Quote:
Originally Posted by GregWeld
You can never have a good enough air compressor! Even the one I have is BARELY adequate... and mine is the bottom of the barrel commercial version. It's still barely able to stay ahead of serious use. I have a Champion - 5 hp 230V single phase - two stage - soft start... 80 gallon vertical tank.
If I'm running a cut off tool or a grinder - it's running non stop... and while it keeps up and I never have to wait for recovery. Running a 100% duty cycle is never good for compressed air. Compressing air makes moisture.... and we have lots of moisture in the air here... so if you take one pound and press it into 10 pounds you end up with 10 times the moisture...
Forget the plasma cutter - get a killer compressor.... and then buy cheap air tools from Harbor freight or wherever else you can get them - toss 'em in the garbage when they quit working. I have Snap On stuff - I have Matco Stuff - and chinko stuff - the chinko stuff works just as good as the stuff I paid 10 X's the money for. This is true ONLY for die grinders and small cut off tools -- I would NEVER advise this for anything else.
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I agree completely! I have a 3 cylinder 5 HP Eagle air compressor that puts out 100 CFM at 95 PSI, 60g tank and it will run full time with the bead blast cabinet or die grinders/cut off tools. Don't even mention my pressure sand blaster....ouch. It kills the air compressor and I have 3/4" copper lines run through my garage everywhere. Bigger is better on air compressors.
I do not own a plasma either, but would rather have a good TIG next over the plasma. Plasma is only going to be good for rough cuts, not precision cuts if used free hand. If you have a mill to clean things up---great! TIG is my next purchase.