Hi Folks: Hope everyones summer is off to an enjoyable start. Since becoming a member of this site,( Thank You Blake for this Great Site!) I have become infected with Crawler Fever. I have graduated... so to speak from restoring Allis B's,C's and CA's and have moved on to Industrial and Farm Crawlers. I am starting to work on the dissassembly of an Allis H-3 with a 1066 loader and an HG - 42. I can readily see that a good stout air compressor that can flow lots of CFM would speed up removal of assemblies. My question is what is your favorite air compressor for this detail, or do you use an electric impact. So far I have been able to manage with an old 3/4 Drive Blue Point Socket set. Gives a good workout, but a little slow. I would really enjoy hearing your recommendations on tools for disassembly and stories about splitting crawler assemblies in the field. Thanks Very Much! Orangeman
A few years back we needed a good air compressor to replace an old 2 hp Craftsman unit that I totally wore out. I wanted something at least a true 5 horsepower and I wanted a compound unit and I wanted industrial quality and American made.
I did quite a bit of hunting and found that many have compressor units made in China or some other place that I would not trust with a pressurized machine. Be carefull - even many of the old well-known names now have parts made in China.
I ended up getting a 5 HP Champion with an 80 gallon vertical tank. It has a 5 HP single phase motor that draws about 28 amps @ 220 volts.
It handles the jobs well and will allow me to run my plasma cutter all day long, or my dad to sandblast signs for quite a while continuously without stopping for more air.
The only problem we have had with the Champion is we had to replace one valve under warrantee.
Blake
Not sure what your electric supply is like in the USA but when we brought our compressor a year or two ago we had a 3 phase unit because a 5hp single phase unit would have caused our trips to trip (you need your wiring to be upto spec with a 28amp starting load). Bear in mind air tools, even paint guns use a lot of air so a big a compessor with a large air tank is desirable we have a 250litre tank and the compressor cuts in about every 30's when using a big impact wrench, its just big enough, more capacity would be nice as it works hard. Sam
You can get soft start single phase compressors which have a much lower start load, but there very expensive.
Our 5 horse single phase compressor draws about 28 amps @240 volts. This should be no problem as long as you have enough wire to handle it. I run the compressor and a 60 amp plasma cutter at the same time with no problem. But we have 200 amp service to the shop with (I think) 00 aluminum wire. I know each wire is about 3/4 inch diameter including insulation.
Blake
PS- I recently acquired a Chicago Pneumatic single cylinder double acting water cooled compressor with 2 three foot flywheels. It does not have a motor, but someday I may set this one up. These are big, slow, old, and quiet, but they pump a lot of air and last for many years.
My favorite is a Saylor-Beall 10HP Kohler Gas powered 2-stage 30 gallon unit that had been in a fleet service truck. Works great for remote areas without electric.