On Sun, 29 May 2005 04:34:20 GMT, Scott Sansom >
scribbled this interesting note:

>I'm trying man. The plan is 1.) Build Shop 2.) Buy Tools 3.) Search
>for Bug 4.) Buy Bug. 5.) Repair and Restore (i.e. the really fun part).
>
>Step 1 is in progress (getting concrete poured this week and framers
>hopefully show up next week.

Framing is the easy part. Buy a good, big pneumatic nail gun and a
good saw and go to town. You don't need no stinkin' framers!:~) (Trust
me on this one. Most framers can't frame a square corner to save their
lives! Chris will back me up on this one, I'm sure!:~)

> Working on number 3 as
>well. I'm not in the mode where I am going to jump at the first
>suitable car, but if I find a car in really good condition at a good
>price I would probably buy in and stick it in one of those self storage
>places for a couple of months when I expect the shop will be complete.
>Been wanting and planning a shop for a couple of years now and it is
>pretty exciting to finally get it going.

How far are you willing to go to get your Bug and what year(s) are you
looking at? Price range, etc. This is motivated self-interest speaking
here as we (Scott and I) happen to have one or two or three (or more)
good candidates for you to consider, if driving to Dallas ain't out of
the question...

>Speaking of air compressors, anyone got a particular brand/model they
>like. Right now the one I am leaning towards is a twin cylinder
>Ingersol Rand 80 gallon vertical tank from Northern Tools. If I recall
>it does like 18 CFM at 125 PSI. It's a twin cylinder machine but not a
>true two stage (i.e. the twin cylinders are in parallel, not in series)
>so it has plenty of CFM but it doesn't go to 175 psi like most of the
>two stage compressors. I definitely want the high CFMs and I can't
>think of an application that required over 125 psi. Any opinions on that?

Air compressors...touchy subject. In our day to day work we use small,
high quality (meaning you can't get anything near this good from Home
Depot or Harbor Freight or even Sears...notice I kind of link these
stores), pancake compressors built by Thomas. And I mean small. The
smallest we have has about a 2 gallon capacity and the others are all
4.5 gallon capacity. One of the larger ones will run two pneumatic
roofing guns (staple or coil nail). Two of the 4.5 gallon compressors,
running together, will run two large framing nail guns being use
continuously. We've used these specific compressors for nearing
thirty years. They have Teflon rings and very good electric motors.
The rings, pistons, and cylinders last and last. The motors never seem
to wear out. In fact, they rate these compressors at 10,000 hours of
use. That's eight hours a day, five days a week, fifty-two weeks a
year, for five years. When one wears too much, we take it in and have
the top end re-built for about a hundred bucks and get back a
compressor that is just about as good as new. Brand new they cost
about three times that amount.

Just remember, most any compressor you buy from Harbor Freight, Home
Depot, or Sears can be considered disposable since they will likely
cost more to fix than replacing it would.

Scott got lucky. A while back he bought, at a garage sale, a good
DeVilbiss compressor. I keep harassing him to rewire the motor for the
220 it can handle and run a dedicated line to it from his service box.
It just doesn't keep up while running on 110.

So the considerations are, the amount of air you anticipate needing,
plus a comfortable margin, the service you want it to run on (110 or
220), and how long you want it to last. As with many things in life,
this is a case of you get what you pay for. High Quality will cost,
unless you get lucky at a garage sale or pawn shop...



--
John Willis
(Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)