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Although most of my experience is with commercial-type units (Quincy), I can safely recommend that you go with a belt-driven unit - much quieter compared to the less-expensive direct-drive compressors.
In fact, I used it to paint my C3 and had no problems and plenty of air. Now if I was gonna make a career of painting cars I would probably get a professional model, but for the one time it was fine. And for the occassional spray jobs it is more than adequate.
Anyone have a recommendation / experience for an air compressor? What tech specs horsepower, cfm, etc.
Duty Cycle= weekend wrencher, brakes, exhaust and other type of nuts and bolts that are always a PITA to get off.
Don't need a commercial grade unit. And how bout set of air tools, whats minimum set...ratchet and impact wrench is about all I could ever use??
Tks
Doug B
I picked up a returned Craftsman (sears) verticle compressor and air tools right after christmas last year. Someone had returned it as defective, and the only thing wrong was a loose air hose connection. Also included was impact wrench, air ratchet, and air hammer plus assorted fittings. Cost was right around $200, and it handles everything I need to do.
When I was looking, like you I'm a now-n-then user but when I use it I want it to work - with that in mind, I use air ratchets often enough. If you take a std 40 ft/lbs variant (such as the one in the sears kit) and hold it 'on' then it takes a 6.0 SCFM motor to keep the working pressure at 90 PSI.
That was the one I bought. You can spend an extra $150 and get the pro version, and it's quieter. I have a big shop so for now not worth the $.
Anyway Sears has the one I bought (32 gal, 150 PSI, 6.0 SCFM) for $300. The tools ran me another $300 - namely sockets (SAE and metric, 1/2 and 3/8), air inflator, die grinder, chisel bits, and grease gun.
That compressor makes checking brakes, etc a 30 second endeavor, especially for my truck with 6 lugs. I also put up my fence gate, nailed 200' of fence, took apart my rusty boat trailer winch....etc etc holy cow how did I get along without this thing?