Thread: Air powered or electric?

Originally Posted by ingolby

am wondering what the view is of forum members on useing air as opposed to electric?

Dear Nigel,

Noisy as hell. And the hoses are a drag...
What sort of tools are you thinking of? (you don't have to worry about using acronyms in your reply...)

Cheers,
Batpig.

Nigel, people tend to go for what’s most useful to them. Factories and workshops often can run a couple of big compressors, pipe the factory and use air tools for a range of things. Advantages are not worrying about batteries, not worrying about electrocution hazards etc. Panel beaters use air tools because they already have huge compressors to run the spray guns, get the idea?

On the other hand, small and personal workshops might opt to use mains powered and battery tools because you can equip a workshop fairly well for the cost of a big compressor. Any air drill or sander will need a 3hp comp to run a single item for an extended period, the equivalent in a mains tool is probably rated at 1 to 1.5 hp. People working with air for long will confirm that the cheap high speed direct coupled compressors can’t cut it for long term heavy duty use.

Battery tools can be a pain for heavy duty use because the batteries are too limited to provide long run times under heavy use.
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I have air, mains and battery gear in the workshop and use whichever will be most convenient for the job at hand. I have 12mm and 8mm drills in all three, bolt drivers in all three (air ratchets and rattle guns, mains runner/drivers, and battery drivers and rattleguns), mains and air saws, mains and air grinders and sanders.
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To make the battery stuff compete on near even basis, I have a lot of gear from the same family (Makita 18V Lithium), with lots of batteries and 4 chargers. So if a job might chew through a few batteries, I have access to fresh batteries all the time. I even have inverters so I can charge from car batteries if I want a fair dose of battery power away from home.

Air driven tools are energy expensive as compressed air is let off into the atmosphere, thereby wasting 60% or more of the energy used to produce the energy for the tool. Cheaper to run straight electric.

I agree, compressors are very noisy. The most common thing I use mine for are blowing clean my chainsaws and the planer thicknesser, and then the odd bit of spray painting. About the only tool I use on an air line is a die grinder with a carbide burr, (kinda like a dremel on steroids) when I'm shaping a bit of ally.

Thanks for the input everyone.

I'm planning to owner-build a small house for my family and want to be as involved as I can for personal satisfaction as well as to stretch a tight budget. That will probably come down to basic design and some interior fit-out as my skills are more computer based than practical.

The main tool I've been thinking of is some kind of saw for shelves and decking, it will need to have guide rails of some kind so I've been thinking of a CMS (Compound Mitre Saw) or a SCMS (Sliding version of the same), so I can cut consistent angles.

If electric is more energy efficient quieter and cheaper to run then It seems that suit my needs. Also I'm not so worried about portability so I guess mains gear will be fine and possibly cheaper to buy?

Thanks again for sharing your experience

Great community here!

Nigel Haslam

ingoldby, I have a Makita CMS, and I wish I'd bought a SCMS, even though the difference in price is about $700. With a SCMS you can do most of the crosscuts you would normally need a tablesaw for, where a CMS is dramatically limited in the width of cut. Just my 2c worth. I have a TS, but am thinking of buying a SCMS anyway for convenience of use...

Hi.

You mention wanting to cut shelves and decking. Most slide compounds can get to about 250mm (10in) width. You might be better off with a S/H radial arm saw if your sheving exercises need wider material than that. There have been few on ebay recently. One in good nick would be similar price to a moderate quality SCMS. Will do everything that an SCMS will, plus Rip and cut half laps and tenons as well.

Main disadvantage is that they are bulky and awkward for mobile use, and need maybe an hour to set up and tune for absolute accuracy one in place.

Have both, don't like to travel with either, but what the heck, at least they both have the same blade size and spindle size.

Electric or Air. I think it all depends on the tool you are going to use. I have tried several electric nail guns but they are useless compared to the air operated ones also the electric staple guns are not as good as the air driven ones in my opinion. Air drills, thats a no no for me prefer electric or even better still cordless. Air compressor is also better for spraypainting in the shed although some of the electric ones are not too bad. I keep my compressor mainly for the nail gun and staple gun and use electric for my other tools.

I'm another who uses both. Air for the guns, sprays, ROS and - of course - blowing down, electric for everything else.

Also have air-driven rattle guns and shears, but as they're mainly non-woodwork, well...

Still, I couldn't really do without my compressor.