Thread: which air compressor ?

No replies but I will give it a go.
I am certainly no expert I have a $199 Bunnings single cylinder air compressor it would drive a coil gun if I needed to do a fence. It would need to catch up every now and then. But it does all I need.

A twin belt drive will be quieter.

Compressors are so cheap I remember my first 2hp cost me $600 and that was a hobby one! Thanks to a burglar and insurance I was updated to the project brand from Bunnings. 20 year old compressor now a new one.

Preference to super cheap unit, why, they make funnier adds.
both places will offer return policy warranty so at that price go get one from super cheap.
Cheers

Take note of the fact that the Masters one only has a 36 ltr tank. For some applications tank size is more important then fad. It depends, are there natural pauses in the work or will the compressor be running most of the time?

I cant see what tank size the sca one is - looks like 50 litres. Thats a tolerable minimum.

Be cautious of the Fad figures - I understand them to be often distorted for marketing reasons.

Yep, noise will be a problem for the direct drive.

Hi Sam,
I have one of the supercheep jobs have had it for about 3 years now been well used and given good service,as stated you don't need much to drive a nail gun I have used mine for framing, finish, pin and staple gun's never had any problems spray guns plenty of air and they do run quiet compared to directdrive units.
Regards Rod.

Feel like I should close out this thread - Went to supercheap to buy the cheaper belt drive they sell and of course there were none left and no one to ask...but bunnies is next door and they had the ryobi $179 50lt direct drive job in a pack with a few basic tools for $199 with longer warranty than the SC one. All the first lot of tools leaked air at the hose to tool connection but the replacements are OK.

Also got the ryobi 3 in 1 nail gun (C/C1 brads + staples) which will be interesting to see how it goes long term as I couldn't find any reviews at all online.

Thanks again for all your replies.

Originally Posted by Sam

Feel like I should close out this thread - Went to supercheap to buy the cheaper belt drive they sell and of course there were none left and no one to ask...but bunnies is next door and they had the ryobi $179 50lt direct drive job in a pack with a few basic tools for $199 with longer warranty than the SC one. All the first lot of tools leaked air at the hose to tool connection but the replacements are OK.

Also got the ryobi 3 in 1 nail gun (C/C1 brads + staples) which will be interesting to see how it goes long term as I couldn't find any reviews at all online.

Thanks again for all your replies.

I wish I'd noticed your post sooner .....

Something I found out the hard way recently with regard to Compressors and Nail Guns and Brad Nailers ....

My compressor (a cheapie "Stanley" branded direct drive unit) will drive an 18 Gauge Brad Nailer (an Archer brand unit from Carbatec) all day driving brads right up to the maximum length into hardwoods. For a recent home reno job I needed a 16 Gauge Nailer, so I bought the Ryobi 3 in 1 the same as yours from Bunnings.

When I started to use the Ryobi gun to drive staples thru masonite into hardwood floor boards, I was getting a lot of mis-fires where one leg of the staple would crumple instead of driving in straight, and a lot of instances where the staples were not being driven deep enough, leaving the staple head proud by up to 3 mm. Then I used some 30 mm 16 gauge nails to fix some trim. This time, a large percentage of nails were sitting proud of the surface, even though the depth adjustment on the gun was set at maximum depth.

So - out with the owner's manual for the Ryobi to see if I was doing something wrong. Nope - all techniques OK. But, the Ryobi nail gun manual states that minimum operating pressure is 100 psi (from memory - the actual figure might have been slightly higher or lower). So I had a look at my compressor. The compressor's pressure switch is set at the factory to cut out at 110 psi and to cut back in at 70 psi. So, most of the time, even with the regulator on the compressor wound up to the maximum pressure, the pressure being delivered to the nail gun is below it's minimum operating pressure within a few gun operations.

I rang Stanley in Sydney to find out how to adjust the cut in pressure to be higher. Their response is that the motors on most direct drive compressors will have difficulty starting if the reservoir pressure is above about 70 psi, and that adjusting the pressure switch to make the motor cut back in at say 100 PSI would probably burn out the motor, and would also probably wreck the compressor's pump due to exceeding the duty cycle of the pump.

I then looked at a few other brands of 16 gauge nailers, and found that on many, the minimum operating pressure is much lower (50 to 70 psi on many) than the minimum operating pressure specified for the Ryobi 3 in 1 Nailer (circa 100 psi). In future, I'll be buying better trade quality pneumatic nailers, rather than the cheapies from the big box stores.

Regards,

RoyG

I know its not a very satisfactory solution but you could use the gun till the pressure is down to about 90 (assuming 10 percent margin) and then bleed away the air in the tank, to force it to refill. I do this when spraying. Some sprayguns have a two-step trigger which allows this, not sure if nail guns have something similar. If the gun doesnt allow I just use the air-duster which is attached on a second hose.

Originally Posted by Arron

I know its not a very satisfactory solution but you could use the gun till the pressure is down to about 90 (assuming 10 percent margin) and then bleed away the air in the tank, to force it to refill. I do this when spraying. Some sprayguns have a two-step trigger which allows this, not sure if nail guns have something similar. If the gun doesnt allow I just use the air-duster which is attached on a second hose.

Thanks for that suggestion. I've sold the Ryobi Nail Gun to my neighbour who has a much larger belt drive 2 cylinder compressor that runs between 110 and 130 PSI, so the Ryobi nail gun works great on his compressor. It suited him as he will be stapling down masonite underlay in four rooms soon, so he's happy. Meantime, I've bought a used Paslode 16 gauge nail & staple gun (for $30 at a garage sale ). It was a bit of a gamble when I bought it, as it was from a deceased estate and hadn't been used for five years, but it works well on as little as 60 PSI.

Regards,

RoyG

Thanks for the heads up and explanation RoyG.

Further to Roy's post above I've had the same problem with that Ryobi 3 in 1 gun. First few nails go in ok but last few need some help before compressor kicks in again. I'm not using it all day everyday so it's bearable.

On a positive note, I bought the Ryobi Framing Gun and have built 2 paling fences with it. Really happy with this one although the compressor re-fills fairly often. I meant to count how many 50mm nails it would do but keep forgetting, maybe 25 - 30 nails ? With ear muffs on the noise is ok for me...dunno about everyone else !