Hey guys. I've been doing a lot of reading about compressors and air tools and wanted to check with you guys to see if my understanding is correct before sizing equipment. I'm a newbie when it comes to air.
Let me know if all of this is correct
1. PSI is obviously the pressure of the air in the tank. An X gallon tank at 150PSI will maintain tool pressure longer than the same X gallon tank at 125PSI without the compressor cycling on. Larger tanks will maintain tool pressure longer being that there is more air actually in the tank.
2. CFM is the cubic feet per minute that the compressor can supply air back to the tank after it starts emptying right? That being said, this has nothing to do with the flow rate of the air to the tool right?
Now if the above is correct, let me ask the general question.
If I have a small compressor. 2.6CFM with a tiny 6 gallon tank that's filled to 150PSI. Even if I have an air tool that consumes 5CFM, my understanding is that it will still work at FULL power until the compressor turns on. At this point the compressor will not be able to keep up with the tool. So the CFM really has nothing to do with a reduced power to the tool, but rather how long you can run the tool before your compressor kicks on and starts to fill the tank again.
So one would think that if you had a small compressor and an impact gun, if all you used it for was to zip off lug nuts every now and then, this would actually still work fine assuming you didn't try to use it continuously.
Let me know if all of this is correct
1. PSI is obviously the pressure of the air in the tank. An X gallon tank at 150PSI will maintain tool pressure longer than the same X gallon tank at 125PSI without the compressor cycling on. Larger tanks will maintain tool pressure longer being that there is more air actually in the tank.
2. CFM is the cubic feet per minute that the compressor can supply air back to the tank after it starts emptying right? That being said, this has nothing to do with the flow rate of the air to the tool right?
Now if the above is correct, let me ask the general question.
If I have a small compressor. 2.6CFM with a tiny 6 gallon tank that's filled to 150PSI. Even if I have an air tool that consumes 5CFM, my understanding is that it will still work at FULL power until the compressor turns on. At this point the compressor will not be able to keep up with the tool. So the CFM really has nothing to do with a reduced power to the tool, but rather how long you can run the tool before your compressor kicks on and starts to fill the tank again.
So one would think that if you had a small compressor and an impact gun, if all you used it for was to zip off lug nuts every now and then, this would actually still work fine assuming you didn't try to use it continuously.