Air master compressor (what's my model please?)

[David Cooper]

I bought this from the magic Ebay a couple of years ago so I could have a go at spraying my mk2 transit van which I've been restoring for the last 4 years!!!
There is no data badge anywhere & I need to find out how much oomph it has in cfm.
The tank is about 77cm by 29cm & it has a 2 hp motor.
I've painted my engine bay using a cheap spray gun called a fast mover with a 1.4 tip. The finish is ok but I'm only a beginner although I always get a great finish with spray cans. (Not rattle cans as I'm English) any answers would be great.

 

[carbon]

Hi looking at similar motor sized compressors on the machinemart website it could have 9cfm output. I haven’t looked at there manuals but see they have a few airmaster models listed.

 

[David Cooper]

Thanks chris.

 

[timgunn1962]

As a fairly generic 2HP Italian jobbie, it's almost certain to have a displacement between 8 and 9 CFM.

FAD is likely to be around 6-6.5 CFM at around 80 PSI. The FAD is the number you'll need to use to check whether or not the compressor is big enough (or the spray gun small enough), rather than the displacement.

 

[David Cooper]

Thanks tim. Excuse me for being thick, but does that mean I should be looking for a spray gun that uses about 6cm maximum ?

 

[carbon]

If possible, maybe a lvlp spraygun. Haven’t used one myself so can’t really recommend one

 

[henry Kadzielski]

I have a 2hp small compressor and it is about 12cfm displacement, which means about 8cfm fad and I can pretty much paint anything with it. It would have no trouble painting a truck cab (Scania) as have done two already with it. Once I started have mixed up enough paint to do the cab with three coats (paint wet on wet) so the entire job is done in one hit. Takes about 3hrs, compressor starts, stops, does get a bit warm though. I use a refrigerated dryer to stop the moisture coming down the hoses and use a toilet roll filter just to make sure no crap down the hoses, apart from that all good

 

[Nick DV]

I think LVLP is a great way to spray if you're a novice, and would work well with your compressor. I have a couple of these https://gtair.co.uk/spray-guns/369-burisch-gtr500-lvlp-18mm-spray-gun.html and they are brilliant. Just make sure you use a pressure gauge and filter on the gun https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/381058442640 (put the gauge after the filter) set the pressure and you will not go wrong

Don't forget to keep posting build pics of this.