CentralCoaster

Damn those belt driven IR compressors are beautiful.

I'm leaning towards getting a small 110V with wheels for the house work. This will work out best as it will **** me off if I try using it for air tools, which guarantees that I will invest in a shop compressor when the time comes. I have no idea how long that will take to put up, so dragging around a huge noisy 110V upright for possibly 2 years in the meantime isn't an option. I really don't want compromises on the shop if I'm designing the trapezoid 3-car from scratch with open ceiling and a hydraulic lift and plumbing. Noise is a definite concern, I'm a good neighbor.

Just this weekend I broke ground on the forced air A/C install and am doing great so far getting everything roughed in, picking up the expensive stuff tomorrow... I'll take it one thing at a time. Motivation is like riding a wave, but some days the seas are flat.

Bill Hetzel

IR makes quality stuff, I was a design engineer for them for 4 years.

If you're going to get something inexpensive until you buy your shop compressor, why not buy a used one out of the paper. If you were closer, I'd sell you my 1 1/2 horse Craftsmen for $75.

You are going to post pics of the new shop when it's done aren't you?

corvettedan22

Get the 220.

You can just get a lot of hose to reach where you need. I dont think your going to move around a stand up compressor.

Here my set up... Works great, painted 3 cars, do call kinds of stuff in my back yard.

eschoendorff

CC... if you are really wanting a good 110vac unit with wheels, take another look at the oil-lubed Craftsman pro that I linked for you. I did a lot of research before I bought it and as far as 110vac units, I think that it is the most bang for the buck. It works well with my air tools. Just be advised that 110vac units will not produce more that 6 of 7 CFM. That's just one of the limitations of a 110vac unit. But, I love mine. It's handy as hell and is rather quiet too....

arkangel81

i coughed up the $1300.00 for my quincy air compressor, its awsome, runs on 220volts, is quite heavy, yet when i want to paint a whole car in my garage, or operate heavy duty air tools it cant be beaten..

IBVETN2

with arkangel I have the same Quincy QTS V-4 pump that he has only I put my unit together myself. It is very quiet, as far as compressors go. I also have a 110 volt portable Quincy compressor. Do not waste your money on that Craftsman or Campbell hausfield crap that is made in China. Buy American made. I live in Quincy and they truely are the best compressors in the world. It will last you for a lifetime and you can pass it on to your kids.
As for the air piping, I used schedule 80 pvc, the heavy wall grey pipe. It works great and is easy to install an you will never break it.

As far as needing a portable to do outside work. just buy a couple of 50' air hoses to reach whatever you need. The Quincy has enough ***** to do yours and your neighbors at the same time.

eschoendorff

The craftsman that I referenced is made in the USA For that matter, some of the US General air compressors sold at Harbor Freight are made in the USA and use Baldor motors!

larryfs

I have a 1980 Rand 2hp- 20 gallon tank. (this was when the HP ratings were real). I just found out it was recalled. So ingersol is replacing it for nothing !!!!!

If your running an impact gun to remove tires, you need big. I have problems removing my Yukon lug nuts at 140ft lbs. I have to wait until pressure builds up to max, then it'll just break the lugs nuts loose.

But I can remove my C4 lug nuts at 100ft lbs no problems.

tomtom72

I don't know anything about air compressors CC but if you get a serious unit you need to plan the total electrical load for your garage. 220 v equipment is cheaper to operate and will have a longer service life for the motors.

Don't under estimate your total garage electrical load. Your electrician would be more than willing to help you plan for the needs. Please don't take offense but 220 v/ac is just a circuit with two source conductors that carry current to a device, as opposed to 110 v/ ac which is a single current conductor from a source to the device. A 220 v/ ac circuit is a circuit with two 110 v/ac conductors. It is not a big deal to set up from the git go and it isn't a real PIA to retro-fit even. The real limiting factor is how much of your 200 amp service is actually being used at any given time by the rest of the house. What I mean is that you may want to take 50 amps and bring a sub-panel to the garage. Well that will only work if there is enough left over of the 200 amps to service the house, plus the 20% saftey reserve. In theory, a 200 amp service doesn't mean you can use all 200 amps all the time. Electrical code calls for a 20% reserve, therefore on a 200 amp service the max load is 180 amps. Putting in a bigger service isn't hard either, all that means is a panel that has bigger conductors to handle more amp load.

Sorry to speak out class.:o


Tom

larryfs

In reality you can you 200 amps all at the same time. The 200 main breaker will handle many hours of 200amp draw before the breaker builds up enough heat and even then it wouldn't trip.

But no one is drawing 200 amps in a residential appliacation. very highly unlikely, unless you have a 10,000 sqft house with electric appliances.

xflagz51

CC,

I couldn't help but notice that you live in America's perfect climate. One of the tricks I hear people doing to reduce the noise of a compressor is to build a little shed off the back of the garage. That way the compressor is outside, out of the elements in the shed, therefore reducing your noise levels big time. We really can't do this up here in the Northeast with our cold winters. I agree with almost everything that everyone above had to say, it just depends on what you are going to be doing. An 80 gal. monster is an awful lot of compressor for the average shade tree mechanic. I have been eye balling the Craftsman 33 gal. vertical, 120 volt compressor for a while now. That's all that I will ever need. Do not run black iron air piping in your garage, you'll be replacing it within a year with galvey or copper.

jzvette

I just purchased the craftsman for $280 that you mentioned.(26 gallon oil free) I agree with everyone in this sense. I work on my car mostly in the summer months and not everyday. I just purchased a new house and have been working on it for the last 5 years without a compressor. It all depends on how much you use the compressor, the post above is correct that the Craftsman will last you through all the home repairs your doing (provided your not working on a 25000 square foot house). I have a friend that has had an oil free craftsman 7 gallon for the past 18 years and has not had a problem, he doesn't work on his car every weekend. The above guys who recommend the 220 heavy duty oil lubricated belt driven compressors probably work on their cars (one of the many they might have) almost every week or work on something almost every week so they should have a quality compressor. Just be honest with yourself and buy according to the amount you will use the tool, not the amount of time you want to use the tool. I would rather be working on my car right now, but I'm at work, that's reality. jzvette

CentralCoaster

Some of you guys are failing to recognize that I am more concerned about the noise the neighbors hear than the noise I hear. Maybe it's unreasonable to be wanting to use it late at night, I can simply use hand tools. But this neighborhood is so quiet you can hear the birds chirp all day long and the crickets at night.

I will get 2 compressors, one now for portability and housework, a 2nd one later for the shop. Plus when I am in the shop, I don't want this small compressor taking up any floor space, so I'm looking at pancake and hotdog compressors, smallest I need to run a texture gun and nailing gun. I can't think of what else I'd need it for. Maybe a vacuum pump for my a/c lines.

Dixieline here has some small Senco units, (and Dewalt, Makita). They spoke highly of the Senco, said the contractors were all over them.

Never heard of Senco before.


This spray gun was about 2.7 cfm @90, but apparently a 3 cfm compressor won't keep up with that since it need to have a duty cycle under some %?

Slalom4me

Short of enclosing the compressor in a sound-proofed enclosure
and mounting it on adequate isolation pads, then expect that the
neighbors are going to hear the compressor. My current portable
is terribly loud. My industrial Gardner-Denvers were far more powerful
and they didn't sound like they were hammering themselves to death,
but they were loud, too.

An S-P enclosure is a feasible project, it just requires space and ingenuity.
I haven't located the web page that detailed a room a person built in
his garage that I think would be of interest. It showed details like
the perforated interior walls and the 'Z' shaped air ducts used to
help lower sound levels.

Here are a couple of alternate resources to look at which may add
value to the search for a solution:

Small compressor enclosure

Recommendations for a quiet machine

For a compressor noise level target, determine how loud your's and
your neighbor's central vacuum systems are. Then use this as a
benchmark.

.

Slalom4me

BTW - a problem with the under-counter arrangement above is that
there appears to be no convenient way to periodically vacuum out the
dust bunnies.

In time, the oil mist, belt residue and other debris may become a fire
hazard.

.

larryfs

It is not running enough to disturb any neighbors. If you can't make noise, then you can't use an impact gun, or any tools, nor cut your lawn.

CentralCoaster

Central vacuum? Come on dude, this is Mira Mesa, not Malibu. :

CentralCoaster

I guess the question I'm still working on is if it's even feasible to make it quiet enough to run at night when noise would be a problem, and if I will even need it at off hours. I work in my garage pretty late, but maybe I could just resort to hand tools after 9pm.

During the day noise isn't an issue if its not constantly running and is only noisy on occasion, like yard mowing. I'm not going to be running an auto shop in there on a daily basis.

CentralCoaster

That dummy put his fan on the wrong side.

Slalom4me

If it is an exterior fan, it could be pulling air out instead of pushing it in.

While hot air rises and a puller fan would be more appropriate up top,
perhaps he wanted to pressurize the enclosure with air from a relatively
clean location and exhaust it down below? He doesn't appear to
have provided an actual exhaust vent or at least hasn't photographed
one, so I assume the air leaks out the openings for the controls and
drain.

If a pusher fan was mounted down below, dirt/dust would be a more
frequent problem. I have a GE refrigerator that needs to be pulled
out and cleaned because the fan pulls stuff into the bottom mounted
coils - even though the unit is raised above floor level on a 4" high
pedastal.

.