More goodies (or baddies?) from Aldi 19 March

[graduate_owner]

Hi everyone,
Aldi have a 2.5HP air compressor on offer on Thursday 18th, (£90) plus a number of air tools from £10 upwards (£10 buys a cut off grinder or a spot blast kit). I once read that you need a BIG compressor for shotblasting though, and even a 3HP one with a 100-150 litre tank would only do small areas of de-rusting.
Before I bought mine I asked friends who had compressors what they used them for. I mean, inflating car tyres is pretty obvious, but what else? I was told things like "great for cleaning things up, blowing things through" and I thought - yeah, right. But they were indeed right. They are great for clearing blockages (tractor radiator blocked with grass and hay bits, filters, carburettor nozzles) and cleaning things (blowing accumulated dust from insides of angle grinder (especially, because of the dust they make), electric drills and saws, chainsaw engine fins, in fact loads of things.
I also use it with an impact wrench for loosening stubborn nuts, which is great, but some air tools need a good reserve of air and I'm not sure the Aldi one would be OK as the tank is a bit small. I wouldn't mind an air stapler but I've read that cheap ones tend to block easily, and you can't regulate the nail depth properly.
Whether the stuff is any good, anybodies guess.

K

 

[Grahamshed]

Been thinking of it for a while. I may give it a go.

 

[graduate_owner]

Grahamshed - Even though I don't use the compressor a great deal, I have not regretted getting it. Mine is a Wolf Dakota 3HP with a 150 litre container and cost me about £200 from UK Home Shopping. They are £280 now. It's a belt drive type. I've avoided the direct drive ones in favour of belt drive because belt drive ones are much quieter, and if the motor burns out you can replace them easily. I'm told direct drive ones have motors matched to compressors and you can't just fit any old replacement motor, so you need the correct one from the makers which would cost as much as a new one. The impact wrench really does the job on stuck nuts. I have 1/2" and a 3/4" drive ones and using them beats using a length of pipe on the socket T bar, because they don't snap the bolts, plus they are so easy to use.
Before I even had a compressor someone sold me a small 'job lot' of air tools (I got them in readiness) so I had the impact wrenches, two basic priced spray guns, a drill and a grease gun, all of which I've never tried, and a paraffin gun and air blasters which again are really useful.

I've had it about 2 years so, as an occasional user only, I can't comment on long term reliability. The only issue I've had is the drain valve which has an O ring. The O ring broke up so I had to remove the valve to replace it. The next time the O ring went, the valve just broke up on removal. I'm going to replace it with a tap. You need to open this regularly to drain out condensed water or else the container will rust.

K

 

[graduate_owner]

Meant to say - at Aldi's price I think I would be tempted if I didn't already have one.

K

 

[graduate_owner]

Also meant to say - I don't think Wolf is the top quality make that it used to be, but I would expect it's on a par with he Clarke range.

K

 

[Tazmaniandevil]

I own a couple of compressors. One to run the air nailer, blow gun, tyre inflater, and small gravity fed spray gun. The other has a 25 litre tank, runs at a maximum 125psi and is used for paint spraying or if I need to use the nailer for a longer period of time.
I have used the spot blasting gun, which is meant for just that. Small spots of rust or cleaning car parts with baking soda. I had an air die grinder which I lent to someone and never saw again. It was a great tool.
TBH though, it was worth losing it to never see the twunt who borrowed it again.

 

[woodfarmer]

A paraffin gun is very useful. You can use it for protecting farm machinery by spraying old engine oil on the machinery. Incidentally this will also deter deer from eating trees. it will spray a load of non spray paints and Thompsons sealer.

and of course at a push you can spray paraffin and cleaner to clean things

 

[procell]

I have an old compressor I was given and it has come in very useful for a number of things. as long as it has a reservoir tank it should handle a nail gun happily. From a turning point of view it is great for an Airbrush. Something that would be nice to find is a chainsaw attachment.

 

[MMUK]

I have an old compressor I was given and it has come in very useful for a number of things. as long as it has a reservoir tank it should handle a nail gun happily. From a turning point of view it is great for an Airbrush. Something that would be nice to find is a chainsaw attachment.

http://www.csunitec.com/saws/air-chain-saws.html

:mrgreen:

 

[gregmcateer]

I have an old compressor I was given and it has come in very useful for a number of things. as long as it has a reservoir tank it should handle a nail gun happily. From a turning point of view it is great for an Airbrush. Something that would be nice to find is a chainsaw attachment.

http://www.csunitec.com/saws/air-chain-saws.html

:mrgreen:

Hells, bells! I though that was a joke till I clicked on the link.

And the bottom one has an optional 7 foot extender - Yikes - one way to p@@@ off the neighbours on sunday morning