Air Compressor

[Dave S]

Glenn,

What serves most of us well is to first determine what kind of paint gun you will use for painting your plane. That will tell you what pressure and CFM you need to supply from your air compressor. I used a Binks # 7 gun (a classic for auto painting) which can be outfitted with different needles and caps which will each have a different compressed air consumption rate. Also used a cheap gravity touch up gun which had a much lower consumption rate so that didn't matter. Wouldn't necessarily recommend the Binks as it is a siphon feed non-HVLP but that is what I had and the air compressor which worked was rated at 90 PSI @ 6 CFM. Different equipment uses different air consumption rates. Also a person doesn't necessarily need to have an air compressor that delivers constant requirements of the gun because a person will probably not be running continuously.

It is a real good idea to have a filter and adjustable regulator. Compressed air will have both water and oil in some amount which can ruin a person's paint job. Quick couplers on the hoses and gun are almost essential.

I didn't use the air for anything other than painting; but, others have and I am sure you will get some good ideas on other accessories.

[G coco]

Glenn,

What serves most of us well is to first determine what kind of paint gun you will use for painting your plane. That will tell you what pressure and CFM you need to supply from your air compressor. I used a Binks # 7 gun (a classic for auto painting) which can be outfitted with different needles and caps which will each have a different compressed air consumption rate. Also used a cheap gravity touch up gun which had a much lower consumption rate so that didn't matter. Wouldn't necessarily recommend the Binks as it is a siphon feed non-HVLP but that is what I had and the air compressor which worked was rated at 90 PSI @ 6 CFM. Different equipment uses different air consumption rates. Also a person doesn't necessarily need to have an air compressor that delivers constant requirements of the gun because a person will probably not be running continuously.

It is a real good idea to have a filter and adjustable regulator. Compressed air will have both water and oil in some amount which can ruin a person's paint job. Quick couplers on the hoses and gun are almost essential.

I didn't use the air for anything other than painting; but, others have and I am sure you will get some good ideas on other accessories.

Thanks Dave. I did notice on a video I was watching that the person had an inline filter for his compressor, and living in Florida, there's almost always some amount of humidity present!