Compressor advice please.

[magnum311]

Hi to all you site members,
I am needing some advice on compressors. I have a small home garage and am thinking of changing to a few air tools. The compressor would need to be smallish in size and if possible, portable to move it about the garage when room is needed. What size and consumption rate would be good? I only intend to use it for wheel nuts, a reasonable amount of cutting work with grinding discs and air hacksaw, when welding on vehicles . What size of air tank and output should I be looking for.? As you may guess, air power is not my forte, but with your help the world is my oyster!.
Thanks in advance,
Regards,
Magnum 311.

 

[steeo]

I'm open to correction here but a tank smaller than 100lts would be no good for you especially running an air gun for wheel nuts. Depending on what size gun you will be using (probally 1/2") it will require at least 6-8 cfm and a smaller tank just can't keep up.
I am using a 3" air grinder off a 200lt compressor and depending on usage the compressor is running alot of the time.

 

[Wozzaaah]

RtbComp is our resident air guru so I'm sure he'll come along with some good advice but basically, a decent sized receiver is good but you're better off spending your money on output as you can always add more capacity later. Something like a 150L unit is still very portable, couple it one or two 47kg propane cylinders and you then have a decent setup.
Also, go belt drive, not direct drive.
As steeo has said, a windy gun soon runs a small tank of air down, most air tools use a heck of a lot of air!

 

[the snooper]

depending on what you are doing at home have you thought about runing costs air grinder vs electric, electric grinder maybe about 600 watts but to run an air grinder could be as much as 3000 watts five times the running cost.
to run an air grinder you will be looking at a 15 cfm compressor and as said above at least a 150 litre tank. so not that small if you only have a standard size garage.
the small hobby compressors dont run tools very well at all and the regulators supplied with them dont let enough air through to run things such as grinders and air impact guns if i were you i would look at overall cost including running costs.
i think all tools you mention above are available in elecctric form.

 

[pedrobedro]

The electric version of the tools will be cheaper to run, a lot quieter and will not freeze up in winter. Compressors are best at inflating stuff and painting. A compressor the size you are looking at will probably need a dedicated electricity supply as well as it may be too large to run on 13 amp supply.

 

[rtbcomp]

Good advice above.

A couple of points in favour of air tools, you can use them in the wet and they don't burn out.