Air powered tools and compressor

[Peter Christensen]

It was said earlier that air powered sanders don't have dust collection.

Dynabrade have 3 flavours of palm and many other sanders in different sizes. You can get them without any dust collection, self generated vacuum and central vacuum (attaches to a vacuum cleaner). They do eat a lot of air but being small and coming in more types and sizes than electric, they can be more useful.

http://www.dynabrade.com/dyn10/conte...ch=palm+sander

[Mark Bolton]

It was said earlier that air powered sanders don't have dust collection.

Dynabrade have 3 flavours of palm and many other sanders in different sizes. You can get them without any dust collection, self generated vacuum and central vacuum (attaches to a vacuum cleaner). They do eat a lot of air but being small and coming in more types and sizes than electric, they can be more useful.

http://www.dynabrade.com/dyn10/conte...ch=palm+sander

Right, and look up a Dynabrade 3.5" self gen. Unless you buy on ebay they are between 200 and 300 dollars US. And will require require a minimum of 16CFM. A $1200 dollar quincy single phase 60 gallon compressor makes 15 at 90 PSI. Now look at a 5" or 6" self gen lol.

[Mike Berti]

John,
I am talking about a hobby shop in a garage - small scale. The "big sanders" I was referring to, are standard 5"-6" ROS. The electric ones can run at lower speeds, albeit not in the smooth way pneumatic ones do. The consume roughly 1/3 HP which is negligible. That explains my surprise when learning that an air driven tool will need 5-7.5 HP to perform the same job.

The question I would have about the big sanders you are considering is can they be run with less air at lower speeds? Would lower speeds work for you? I never use my sanders at full speed - I prefer the more gentle low speed sanding action. I'm surprised at how well they work at even very slow speeds. The finish I get is fantastic.

JKJ

[Peter Christensen]

Mark I am not about to take a hard line on either side of the argument. I was only correcting the statement about there being no dust collection and to say there can be reasons to get air tools, primarily size and access that electric tools can't always address. It is up to the individual or business to decide what is more important and cost effective to them. All the facts need to be known and considered.

I actually have a 6" Dynabrade random orbit sander that I use and my 5 HP compressor easily keeps up to it. I know it isn't as efficient a setup but for the amount that I need it as a hobby woodworker I can squish a lot of air and make a lot of dust for the cost of buying a new electric sander.

[Bill Dufour]

Most compressors are set up to run at too much pressure like 175 or higher. Most shops need nothing over 125-150 psi. Increase the motor pulley to maximum amps at 125-150 psi and get more airflow where needed. Of course the pump will be louder and not last as long.
Bill

[Bill Graham]

I am considering adding an air compressor to my “shop”. ....
What compressor can deliver such air pressure?

Here's one: 5 HP (230V), 16CFM@100PSI, Vertical 60 Gall Compressor


I'm not a big fan of air tools, they're too damned noisy and, except for the wrenches lack torque. Air nailers are God's gift to carpenters. I use my compressor for spray guns and nailers and that's about it. and a blow gun.

[Bill Dufour]

I bet it is a misprint but the specs for that compressor say it is made in Azerbaijan!
Bill

[Ole Anderson]

I was refinishing my RV and had some runs and bad orange peel on the clear coat to fix. So I thought I needed to wet sand them out and being lazy wanted to use a power sander. So I picked up a $30 DA air sander from O'Reilley's. I started with 400 grit wet/dry which worked very well. I loved the action of the sander with the VS trigger effect. But I soon realized that my 1 hp compressor was badly under matched for the sander. I knew it would be, but not as badly as actually happened. It would work fine for about 30 seconds before my 12 gallon tank ran out of air, rpms would fall to nearly zero and the sander would stall. The other issue I ran into is that wet/dry paper finer than 400 (or was it 800?) is very expensive, something like $4-5 per disc as it was foam backed.

[Mike Cutler]

Here's one: 5 HP (230V), 16CFM@100PSI, Vertical 60 Gall Compressor


I'm not a big fan of air tools, they're too damned noisy and, except for the wrenches lack torque. Air nailers are God's gift to carpenters. I use my compressor for spray guns and nailers and that's about it. and a blow gun.

Bill

That's the compressor I have. It does everything I need it to do.

[Mike Berti]

I bet it is a misprint but the specs for that compressor say it is made in Azerbaijan!
Bill

Hahaha, Azerbaijan? A famous air compression center...
Funny, when made in the US, it’s in the first line in the discription. Azerbaijan however, only the achronim hidden down somewhere. Looks a little like Arizona...
On a serious note, this model looks like the smallest and lowest cost compressor to fit the bill...

[Bill Adamsen]

Pneumatic sanders are great for wet/dry sanding where standing in a puddle of water might make using an electric less attractive.

[John K Jordan]

Pneumatic sanders are great for wet/dry sanding where standing in a puddle of water might make using an electric less attractive.

Now that's something I never imagined - wet sanding in the shower.

JKJ

[Bill Adamsen]

Now that's something I never imagined - wet sanding in the shower.

JKJ

Sometimes it feels like it ... wet sanding boats can be a very wet activity indeed. You need a fair amount of water to flush away the waste.

[Martin Wasner]

I'm just going to beat a dead horse here.

You want as little air consumption as possible. It's an extremely inefficient and expensive way to transmit power or energy. If there's a viable electric too; that can do the job, you want that. You still need air for certain things for sure, but anywhere you can get around it, do so.

I have pneumatic clamps, tools with pneumatic actions, pulse jets for filters, even some gates on the dust collection that are hard to reach on air, but we don't use a pneumatic sander except for a few small tasks. Most of the shop could run off of a fairly small compressor. I spent about $3500 building the air line system, $900 filtering it before any air gets in the pipes, and another $8000 to compress/cool/dry the air. All for 52cfm at 125psi. I wouldn't have done it unless I had to. I'm hoping to add a cnc soon, that alone week gobble up almost a third of my capacity.

The point is, that's a lot of capital and it takes a lot of money to spin that compressor over. Plus maintenance, and it won't last forever.

[John K Jordan]

I'm just going to beat a dead horse here. You want as little air consumption as possible....

To give that horse a little CPR (having horses, not something I would want to actually try!): With 12 grand in an air system it sounds like you might have a commercial shop and have to pay attention to operating expenses. For some of us with hobby shops the energy expense is relative and perhaps of less concern. A hobby user might also be willing to live with the reduced duty cycle of a smaller compressor.

I used a cheap little pancake compressor when building a horse shelter with two of us using framing nailers. We did have to wait on the compressor but we got 'er done. The (live) horses are now sheltered and unbeaten.

JKJ