Every Handyman Wants To Buy A Portable Air Compressor

Professional framers, roofers and finish carpenters consider their air compressor their most essential jobsite tool. That is why many will buy only Thomas Air Compressors. There probably isn’t a single home handyman who would not want to have a portable air compressor in their workshop. Even the occasional handyman would benefit from it in the dozens of odd jobs that crop up for every homeowner during the course of a year.

You can get more repair jobs done more quickly and less expensively with air tools than you can with electrical tools. Your initial cost to buy the portable air compressor unit itself is about the same as a decent table saw, but after that the cost of individual air tools are almost always much cheaper than their electrical counterparts. You have to pay for a motor and circuitry every time you buy an electrical tool. Air tools are much simpler with no motors or other complicated moving parts. Because they have no motors and fewer parts they also last much longer and stay in good working order. Drop an air tool into a puddle and it can still go to work immediately. Drop an electric drill or saw into a puddle of water and if it’s not the end of the tool it’s wasted time drying it out before it can go to work.

There Are Dozens of Air Tools

You can get dozens of different kinds of air tools for all different kinds of jobs that are not even offered in an electrical version. Ever see or hear of an electrical wrench? Air tools spin faster and produce more torque too. That means that you get the usual jobs done faster and that you can tackle big jobs that you otherwise would not be able to. Nailers, lug nut wrenches, sandblasters, drills, spray guns and die grinders can be attached to or removed from an air compressor hose connection in seconds.

Match The Air Tool To The Compressor

Air tools do have a potential complication. That electric sander will work every time you plug it into an AC outlet, but the air sander may not work at all if it is not connected to an air compressor with enough air delivery capacity to spin it. You always have to match the air requirement of the tool you want to use with the air delivery capacity of your compressor. Tools like pneumatic finish nailers and staplers consume small amounts of air and require a small portable air compressor, while air grinders, roofing nailers, and spray guns consume larger amounts of air at higher PSI and need a bigger compressor.

Every portable air compressor has an air delivery rating such as the volume of air it can displace in cubic feet per minute (CFM) and the pressure in pounds per square inch (PSI) it can deliver at a specific displacement. You do not have to be a technical wizard and understand how each of these specifications is derived. Just match the air tool requirement, which is specified for every tool, with the air delivery capacity of the air compressor you will mate it to. If you use only air tools with an air requirment rating that is less than the delivery rate of your compressor you will never have a disappointment.