mine, but if you choose poorly, a lot of pawn shops don’t accept returns.

[lilshawn]

two 110v cords plugged into separate panel circuited outlets will net you 220 volts across the "hots".

My garage for some reason has 2 circuits ran out to it... but no 220 volt outlet... just a pile of 110 volts ones.  I didn't have any breakers for the panel to add a circuit, So I made up a dual ended electrical cord so I could plug into two different 120v plugs one on each circuit... run those into 220v socket... to temporarily run a large table saw in my garage.

[jennifer]

  Go to the pawn and look for the discontinued Craftsman 5hp/30 gal....If you cant find one Campell hausfield 20 gal (At W/mart) is a good second choice as far as portable goes, It has a smaller tank but recovers quite nicely, and is even capable of doing small sandblast projects. (big air suck tool) but as the compressor runs constantly on such a small tank moisture becomes a problem....Quincy apparently makes a nice compressor too, I haven't tried one yet, but they cost a bit more and claim to be 20% quieter.

If you go this route, be sure to check the voltage of the unit, a lot of the larger ones that are at pawn shops sit because they are 230V. I was looking for exactly that when I shopped for mine, but if you choose poorly, a lot of pawn shops don’t accept returns.

  You are not wrong....However that craftsman is one of the few 5hp machines that can be run on 110 (or 220), which makes it really desirable for portability on jobsites while maintaining efficient air delivery.....If you find one grab it, Highly recommended.