Air compressors help

[NetWareHead]

So Im in the middle of rennovation and have a tile floor to remove. Its going to need perhaps a $200+ worth of tool rental from home depot considering the size of the jobs and amount of time needed to rent a floor stripper.

A friend of mine gave me an idea that may be worth considering. "Buy an air compressor and air hammer with chisel tip. Use the air chisel to bust up the tile."

-We need an air compressor anyway for filling up bike tires, using compressed air for cleanup etc...
-Air tools are cool and useful to have anyway (And economically priced compared to electrical or battery powered devices)
-Need air hammmer with chisel to break up a tile floor
-Fiance expressed interest in getting an air sprayer for painting purposes. We have a few rooms (ceilings especially) to do at my house and are hoping a paint sprayer would give better/faster results than paint brushes/rollers. However, the spray guns demand a larger air compressor than a typical pancake/home air compressor (from my recent research, > or = 4 cfm) and here is where the air compressor cost starts to get expensive. Suddenly Im looking at air compressors that are $200-$600 in cost.

I understand that if I get a small air compressor to only power an air chisel attachment, it is economical vs the renting costs of a tile/flooring stripper. Even if it comes out to some more $ than total cost of renting alternate tool, I'll still gain a useful air compressor out of it so I wouldnt mind.

Its when I need to upsize the compressor to accomodate a sprayer where I begin to question the economy. So before I bite any bullet, let me ask you guys. Thoughts and recommendations?

P.S. In the interests of compressor longevity, I'd want an oil lubricated vs oil-less

 

[herm0016]

Don't get an air paint sprayer, get the kind you plug in that does not use air.

i just purchased the graco lts 15 at lowes for 299. we did a ~ 1100 sq foot main floor ceilings and walls in one day. (one color) spraying the main area the final color tonight. It works great. spray and roll through it. We going to do the outside next summer.

for air compressors Oil is the way to go for reliability. Though i got a 26 gallon oil less husky brand for free and i cant kill it. produces about 2cfm at 100 psi i think. Its hooked up to a 50 foot reel in my garage. check out the pawnshops and craigslist right now, seasonal people get rid of their tools for cash at the start of winter sometimes.

check the specs on the chisel as it may take a lot more air than you think to run. Mine runs an impact wrench ok. blowing out a sprinkler system takes a long time, i do each circuit of the system with a full tank.

 

[natto fire]

Don't get an air paint sprayer, get the kind you plug in that does not use air.

i just purchased the graco lts 15 at lowes for 299. we did a ~ 1100 sq foot main floor ceilings and walls in one day. (one color) spraying the main area the final color tonight. It works great. spray and roll through it. We going to do the outside next summer.

for air compressors Oil is the way to go for reliability. Though i got a 26 gallon oil less husky brand for free and i cant kill it. produces about 2cfm at 100 psi i think. Its hooked up to a 50 foot reel in my garage. check out the pawnshops and craigslist right now, seasonal people get rid of their tools for cash at the start of winter sometimes.

check the specs on the chisel as it may take a lot more air than you think to run. Mine runs an impact wrench ok. blowing out a sprinkler system takes a long time, i do each circuit of the system with a full tank.

Yep. A plug-in HVLP paint sprayer is the best route for paint spraying. The ones that connect to compressors are ok for smaller projects, but would be hard to use for whole walls, and especially ceilings.

I agree that a chisel with any appreciable power compared to a demo hammer is going to take quite a bit of air.

 

[Mandres]

This is what you want: http://www.harborfreight.com/42-in-long-reach-air-scraper-69236.html

A pistol-grip air hammer will work, but it's slow and uncomfortable hands-and-knees work. Either way you'll need a decent compressor to maintain a steady pace. A pancake unit probably won't cut it.

 

[natto fire]

This is what you want: http://www.harborfreight.com/42-in-long-reach-air-scraper-69236.html

A pistol-grip air hammer will work, but it's slow and uncomfortable hands-and-knees work. Either way you'll need a decent compressor to maintain a steady pace. A pancake unit probably won't cut it.

Looks nice. We might have jumped the gun though, considering we don't know how many square feet of demo the OP needs to do. If it was just a bathroom, I wouldn't hesitate to just do it by hand. If we are talking triple digit square footage, then yeah, more specialized demo tools would be warranted.

There is no point in overbuying a compressor to do one job, and then just pumping tires with it the rest of the time. Especially if you maintain correctly and drain your tank after use.

 

[NetWareHead]

Sure thats a nice demo hammer but look at those air requirements. 10 cubic feet per minute at 90 PSI. Thats probably like a $750 compressor right there. Pretty expensive when I dont have any air tools with that sort of consumption.

I ended up smashing all the tiles by hand with a 16 ounce framing hammer. The tile broke pretty well with 2-3 blows each. After that, I went over the floor and any remaining fragments of tile that remained, I used a regular wood chisel to knock them off. After that, adhesive stripper to get the mastic glue off the floor and prepare for sanding. I'd say it was about 300-400 sq feet of space: a small dining room and adjoining hallway.

In restrospect, I'm not sure the air tool would have saved much time anyway when they broke away so easily with a hammer.

 

[natto fire]

Sure thats a nice demo hammer but look at those air requirements. 10 cubic feet per minute at 90 PSI. Thats probably like a $750 compressor right there. Pretty expensive when I dont have any air tools with that sort of consumption.

I ended up smashing all the tiles by hand with a 16 ounce framing hammer. The tile broke pretty well with 2-3 blows each. After that, I went over the floor and any remaining fragments of tile that remained, I used a regular wood chisel to knock them off. After that, adhesive stripper to get the mastic glue off the floor and prepare for sanding. I'd say it was about 300-400 sq feet of space: a small dining room and adjoining hallway.

In restrospect, I'm not sure the air tool would have saved much time anyway when they broke away so easily with a hammer.

This is what I was getting at. Sometimes the right tool for the job is just hard work and traditional tools.

Any plans to solve your tire pumping issue? Even those cigarette lighter powered ones have come a long way.

 

[NetWareHead]

This is what I was getting at. Sometimes the right tool for the job is just hard work and traditional tools.

Any plans to solve your tire pumping issue? Even those cigarette lighter powered ones have come a long way.

We'll get a compressor when we figure out what our needs are for painting. Looking at somethign in the 5+ cfm range that woiuld power most painting systems.

 

[natto fire]

Just know we will be here, to steer you away from the pointy-elbowed compressors. Naturally any recommendation will be fully approved to inflate Ferrari tires.

In all seriousness, 5+ cfm is pretty serious duty, and hard to get out of a 120v socket.

 

[NetWareHead]

In all seriousness, 5+ cfm is pretty serious duty, and hard to get out of a 120v socket.

Check out home depot and search electric air compressors, oil lubricated between 5-10 CFM, many of them are 120.

 

[natto fire]

Check out home depot and search electric air compressors, oil lubricated between 5-10 CFM, many of them are 120.

Be sure you are matching the airflow for the PSI you need. Some of those compressors are using @40 PSI for their high CFM ratings. The standard is to use 90PSI. Remember when computer speakers were rated at PMPO instead of RMS?

 

[NetWareHead]

Be sure you are matching the airflow for the PSI you need. Some of those compressors are using @40 PSI for their high CFM ratings. The standard is to use 90PSI. Remember when computer speakers were rated at PMPO instead of RMS?

Here is one that I almost bought and it would fit my requirements except for one fault: the tank is a little too small

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-5-2-Gal-3-0-HP-Single-Tank-Air-Compressor-MAC5200/202713486

Its 6.9 cfm at 90 PSI, oil lubricated and 120 volt. Great reviews but the tank is a little small at 5.2 gallons. I think this compressor is more designed for people doing roofing etc... using nailers etc... I would think the smaller tank is not geared towards tools that need a constant draw of air and using a paint sprayer would lead to the compressor always cycling on. You would want a bigger reservoir if going to paint. This advice provided by a buddy of mine and seems to make sense to me.

 

[herm0016]

its impossible to get 3 hp out of 120 volt outlet at 13.5 amps as that thing says.... 120*13.5 is 1620 watts. 1620 watts = 2.1 hp. if they are lying about the hp i bet the cfm is not nearly that much as well.

go airless as everyone has suggested for painting. You cant get enough power out of a standard 110 outlet to get more than a few cfm at 90 or 100 psi. you are limited by physics no matter what they put on the specs.

 

[NetWareHead]

its impossible to get 3 hp out of 120 volt outlet at 13.5 amps as that thing says.... 120*13.5 is 1620 watts. 1620 watts = 2.1 hp. if they are lying about the hp i bet the cfm is not nearly that much as well.

go airless as everyone has suggested for painting. You cant get enough power out of a standard 110 outlet to get more than a few cfm at 90 or 100 psi. you are limited by physics no matter what they put on the specs.

Thanks for this analysis. Didnt even realize this!

 

[Greenman]

its impossible to get 3 hp out of 120 volt outlet at 13.5 amps as that thing says.... 120*13.5 is 1620 watts. 1620 watts = 2.1 hp. if they are lying about the hp i bet the cfm is not nearly that much as well.

go airless as everyone has suggested for painting. You cant get enough power out of a standard 110 outlet to get more than a few cfm at 90 or 100 psi. you are limited by physics no matter what they put on the specs.

I didn't know such a conversion was even possible. Doesn't motor design play some roll in the watts to horsepower conversion? There must be some efficiency variation in electric motors?

Thanks for the info. I'm smarter than I was just a moment ago.

 

[herm0016]

This is back of the envelope aproxamation. Horsepower and watts are equivalent units. And even uses peak voltage not rms.