[Shop-talk] Small compressors

[Paul Parkanzky]

I had an oilless craftsman standup for years until I upgraded to a big
IR oiled machine. When I did, I gave the Craftsman to a buddy of mine
and he runs it nearly constantly in his amateur machine shop and for
all of our ridiculous vehicle projects. I bought the nicer of the
Harbor Freight hose reels (rubber hose) when I bought it and mounted
that to the ceiling so it would reach anywhere I'd want air and we
moved the same setup to Joe's shop when I gave it to him.

It is small (15-20 gallon, I think), fairly cheap, will even run a
small blasting cabinet for short bursts, but it's mighty loud. So it's
my hands-down recommendation if you're willing to endure the noise.

If you're not, your options are sort of limited. In my experience,
anything oilless is pretty loud and when you step up to oiled they're
much more expensive and if you get a bigger one (which the oiled tend
to be) then they make more noise because they're making so much more
air.

Regards,

-Paul

On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 9:53 AM Jim Franklin via Shop-talk
<shop-talk at autox.team.net> wrote:
>
> My Porter Cable pancake has a pinhole in the tank. I have abused it for 10+ years and it doesn't owe me anything at this point. What do people like for small, wheeled, quiet, inexpensive? I don't see myself staying in this house much longer so I won't be installing lines and a nice stand up unit, but I do need to fill car tires, run a framing nail gun.
>
> thanks,
> jim_______________________________________________
>