thinking of buying 150psi air comp. Good for painting?

With any compressor used for air tools & painting, the main issure is not pressure, but volume. An air rachet uses 3-4 cubic feet per munite ay 90 PSI and will work Ok with a small compressor. A 3/8" air drill or die drinder will use 10-15 Cu/Ft Min and empty out the tank and the compressor wil not pump enough air to keep up, resulting in the pressure dropping off to such a low level as to be useless. The same problem is possible with paint sprayers. Too much volume demand means that you spray for 3 minutes and wait 6 minutes for the compressor to fill the tank up so you can start spraying again. A Compressor with a 6 HP motor and 60 gallon tank is the minimum for shop use if you are doing any painting, and even that may not be big enough for continous use with a high quality paint sprayer.

yea he's right, although the pressure is important for tools, you need capacity when painting. Dont forget though, most guns, especially gravity feed airguns use very little pressure. Im pretty sure my fathers new gun can work on 8psi, but thats not the issue, its how long it can be used.

For painting if you plan on using an HVLP gun you'll need a lot of CFM--many of the good overall guns need 14-15 CFM. Air tools can use a lot of air quick, too

I agree a 6 HP 60 gallon is about the minimum--but that might not do all the HVLP's you might want to use.

We recently got two new comps. from sears. Theyre I think 310 a peice, 33 gallon, 5hp, 150psi. They also came with a good bit of free air tools if your a craftsman card member person. We needed new ones because one of the old ones went boom, and the other one was freakin old and just killin itself working alone.

However we just use those for normal work and small painting. For car painting, I think weve got an 80 compressor, atleast. I dont know the rest of the specs on it. If you can spring for it, those pair of compressors work very nicely. And theyre 110v too.

I have a 35 gal 140psi max Craftsman air compressor that I used to paint my car. Did the job well.

Painting uses a lot more air volume at a lower pressure for a quality paint gun than most air tools.

To use one of the really good HVLP guns, you'll need 14-16 CFM at 30 PSI. That translates into a 60 gallon, 5-7 HP compressor. Prices start at about $400-$600 for that kind of compressor.

See http://www.autorefinishdevilbiss.com/ for information on air requirements for paint spray guns of all types.

See http://212.75.80.201/CPAutomotiveSite/Default.asp?cookie_test=1 (Chicago Pneumatic Automotive tools site)

From their site, a 1/2" impact wrench with 310 ft/lb of torque needs 15 CFM at 90 PSI.

look at a used compressor dood........ you need a 800-1200 compressor if you wanna do it alot, it will work the hell out of a 6hp compressor.........some could paint with a 2 gallong, 2hp compressor if you give em chance.


i have an 8 gallon, 4hp, and it will NOT keep up with a die grinder for more than 10 secongs, it puts out 5.6scfm @ 90 psi, and 8.5cfm @ 40 psi. you need double that!

ohh, and cheap compressors get alotta oil blowby into the lines, you need a GOOD deoiler/dryer setup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


fisheyes suck!

Killer50stang said:

can anyone get down to the point and keep to the posting? will the 150 psi work or not?

Click to expand...

It's not so much the pressure that makes things work good as it is the volume. A $40 tire pump will make 150 PSI, but won't run any air tool for more than 5 seconds. No volume, no paint sprayer. You need lots of volume at 30-45 PSi to spray paint. Most good paint sprayers use 12-18 CFM at the 30-45 PSI pressure they use.

It's like the ignition on your car - 40,000 volts hurts when you grab it, but it won't kill you because there isn't enough current. Grab hold of a 40,000 volt power line and there is enough current to vaporize you in a split second. Current and volume are the same thing, just expressed differently.

Back when I was living in virginia my buddy bought an $800 compressor from lowes (can't remember the specs but it handled spray painting with no problems) and I think theres something that some people maybe don't know or haven't mentioned to you. I don't know if this is your first time trying this or not so I'm just going to assume it (kinda better safe than sorry).
A). Paint fumes are for the most part very toxic and you're going to want really good ventilation if you're in a garage. At the very least you need a mask (i can't remember which is worse but I think it's the gloss coat, pretty sure the primer isn't as bad, either way a skull and crossbones should be associated with it)
B). I'm not sure whether it's the temperature, or filtration but painting in the garage just does not yield what I would call a quality paint job. From what I saw (and admittedly I only saw 4 examples of his paint-work and he knew what he was doing) painting in an uncontrolled environment leaves a lot of orange peal. Some orange peal is inevitable, but a lot is a LOT of work. Be prepared for that. And it's not going to come out as good as a pro. shop. Still it'll look better than MY paint does now (my buddy painted the moldings only, those still look awesome, mako (or however you spell it) on the other hand...)
C). Painting in the winter is just a bad idea all around unless you have a heated garage because of the way paint dries.

Some things to keep in mind about your next project. I know these wouldn't deter me if I had my mind made up, but it's just something to think about.