i am finally at the paint and body on my 68'coronet restoration, i bought a air inline sander, orbital sander, high speed sander, my question is i have a very old sears air compressor, about 30years old, i have gotten by till now with it, it is a 1hp, 12 gallon tank,
7.1 cfm at 40psi, 100 psi max, my problem is i went to harbour freight and bought all these air tools, when i try them on my compressor they just don't seem to work right, the inline sander will come on but as soon as you put pressure on it it stalls, is this my compressor, or is it the cheap air tools? if it is my compressor, what size do i need? budject priced

You need a bigger air compressor. No lees than 30 Gallon. 60 is better. At least 8 - 10 CFM. I got my 60 galllon @ Home Depot for $400. It is advertised as 10.2 cfm @ 90 psi., 3.2 hp motor driving a single stage v-twin cast iron pump. It a Hausfeld Cambell and many will say to stay away from them but it serves me well.

does it plug to a 110 outlet or 220 outlet?

Consider adding a large tank to your unit. UNLESS you are going to use those tools many hours a day ... that should work for you.

A 1hp compressor is pretty small. You have to rate cfm at the pressure you are using the tools at. X cfm at 40 has to be drerated at 90-120 PSI, so with wear and old age, you probably have about a 2cfm

Also make sure your hoses are large enough, and that the supply fittings aren't corroded/rusted/ plugged inside. 1/4 hose is too small for most anything, anymore.

Check this thread out:

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...;gonew=1#UNREAD

Those tools need some CFM's and that ol craftsman is more suited for inflating tires and maybe an air hammer, but nothing continuous. check the CFM requirement on the sander, 5@90 is not going to happen on that 1 horse. You need at least a 2 horse.

your not going to believe this, but i just went out and check the rating on posted on the front of the tank, it says 7.3 cfm at 40psi, 6.0cfm at 90psi,
but it is 30years old, i do not think it is pushing this cfms, did they rate compressors different back then?

i also checked the cfm requirement on the air tools, is saying 5cfm at 90psi, i am thinking i am am also needing a new compressor, however really do not have the dough

how do i add a tank to mine? i will try anything at this point, i do not have the 800.00 or 900.00 for a new compressor

how do i put a extra tank on my compressor?

Just plumb it into the other tank with cooper, steel or flexible line.

my question is, can i buy just a storage tank and somehow hook it up with my 12 gallon tank and increase the tank to around 60 gallons?

where do you buy the just the air tank?

For a long time my compressor was a 2 hp 110 v. Sears. it worked OK but had a lot of down time waiting for the tank to fill.
The extra tank is a great way to cheat. Just plumb the outlet of our existing unit into the other tank and put an outlet in that line.
There are new ones, but a good source is someone with a dead compressor head giving away the tank,
Keep you eye on craiglist or local ads.

I also got my 60 gal unit on sale from home depot. 220v is the way to go if you can swing it, you just can't get much more than around 5-6cfm @ 90psi out of a 110v unit(this sounds like about what yours was, back in it's day). Just can't make enough horsepower on a practical 110v unit to spin a large enough compressor. The entry level 220v 60 gallon units put out about twice that cfm, but have the tank capacity to run a larger tool for a long time. A small tank one like yours will run out of breath a lot sooner, but regardless, if you've got the proper line size, the tool should work fine at first, just after an amount of use, tank pressure will drop because the compressor can't keep up. I don't think you're going to be runing a DA sander with what you've got, even if you add in an extra tank. The smaller compressors work decently for intermittant use like an air nailer, and light air ratchet/impact wrench use, but not so good for constant output devices like angle grinders, paint guns, DA sanders, etc. Even with the add-on tank, use will be intermittant as you'll have to stop and wait for the tank to fill a bit so you can gain power back. The extra tank capacity gives you a longer usage time, but also a longer refill time.

I was in the same boat as you, did not want to spend all my dough on a new compressor, so I kept using my tired, leaking 13gal 110v unit until I finally just could not take it anymore. If you use tools made for your compressor's size, they work fine, but when you want to do more than your compressor can handle, it get irritating, very quickly. Lol, just try taking off a cylinder head with your impact and a smal compressor. Last time I got 6 bolts off before I just ran out of power and had to just put the gun down and let the 110v unit refill. No more of that for me.

IF you can deal with an odor from the air for awhile .... get a used propane tank and plumb-in regular fittings.