If you plan on doing some projects around the house or even doing some simple work on your car, you should really consider trading in your old tools for something better. There are many different tools that you can buy that instead of using straight electricity to power them, they use air compressors instead. Doing this will allow you to get more work done a lot faster while feeling like a professional, and who doesn’t want that?
In order to find out what type of compressor you are going to need for your specific tool, you don’t need to look any further than the tool itself. There are a couple different measurements that will help decide which size air compressor will be right for you. You must take into consideration things like the volume of compressed air is can hold know as cubic feet per minute or CFM. The other most important measurement is the pound per square inch or PSI. These things will come in handy when you are looking for the right compressor.
The first tool we are going to talk about is an airbrush. Many people who work in automotive shops will use this type of tool, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it at home, too. Now, if you only plan on using one tool at a time, this does not require a large compressor at all. In fact, they make portable air compressors that would be perfect for this type of tool. This means that you can get away with using a compressor that generates only 0.4 cfm at 25 psi and still be able to get the job done well and efficiently.
Another common tool that you might consider getting is a compressed air sander. Anyone can go to the hardware store and buy some sandpaper but just thinking about how much effort and how long something like that can take is tiring. These tools however do need a good amount of more air to be powered. A good size air compressor I would suggest would generate 25 cfm at 175 psi. These are not portable in size but will keep your sanding work very consistent get the jobs you need done faster. The other plus size to using a compressor this large would be that multiple people can use multiple sanders without missing a beat.
This next tool will absolutely come in handy if you plan of doing some big projects like fixing your roof and that is a nail gun. The compressor this tool requires thankfully can be found in a portable version because although it needs a good amount psi to be effective, the cfm is on the lower side. A nice size compressor I would suggest would be one that generates at least.5 cfm at 100 psi. So, you can see that the cfm is closer to that of the airbrush but the psi is only a little bit less than that of a sander.
Now, this final tool we are going to be talking about you won’t find a need for in an home. Most people don’t have any use for an air hammer in their house. This tool is most commonly found in welding shops or some people who do steel forging. This is a very powerful tool that only has one moving part, the piston. Especially for blacksmiths this will come in handy when having to hammer out large amounts of steel. So, as you can imagine this will most definitely need a large air compressor. This falls closest to size you need for an air sander at 25 cfm at 175 psi.
All of these estimates on compressor size are just that, estimates. You will need to look at the specific tool you plan on using and figure out the proper amount of cfm and psi will be needed to properly power you tool in the most efficient way. You should also take into consideration how much space you have and how many different tools you plan on using at the same time. You don’t need to buy a different size compressor for each tool you have.
If you do just a little bit of math, you can get only one air compressor that can either power all your tools at once or just be used to power each of them individually. You should also remember that you are absolutely getting what you pay for when it comes to compressors. So whether if you decide to spring for a better but pricier compressor you will be paying for the quality of work you will get out of it.
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