What size air compressor is best for general use in restoration and repairs on the Airstream and other household uses? I'm finding some sales around town at Sears, Harbor Freight, and Menard's, but I get confused. Some use oil, some are oil-less, some have big tanks, some use two tanks. Some are for roofing nailers, some come with no attachments at all.
I know I want one with wheels because I have a gimpy back and just about everything I use over #20 has wheels on it!
After I finish with the metal shears and riveting (does one ever finish, really, with a vintage Airstream?) I can imagine all sorts of uses around the homestead, such as refinishing outdoor furniture, replacing the deck, washing the exterior of the house, and airing up basketballs -- I do live in Indiana, after all.
That's as far I as I have come today on firm decisions: wheels, and of general good use. Thanks for any and all opinions. Uh oh -- should I have said that?
Anne
Anne,
Work backwards to figure out what size compressr you need. Take a look at the air tools that you might want to use. Each of them has a rating as to how much air they need. Tools like nail guns and rivet pullers use small amounts while something like a sander requires continuous air flow. Also the size of the tank impacts how much continuous air flow can be delivered between times when your tool is off. The tank acts sort of like a back up to the compressor itself. I have a so-called portable air compressor that must weight in at about close to 50#'s. I think the fact that it has a handle on the top is what qualifies is as portable. As long as you are not planning to haul it all over the place (such as to construction sites, etc.) is sounds like you could probably use the largest tank you can find on a unit with wheels that still runs on a 110volt circuit. Otherwise you have to go to a 220volt model that is less than portable partly because of the power connection issue.
I wonder if this gap (photo in previous post) is evidence that there will not be unreachable rivets under the fiberglass cap? I have 1/8" bits ready to go to remove the visible rivets. I don't want to cut the skins at the junction with the fiberglass. What a predicament. But, I'm just guessing right now, the proof will be in the drilling.
Anybody have experience with this? You see, one thing leads to another purchase -- the aforementioned air compressor. It's time to take that plunge, in two weeks. I already figure the electric version of the metal shears is too heavy to manage with the kind of dexterity needed. Those things are really heavy, and the grip is large, and they don't seem to make a junior version.
I have the manual ones from the airparts folks, and they work well for small work. But, I have a bigger outside skin project coming up (see photos) and I want to be prepared.
If the interior skins have to be sheared, also, I'll have to hurry up with the air compressor so I can get this back end back together before the big family camp-out coming up in mid-June. Nothing like a deadline to work for! And, nothing like a vintage Airstream for building up a good workshop.
First, Hawaii next week. I've never been, very excited. Then, back to the other Trade Wind immersion.
I love it!
Anne
Anne,
I suggest that you drill out the rivets that you can see and then carefully chop off the ones under the edge of the plastic end cap with a sharp chisel of the type in the attached photo. The rivets are aluminum and will cut right off without too much problem. When you put the skins back in you might be able to pull the bottom edge of the plastic back enough to re-install some rivets but if not there is no reason you couldn't put in a few new ones if needed just below the plastic.
The elevator bolt heads don't need to be counter-sunk into the wood. Tightening the nut on the other end is capable of pulling the head into the wood so that it is flush.
Malcolm
I was also thinking that I wouldn't need to countersink the heads but today when I tried to just tighten them down the bolt snapped before the head recessed or even got flush. I am having to use a 1" Forstner bit to countersink. This would probably not be necessary if you are using standard elevator bolts and standard plywood but I used the bolts from VTS and they have an extra wide 1" head and I am using marine grade plywood which is more dense than standard.
I was also thinking that I wouldn't need to countersink the heads but today when I tried to just tighten them down the bolt snapped before the head recessed or even got flush. I am having to use a 1" Forstner bit to countersink. This would probably not be necessary if you are using standard elevator bolts and standard plywood but I used the bolts from VTS and they have an extra wide 1" head and I am using marine grade plywood which is more dense than standard.
Yes I could believe that marine grade plywood and a larger bolt head could be a problem. I do admit that I had a similar problem with my floor but I used Polyboard instead of plywood. The heads did not pull into the Polyboard material at all.
When you countersink the heads like that, what do you do to prep the subfloor for its final top flooring? Bondo and sand smooth? Some other epoxy or filler sanded smooth?
I would think that just about any good plastic wood filler would work. I am sure that Bondo would too but might be a tiny bit of overkill. It seems like the main thing is that it has to stay in place as the floor flexes. As I recall, though, there wasn't any filler around the elevator bolts in my old floor. I don't actually know if they were pulled into the wood when they were tightened or if they were countersunk though.
I think that the right thing to do would be to do the countersinking very carefully. Maybe make the countersink ever so slightly shallow and pull the head in the rest of the way when the bolt is tightened. I guess that might mean someone needs to be up top while the bolt is being tightenend to say when it has been pulled flush.
My previous old store location had 1x4 flooring. We had fairly large cracks and holes that we filled with Durham Rock Hard Putty. The floor flexed quite a bit and we rolled heavy dollies over the patches on a regular basis. I never had one patch fail. I think that is what I will use over the bolts and at the seams.
I only countersunk the heads enough so that they we just below flush with the top of the subfloor.
Hi, Malcolm, Thanks for the tip on the 5-way tool. Those are great! Not the flimsy kind, but the rigid one I've used to shear some rusted bolts in the flooring near the battery box, too rusted to use a screwdriver.
The compressor is bugging me. I think 90 psi is the typical tool requirement that I've found so far. I'm going to procrastinate a bit longer, another week or so, then I got to get moving. We have a big campout coming up in June and I've been bragging too much about the work I'm contemplating. Got to fish now, or cut bait!
We're going to Hawaii! I've never been. Maybe I'll catch a real fish there; maybe see an Airstream there ...
When I disassembled the bath, I destroyed the plastic trim molding that was used to hide the seams and rivets. I am scouting for a replacement, but then again, maybe doing something fun with the rivets, playing up the fasteners rather than hiding them, would be more fun.
Anyway, this electrical cord hiding product is too bulky for a trim molding, but it's heading in the right direction. I have used this, available at home improvement stores, to hide electrical and computer cords. A flat strip attaches to the wall -- in this product, with sticky foam tape -- then a cover, shaped like a U, clips over the sides of the flat piece. It's a way to hide a cord without going into the wall.
Airstream Living, Bruce Littlefield and Simon Brown, Collins Design, 2005, pages 55-57, photo on p. 57: looks like the toilet enclosure door is a self-rolling door. It could be my over-active imagination, or I have seen this somewhere else...
Does anyone have experience with this product, or have you seen it anywhere online? I don't know what it is called, to start a search.
I love this book. Somebody on the forums with not enough to do could compile some links to some of the amazing finished projects here. Not that I'm volunteering, but dreaming I could be that person who has that kind of time...
When I disassembled the bath, I destroyed the plastic trim molding that was used to hide the seams and rivets. I am scouting for a replacement, but then again, maybe doing something fun with the rivets, playing up the fasteners rather than hiding them, would be more fun.
Anyway, this electrical cord hiding product is too bulky for a trim molding, but it's heading in the right direction. I have used this, available at home improvement stores, to hide electrical and computer cords. A flat strip attaches to the wall -- in this product, with sticky foam tape -- then a cover, shaped like a U, clips over the sides of the flat piece. It's a way to hide a cord without going into the wall.
Hi, Malcolm, Thanks for the tip on the 5-way tool. Those are great! Not the flimsy kind, but the rigid one I've used to shear some rusted bolts in the flooring near the battery box, too rusted to use a screwdriver.
The compressor is bugging me. I think 90 psi is the typical tool requirement that I've found so far. I'm going to procrastinate a bit longer, another week or so, then I got to get moving. We have a big campout coming up in June and I've been bragging too much about the work I'm contemplating. Got to fish now, or cut bait!
We're going to Hawaii! I've never been. Maybe I'll catch a real fish there; maybe see an Airstream there ...
See y'all later,
Anne
Anne
Make sure you visit the Arizona Memorial.
It's free.
But be there early in the day.
The best tourist attraction on Oahu is the Polynesion Cultural Center. It's an all day program, from noon to about 9:30 PM.
The compressor is bugging me. I think 90 psi is the typical tool requirement that I've found so far. I'm going to procrastinate a bit longer, another week or so, then I got to get moving. We have a big campout coming up in June and I've been bragging too much about the work I'm contemplating. Got to fish now, or cut bait!
Anne
Anne
Anne,
Don't forget that it is a combination of the air psi (pounds per square inch) and the air volume that you need to look for when you check out tools. Compressors are typically rated as delivering a certain amount of volume of air (usually in cubic feet per minute - cfm) at a certain preasure (psi). One of the things this means is that if you set the compressor output at a lower preasure you will typically get a higher volume of air. I would expect that a detailed specification sheet for a compressor would give you a range of volumes vs. psi settings.
My personal observation is that portable compressors that can run on 110volt power are great for everything that does not need continuous air. My little portable is fine for nail guns, my rivet puller, my air cutoff wheel and my air socket wrench. It runs out of steam when I try to run a sander or do sand blasting. So I have decide to stick with electric powered sanders and forgo sand blasting for now.
The air compressor that I have that I am referring to above puts out 4.1 cfm at 100psi.
I think another big difference in air compressors has to do with the issue of continuous or intermittant duty. For all the things that my compressor can do it cycles on and then turns off until it needs to come on again. For the rivet puller it definitely stays off more than it is on. Air compressors that are used in a serious full time shop would likely need to be heavier duty because of the amount of use it gets. For the kind of stuff that an Airstream restorer is likely to do with an air compressor something like what I have is fine.
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