Jerry Wayne Odom Jr.

Buying an Air Compressor


mustang As you all can see from the last time I've posted there hasn't been alot of work done on my car. A couple of reasons for that. The biggest being that its impossible for me to get any work on my car done because my little brother and father have been mercilessly trashing the whole work environment in front of my car and dragging off all my tools. So by the time I've driven 30 minutes to his house where my project is located, cleaned up their mess for an hour and found any tools that I need I'm out of time. I do more work trying to do work and I have to do it every time I work on my project. So I've finally had enough and am going to setup shop at home. I have most of the tools I need but lack I major thing: A good air compressor So I've gotten up in the attic and run some 10-2 cable so that I can setup a 220 volt electric socket in my garage this weekend. Tomorrow morning I'll head over to Harbor Freight and find a compressor that can handle the sand blasting, buffing and cutting I'll need to do.

Which Air Compressor To Buy?

  • In my case I need an air compressor with a big tank so that the long bursts of sanding, buffing or cutting with tools will not wear too hard on the compressor. So at least a 30 gallon tank
  • Air compressor CFM(Cubic Feet Per Minute) - being that I'll be doing alot of sanding and cutting I need a good CFM for my air compressor. Therefore I'll have to buy at least 7 CFM per minute at 90 psi. Depending on the price I'll probably go for higher than 7 CFM.
  • Cost of Air Compressor - I need a good air compressor that can do everything but it doesn't have to be an industrial grade tool. Just enough to do all the body work on my classic car and maybe one other future project.
  • I of course am buying an electric air compressor that runs on 220 Volts.


Air compressor options - Considering the following:

It looks like for the cost and with the numbers the Central Pneumatic air compressor will likely be the best option for my situation. The lower class of air compressors run from $100-$300 dollars and none of them are close to big enough. The larger ones are all industrial air compressors.

So look for me to make more updates on the restoration of my classic Ford Mustang. I've been moving all the parts and tools over to my house this week and hopefully by next week we'll have my compressor setup and be working on moving my car over. Thats all for now!

Jerry W Odom Jr. - July 21, 2006

Update: On Air Compressor Shopping

Well I headed down to harbor Freight and actually purchased none of the above air compressor choices. I walked in and looked at several available including the above new compressors and decided on a U.S. Genereal, 60 Gallon, 12.85cfm @ 90 psi, 3.5hp. It has a big tank which I really need and enough cfm to allow me to do my car restoration work.

Jerry W Odom Jr. - July 23, 2006