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Hi all. Last Christmas my dad bought me this Craftsmen tire care kit that included a 1/2″ impact. I had been saying how I want a bigger air compressor and air tools. Last summer, I did use the impact once with my 3 gallon compressor. It was just enough to remove a nut from a pulley on the lawn mower. I also used it to put it back on. About 2 months ago, I bought a nice big 21 gallon compressor and 50′ 3/8″ hose from Harbor Freight. I know it’s not the best brand, but I’m not running a shop, just my hobby stuff. Last weekend, I sat down to do my brakes and busted out the impact. I found that at 120 PSI, the impact would not even come close to loosening the lug nuts. I broke them loose with a 4-way wrench with little effort. Without any load the impact spun fast and free. But I could hold it in my hand with little effort and that would stop it from spinning. The socket did jerk back and forth with the hammer inside, but it had not inclination to rotate.
After reading my little manual that came with the impact gun, I found three possible causes:
1) The hose is too long. 25′ is the recommended length.
2) Not enough oil in the air inlet. I put in two drops to start, but added a few more for good measure. It didn’t help.
3) Not enough oil in the hammer. I added maybe a 1/4 ounce of oil in it, still no help.The only thing I can’t try is the hose. I only have the one large hose. I did swap back to the 1/4 hose that I used last summer on my 3 gallon compressor. That compressor and hose was enough to loosen a bolt before, but that hose with the new 21 gallon compressor didn’t make a difference. The only thing I didn’t try was busting out the old 3 gallon. I didn’t do that because I’d wasted a lot of time already and needed to get to my break job.
So what I’m looking for is some suggestions of what to look for. I can’t verify that my new compressor is good as this is the only air tool I have. I can buy another hose, to test with, but it seems odd that it worked last summer with a little 1/4 plastic hose. Any ideas?
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Th problem being that only heavy duty air compressors with big lines and industrial regulators with maintain a pressure of 90 if they are set at 90. most of the time, the actual working pressure at the gun will only be 80 or 90, even if it is set at 120 at the regulator. Beyond that point, if you can get your impact to work fine on a smaller air compressor, the issue has to be air delivery. With a 20 gallon tank, It shouldn’t matter how big your compressor is, you still have that reserve air to run the tool for at least a little while. The fact that he has no power from the tool at any point tells me its an air delivery issue, and the fact that he has the same power output when plugged into the compressor at the regulator (no hose) eliminates the hose. The air compressor simply isnt delivering the air to the tool, be it a defective regulator or something restricting flow to the line.
I took my impact gun over to my father-in-laws to try it there. I flipped it on reverse and it definitely felt better… then I flipped it on forward. No setting on forward felt anywhere near as strong as reverse. Then I tried his Central Pneumatic impact on his compressor and it felt a lot stronger than mine. Maybe the CFM requirements are really over underestimated, or else that’s not my impact gun. The test just wasn’t as definitive as I wanted.
Hey John. I actually looked at that compressor, but really hesitated on the oil-less type. I know they aren’t simply junk, but I liked all the oiled ones better.
On that note, I’m going to try to get Harbor Freight to let me trade up. I was eying this one before.
http://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools/air-compressors/2-horsepower-29-gallon-150-psi-cast-iron-vertical-air-compressor-68127-8026.htmlThe oil-less ones are ok, but dont hold up well to any sort of heavy use and are about 20x as loud! I was looking at that compressor too a while back, but I am saving up for the mother of all air compressors: http://www.mactools.com/shoponline/product/tabid/120/p-323036-10-hp-120-gallon-duplex-1-phase-air-compressor-175-psi.aspx
I’m reviving an old thread because I like closure.
I took my 21 gallon compressor back after simply being disappointed in the performance of it. I felt like I was alone in this, but I didn’t want another identical unit. My father in-law has one, and I didn’t think it worked any better. I traded it in for store credit and bought this 29 gallon unit.
http://www.harborfreight.com/2-horsepower-29-gal-150-cast-iron-vertical-air-compressor-68127.html
The first thing I could say was that it was double the weight of the 21 gallon model. It’s far more solid, and so freaking quiet I had a conversation with my wife while it was breaking in. The biggest con for me, was that the oil change was disastrously messy. Other people have wedged funnels under the drain plug, but I couldn’t get hardly anything under it. I think I’ll use a siphon next time. The bad news is that it still doesn’t power my impact. At this point, even though it’s my second impact, I’m going to have to say that it’s the tool. I have no hard evidence, but this is the third compressor I’ve tried it on. At 5.9 CFM, I should be blasting through lug nuts, but I barely get a “hiss-click-hiss-click” out of it. I’m going to head back to Sears and see if they won’t just give me in store credit. I’d rather buy one of them nice Harbor Freight “Earth Quake” impacts, but I doubt I’ll get cash back for it.I’ll update again after I get something new. Even if I just borrow one to test with.
Well I’m happy. The manager at my local Sears was really understanding and gave me in store credit. Not really having a lot of faith in any other Craftsmen impact wrench, I went on-line at sears.com and got me an Ingersol Rand.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00919289000PThe good news for me is that I only really ended up paying $20 for it. The original impact was a gift, and the credit came out to like $68. Then, after buying a gift card for father’s day, I got a coupon for $20 off a tool purchase. So I got a real IR impact wrench and it only cost me $20 😉
And it takes off lug nuts!
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