bwringer
Well-known member
My Grandpa's ancient Montgomery Ward air compressor needs a new pressure switch. In the course of extracting the switch, the general poor state of the tank and plumbing caused me to let out a little wee of fright. After a little investigation under the grime and rust, I found a date of 1976 on the tank. It's been 50 years... I'm tired, boss.
If faint memories of family lore is correct, it's a bit of a Ship of Theseus situation. The pump was replaced some decades ago, and it is frankly very tired. The motor is fairly recent replacement, probably in the 2000s. It's yer usual 2-cylinder parallel twin pump and 3(ish)hp 240VAC motor.
Anyway, it's clearly time for replacement.
Like many of you, my cordless tools have largely replaced most of my air tools. My main air uses are in changing motorcycle tires and the air cylinder that raises my motorcycle lift. I don't really paint. I've used an air die grinder on a few occasions, and of course air is often used to blast the gunk off things, etc.
I have two candidates in mind:
For $570, this 29 gallon, 165psi, 5.3SCFM McGraw unit at the Harbor Freight a mile down the road has a lot of appeal:
Plenty of air for my purposes, and the motor can be easily reconfigured to run on 240V, so I wouldn't need to fart around rewiring the breaker and outlet. Belt drive and oil lubricated should give it a pretty good lifetime (probably not 50 years...) and overall it would sort of a lateral move; it should do everything I've come to expect from a compressor. Noise level is given as 75dBa, which is typical for a belt drive, and much better than most oilless compressors.
However, in this corner we have a different philosophy entirely; an ultra-quiet "Fortress" compressor from HF for $290:
About half the cash, much smaller tank, less noise at 69dBa (how much less that is in practice I dunno, but I do know these Fortress compressors are impressively quiet.) On the downside, it's "oil-free", which usually means much less life-span. And it's 120V, so I'd have to fart around in my breaker panel, install new breakers, new outlet, and move some wires around. Probably about $20-$30 worth of **** and a half hour or so, plus re-setting the coffee maker. And SCFM is only 4.3. I think it would blow up tires and run my lift just fine, but it would also run a lot more.
I've perused Northern Tool (it's less than 2 miles away) and all the usual home stores (Menard's, Lowes, Home Despot) and farm stores (Rural King, TSC), and so far all their options in this range are far more expensive or far less capable. They're all Chinese compressors with different paint colors, and no, I don't plan to double or triple my budget to buy the megasaurus yellow, beige, etc. options.
I'm already sick of not having freshly squozen air on hand, and I'm buying an air compressor tomorrow.
Also, would joining the stupid ITC help save me any money? Should I succumb to the stupid "extended warranty" hard sell?
What say ye, components of the GJ Hive Mind?
If faint memories of family lore is correct, it's a bit of a Ship of Theseus situation. The pump was replaced some decades ago, and it is frankly very tired. The motor is fairly recent replacement, probably in the 2000s. It's yer usual 2-cylinder parallel twin pump and 3(ish)hp 240VAC motor.
Anyway, it's clearly time for replacement.
Like many of you, my cordless tools have largely replaced most of my air tools. My main air uses are in changing motorcycle tires and the air cylinder that raises my motorcycle lift. I don't really paint. I've used an air die grinder on a few occasions, and of course air is often used to blast the gunk off things, etc.
I have two candidates in mind:
For $570, this 29 gallon, 165psi, 5.3SCFM McGraw unit at the Harbor Freight a mile down the road has a lot of appeal:
Plenty of air for my purposes, and the motor can be easily reconfigured to run on 240V, so I wouldn't need to fart around rewiring the breaker and outlet. Belt drive and oil lubricated should give it a pretty good lifetime (probably not 50 years...) and overall it would sort of a lateral move; it should do everything I've come to expect from a compressor. Noise level is given as 75dBa, which is typical for a belt drive, and much better than most oilless compressors.
However, in this corner we have a different philosophy entirely; an ultra-quiet "Fortress" compressor from HF for $290:
About half the cash, much smaller tank, less noise at 69dBa (how much less that is in practice I dunno, but I do know these Fortress compressors are impressively quiet.) On the downside, it's "oil-free", which usually means much less life-span. And it's 120V, so I'd have to fart around in my breaker panel, install new breakers, new outlet, and move some wires around. Probably about $20-$30 worth of **** and a half hour or so, plus re-setting the coffee maker. And SCFM is only 4.3. I think it would blow up tires and run my lift just fine, but it would also run a lot more.
I've perused Northern Tool (it's less than 2 miles away) and all the usual home stores (Menard's, Lowes, Home Despot) and farm stores (Rural King, TSC), and so far all their options in this range are far more expensive or far less capable. They're all Chinese compressors with different paint colors, and no, I don't plan to double or triple my budget to buy the megasaurus yellow, beige, etc. options.
I'm already sick of not having freshly squozen air on hand, and I'm buying an air compressor tomorrow.
Also, would joining the stupid ITC help save me any money? Should I succumb to the stupid "extended warranty" hard sell?
What say ye, components of the GJ Hive Mind?