Every Handyman Needs An Air Compressor

I would venture to bet that there isn't a single home handyman type who does not want to have a portable air compressor ready for use in their workshop. Even the occasional handyman would find a use for it in the dozens of odd jobs and various tasks 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 compressor tools than you can with electrical tools. The initial cost of the air compressor unit itself is about the same as a decent table saw, but after that 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 to add to the cost. Because they have fewer parts they tend to last much longer in good working order. Drop an air tool into a puddle of water and it's no big deal. It doesn't work that way with a $200 drill.

Plus, you can get dozens of different kinds of air tools 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 prepared to accomplish. Lug nut wrenches, sandblasters, drills, spray guns and die grinders can be attached to or removed from an air compressor hose connection in seconds.

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.

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.