New tools you've bought recently?

[Shran]

It's not even that humid here in western South Dakota and I have issues with water and air tools freezing up. I did a bunch of sanding with a d/a outside a few years ago and it would ice up on a 50 degree day. The end results were way better than using an electric sander but the tool frustration was real.

You should be fine with a smaller compressor and intermittent use. Very rarely am I using a die grinder for even 10 minutes at a time or more. Let the compressor refill & keep going. I have a 60 gallon in my main shop and have run into low air on big painting projects with a HVLP gun. It has a very hard time keeping up with a sandblaster. Everything else is fine though.

Sometimes even really small ones are just fine - for example I have a little 4 gallon DeWalt compressor that I use for nail guns and believe it or not, my drywall texture sprayer. That thing uses a LOT of air but I can shoot a whole hopper before I "run out" of air - the compressor runs constantly - but that little sucker builds pressure FAST. By the time I have another hopper full of mud, the compressor is ready to go again.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Most of the time they advertise 5 or 6 cfm consumption. It's a lie. My wag is they will use 3 to 4 times that in continuous use. That said I don't use air tools continuous. But I have a 18 CFM, a 7cfm, and a little 2.5 CFM compressors, so I can pick and chose or potentially hook them all together.

 

[pacstud]

Most of the time they advertise 5 or 6 cfm consumption. It's a lie. My wag is they will use 3 to 4 times that in continuous use. That said I don't use air tools continuous. But I have a 18 CFM, a 7cfm, and a little 2.5 CFM compressors, so I can pick and chose or potentially hook them all together.

Yeah, and for what I do, it's fine. I think I had some serious die grinding that ate air and I'd let it fill back up. I like having the option, but pneumatic is so cheap and easy to find, and they don't break, so my guess is I'll end up with a lot of dupes.

 

[Shran]

Yeah, and for what I do, it's fine. I think I had some serious die grinding that ate air and I'd let it fill back up. I like having the option, but pneumatic is so cheap and easy to find, and they don't break, so my guess is I'll end up with a lot of dupes.

Yeah... dupes... I have at least 5 air die grinders, 4 air hammers, and a whole bunch of assorted impacts, ratchets, saws, sanders, etc. A lot of them were very cheap or free. I got a really nice IR extended die grinder because a little rust had seized it up. A big IR needle scaler for $5 because the seller didn't know what it was, two Chicago Pneumatic CP715 zip guns for $10 each at an auction. The list continues. *I* don't use air that much, but I use it enough to keep a stock of cool tools, and they're cheap. But I also have a huge investment in cordless stuff.

Sad thing is I want to buy another air hammer, 'cuz Torque Test Channel said the new Sunex one has almost 2x the power of my CP715's. Sigh. It never ends.

 

[pacstud]

Yeah... dupes... I have at least 5 air die grinders, 4 air hammers, and a whole bunch of assorted impacts, ratchets, saws, sanders, etc. A lot of them were very cheap or free. I got a really nice IR extended die grinder because a little rust had seized it up. A big IR needle scaler for $5 because the seller didn't know what it was, two Chicago Pneumatic CP715 zip guns for $10 each at an auction. The list continues. *I* don't use air that much, but I use it enough to keep a stock of cool tools, and they're cheap. But I also have a huge investment in cordless stuff.

Sad thing is I want to buy another air hammer, 'cuz Torque Test Channel said the new Sunex one has almost 2x the power of my CP715's. Sigh. It never ends.

At some point is like collecting trading cards, and that's ok.

I think the only air tool I actually bought from a store was my 1/2" stubby, and that was cheap at HF. The rest are FB marketplace and I have maybe $30 total invested, (as with you, some were free) and I have a nibbler, needler, drills, ratchets impacts... all of it. Most needed a little TLC but once cleaned up, they're basically new.