Looking for mechanic tools - Jack, Stands, and air compressor

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  NosDan on 21/10/2012 - 10:14

  i made the mistake of buying supercrap compressor originally and regretted it straight away. by about a year later it would barely pump up to useable pressure and i replaced it with a proper brand one and its been running every since.

  if you plan on only using it a couple times a year to blow up a tyre or something they are possibly ok.

  also plan on getting at least the next size up than you think you need. when they pump up they produce a lot of heat, the more you use it the more it pumps and hte more heat it makes. if you get a smaller compressor it ends up doing a lot more work just to overcome the heat expansion to keep a useable pressure. a compressor twice the size (cfm/lpm) will end up only having to work 1/4 as hard because it wont have the heat buildup to overcome.

  i ended up with a 16cfm (i think it is) scorpion brand because i do a little die grinding from time to time and die grinders need a LOT of flow. i also use some air tools like rattle guns and air ratchets which barely work the compressor.

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  _Bruce_ on 21/10/2012 - 10:22

  With the Jack a super cheap one might be hard to smoothly lower when holding up a car, which is not good. Hard to know what will have this problem as you can't test it in store.

  With a stand I would just buy anything, as long as it is rated to what you need.

  I agree with nosdan on compressors.

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    bargin424 on 31/10/2012 - 10:26

    Even a SCA stand?

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      NosDan on 31/10/2012 - 10:31

      i have several sets of cheap stands from different places, axle stands are all pretty much the same no matter where you get them from. i have both the ratchet type and the pin type

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  OBEY YOUR MASTERS on 21/10/2012 - 11:01

  Sometimes with the cheap air compressors the gaskets around the piston can break. You can easily (somewhat) fix the problem by removing the head and cutting out a new gasket from gasket material using a scalpel. I had one compressor that had no less than 3 gaskets. I did all 3 and it hasn't stopped since.