Thinking about buying a compressor.

[James]

Looking at getting a compressor but not wanting to spend much over $250.

I have been looking at 3 products

1 Craftsman 20 gallon, 3.7 cfm at 90 PSI 1.5 HP oilless
2. AC Delco 22 gallon 4.2 cfm at 90 PSI at 2. HP oil lubricated.
3. Husky, I think this is in the 26 ish gallon range with 1.8 HP and upper 4 ish cfm with oilless.

I know there are much better compressors out there but not wanting to spend much harsher price for the Saturday fulling around.
I would like to use it for airing tires and impact on lug nuts or rarely axle nut. I would not use it every day. Any recommendations.
Lastly I thought about the electrics but like the universal of the air for multiple tools.

Topic

[h0ncho]

my first harbor freight compressor was stolen, I got a second and it works OK for pretty much the kind of light use you are looking at. You’re getting some really huge compressors though. I only got an 8 gal like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/8-gal-2-hp-125-psi-oil-lube-air-compressor-69667.html mind you it was like 90 bucks when I bought it.

[Nicholas Clark]

I paid about $100 for mine with a coupon. I haven’t seen it that cheap since. I bought the exact same one. HF sells decent compressors and if you take care of them they will last. I use an impact on the weekends and I had to turn the pressure up a bit. It usually cut out at 120 pounds. I had to turn it up to about 133lbs. The pressure relief valve blows off at about 140lbs, so I just went down a few pounds from there. I don’t know how much pressure those tanks can take but my impact runs great at 130ish. To be fair, the 8 gallon tank can’t flow enough air at 90PSI to run an impact. I had to turn up the compressor to get it to run right. The line pressure drops way down when I use it but it still runs the impact great. I got an Earthquake 1/2″ impact from HF and I love it as well. For just being a weekend warrior, the compressor does anything I need it to. If you are looking for one that will run an impact for days, then I would suggest this 21 Gallon Compressor from HF. It’s way under budget at $180.

Happy tool hunting!

[Author]

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