Air compressor for workshop.

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

allias

Active Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2009
Messages
717
Location
Leeds
Car
00' W210 Est 320CDI
I bet we have pleanty ppl here who use air compressors in their workshop and I would like to here a little opinion about what should be installed in a garage with 3 lifts tyre machine and possible spray booth for painting.

I was looking at those below and I wonder if you could tell me what things I should be looking for, for general rapiar garage. Any other options are welcome - thank for any input.

http://www.toolsandpowertools.co.uk/product/fiac-crs-7-5300-rotary-screw-compressor-7-5hp-10-bar/

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sealey-Air-Compressor-270ltr-Low-Noise-3ph-SAC42755BLN-/230646757496?pt=UK_Air_Tools_and_Compressors&hash=item35b39e3878

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ingersoll-Rand-R2-2kW-Rotary-Air-Compressor-c-w-Dryer-/110714367883?pt=UK_Air_Tools_and_Compressors&hash=item19c7172f8b
 
Get the Sealy quiet compressor. Its not cheap but it is quiet enough for you to be on the phone in the workshop.
 
Do you think that is sufficant for number of work stations and possible paint jobs? What is typical pressure required for gun to do it properly and keep right pressure all the time?
 
Yes it is fine. It will need 8-10 bar. The quiet compressor has a large tank that you can add to. If you had two tanks running 10 bar that would be fine. Dong forget with spray guns you will also need to plumb a drier in.
 
Can ask you what do you use in yours and how long you had it, how many time you had to fix it? How many working stations you have in your workshop?
 
I can recommend HPC compressors - we have 2 in our workshop (precision engineering as opposed to motor trade). The oldest is now 11 years old, the newer one is around 6/7 years old. They've given us almost no trouble although we do have them serviced on the dot, normally an intermediate about every 9 months and a major every 18 months. Servicing isn't particularly cheap (intermediate about £600 and major around £1000 IIRC) but as we stand to lose around £600/hr if we have no air it's a no brainer.

HTH,

Gaz
 
Can ask you what do you use in yours and how long you had it, how many time you had to fix it? How many working stations you have in your workshop?

I have the quiet Sealy compressor. Repaired zero times. Super reliable. Had it 4 years. It was 2.5k

We have 3 ramps.
 
nick - PM sent

Olly... did you do any painting with that compresor?
 
Given the importance to your business of maintaining an air supply I would recommend fitting two compressors and piping them to a common receiver.
A couple of quarter-turn cocks could isolate either machine for maintenance or during breakdown. Depends upon the consequenses of breakdown. If you were to lose £600 per hour like the earlier poster then it's a bit of a no brainer.

Also consider having similar machines to reduce the number of spares you may wish to carry (belts etc).
 
Given the importance to your business of maintaining an air supply I would recommend fitting two compressors and piping them to a common receiver.
A couple of quarter-turn cocks could isolate either machine for maintenance or during breakdown. Depends upon the consequenses of breakdown. If you were to lose £600 per hour like the earlier poster then it's a bit of a no brainer.

Also consider having similar machines to reduce the number of spares you may wish to carry (belts etc).

Big factories only have the one (big) screw compressor, provided you buy a decent one Hydrovane or Atlas C you won't have much problem, they run forever.
 
Big factories only have the one (big) screw compressor, provided you buy a decent one Hydrovane or Atlas C you won't have much problem, they run forever.


Yes Nick, I agree. I was thinking in terms of the poster buying second hand units of unknown history. Hydrovanes are my favourite.
 
What spec I should be looking at when considering getting one?
 
Given the importance to your business of maintaining an air supply I would recommend fitting two compressors and piping them to a common receiver.

Also consider having similar machines to reduce the number of spares you may wish to carry (belts etc).

Exactly the setup we've got, and for exactly those reasons. We have the compressors set up as master/slave, the master runs pretty much all the time (the airhead engages and disengages as required to keep the receiver topped up), the slave will kick in if required if there is a peak in demand. Every service the roles are reversed to even out the running hours. If a compressor goes down (although as I said this is very rare) we can lock out the duff one and keep running on a single unit albeit with reduced capacity - we'll drop the hand tools so that the machining centres can keep running - they're the expensive ones..

I can't imagine a plant manager who'd put all their eggs in one basket and run off a single compressor. I agree Hydrovane and AC are good makes, but even so, you've got to build redundancy in..

Cheers,

Gaz
 
Peolple get confused about pressure and volume, It's the volume that counts CFM CUBIC FEET / Minute. Some air tools use a lot and some use small amounts, it's all down to your requirements for what you are running. If you go down the Hydrovane route regular oil and filter changes are all it will need.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom