Having some cooling issues with an outboard of mine and I want to shoot blasts of air through the ports in an effort to clear whatever is in there. Once I move and have more space I'll buy something nicer, like 60 gallons, but for now I want something cheap that can fill tires, blast air and maybe run a nail gun? I figure a small pancake style could always compliment a bigger non movable one but if I bought a 5-6 gallon one it would be kinda useless once I had a larger one. Any suggestions?
Just get a Harbor Freight hunan special, and get the 2yr replacement warranty for an extra $20
Look and see what people have up on Craigslist. Barring that, Aeromoto has the right idea- my first compressor was a cheap Harbor Freight pancake compressor, and it served me very well for light work for a few years until it crapped out (blew a gasket, which you can't get replacements for it seems...) and I bought a much bigger, higher quality one.
If you have time, troll craigslist for a good compressor, cheap.
For what a P.O.S. HF pancake costs new you can find a Porter Cable pancake, which while Chinese is about a zillion percent better made.
My medium sized compressor is an Italian made Hitachi double hot dog. It weighs about 100 pounds, and will outlive me - it was $150 on craigslist, and required some teflon pipe thread tape and a new QR air fitting to be like new.
My big compressor is an American made Speedair. 60 gallon, 5hp single phase, 2 stage, 4 cylinder. Bought in essentially new condition - craigslist find - $350
And for trim nailers I have a (craigslist) $40 Husky.
Already checked Craigslist, without going too far out of my way someone posted http://www.amazon.com/home-improvement/dp/B00081FGEQ
which might be a good deal. Reviews are mixed but so is the HF unit.
The $40 HF pancake will air a tire up (eventually), run an air brush or a small nail gun or the air over hydraulic pop riveter. That's about it. Certainly useful (I have one), but quite limited in capacity. Any air leaks in your hose/connectors will bleed it down to nothing.
The porter cable units are a little far away for me to drive to tonight. This guy said he would take $30 and he lives 8 minutes away from me. Maybe that will hold me over until a good PC pops up nearby.
http://tampa.craigslist.org/hil/for/3767726368.html
motomoron wrote: If you have time, troll craigslist for a good compressor, cheap. For what a P.O.S. HF pancake costs new you can find a Porter Cable pancake, which while Chinese is about a zillion percent better made. My medium sized compressor is an Italian made Hitachi double hot dog. It weighs about 100 pounds, and will outlive me - it was $150 on craigslist, and required some teflon pipe thread tape and a new QR air fitting to be like new. My big compressor is an American made Speedair. 60 gallon, 5hp single phase, 2 stage, 4 cylinder. Bought in essentially new condition - craigslist find - $350 And for trim nailers I have a (craigslist) $40 Husky.
Anything special about the PC ones I should know about? This one isn't too far away.
http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/fod/3749421088.html
Ended up picking up one of the 6 gallon Porter Cable units up from Home Depot last night. On sale for $99 and the lady took my 20% HF coupon because I'm such a stud muffin.
Cool. The g/f has a similar DeWalt twin tank version. For topping of tires and running an air nailer, it's perfect. Reasonably quiet too and considerably more portable compared to the 25 gallon Craftsman model I have which will split ear drums and requires a ramp to get into my car... but mine will run an impact gun and a cut-off tool (for a limited time).
I have a cheapy 5gal twin tank and have run an air chisel with it in a pinch. Nailer/stapler is fine too.
That PC should serve you well even after you go big.
almost-zombie canoe?
Lazarus thread
In reply to Enyar :
More than 30 years ago I bought a $50 Chinese made 1/2 hp air compressor new in the box. I abused and neglected that poor thing thinking it was going to fail soon since it was so cheap. I took it to races to run my air tools and fill my tires.
I didn’t change the oil for 15 years. I used it to supplement my big air compressor when sand blasting or painting thick paints.
When my big compressor died work work on my house kept right on using that little compressor to run my nail guns etc.
Three times I’ve had to repair the big compressor and it only works today because I jammed a board between the motor and compressor to dramatically increase tension on the multi- ribbed drive belt.
The darn little one keeps on working! Reliability is made in China!!!
Zombie thread, canoe deleted
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