Craftsman 30-gallon Air Compressor at Auction...

There's a Craftsman 30-gallon air compressor coming up at an auction on Saturday - would it be suitable to run a HVLP paint gun for my first tractor painting project? (Working tractor, non-showroom-type job.)

It's a horizontal tank, and looks like new in the photo. (I tried to copy and post a picture from the auctioneer's website, but it was a bitmap file, and I couldn't get it to upload.)
 
Probably not, as 30 gallons may not be enough capacity -- but you need to know the CFM of the compressor and the CFM required of the gun. It used to be possible to use a true 1 hp compressor with a suction gun. HVLP requires more air. So I can't say without knowing the CFM needed. An alternative is to wait until the pressure builds up, which will slow your painting.
 
Tom, is it black and gold? I had a black and gold 33 gallon craftsman direct drive air compressor. Honestly, you can get by with it but you will have two problems. You will have to stop and let it catch up every once in a while and if it is a direct drive oil less compressor it will pump a lot of water out. They run so fast that it really heats the air up alot as it goes in the tank. I ended up coming out of the craftsman compressor into an old portable air tank, into a water trap, into another water trap and I used two disposable filters on the end of my gun. But I made do with that until I built the 80 gallon compressor I have now, so yes it can be done but I wouldn't spend too much on that compressor.
 
Jason, it's got a red tank and a black motor/pump.

I did a little more reading, and Craftsman compressors like this don't seem to be very well thought of - I think I'll give it a pass, especially in light of what you and CNKS had to say.

Thanks for saving me some time, trouble and money!
 
Actually, I have a 30 gallon Sears air compressor in my garage, bought only to put air in tires etc. The noise almost drives me outside. In my shop I have two bigger compressors, one is a 60 gallon 15 CFM for painting. I needed a bigger one for sand blasting it is 80 gallon 2 stage 24 CFM. I intended to connect the two together for more air for sand blasting, but found it difficult to make a single and 2 stage to work together so I limp along with the 80 gallon one.
 
I have a 15 gallon 3.5 HP compressor, B&D I think.
I have painted 3 tractors with it using HVLP and I
have never run out of air. You only need low PSI
with some guns.
I guess if I was doing a car it would be different
since that is a lot more continuous spray time.
 
Thanks, all.

The label on the Campbell Hausfeld HVLP gun at Wal-Mart says it needs at least a 7-gallon compressor; if it mentioned CFM, I don"t remember. I"ll try to check it again.

CNKS, noise was one of the things that reviewers mentioned on the Craftsman; reliability of the motor was another. (Different models may have a different motor, of course.)

I may still take a look.

Jason, where do you get water traps and filters? Will their use be explained in the spray gun instructions?
 
I'm not Jason, but water traps are sold where you buy quality paint, whether Walmart has ones that are any good I don't know. Instructions probably won't say. There is a difference in oiless and oil fed compressors, as stated the oiless ones probably cause more water. I assume the one you are looking at is oiless. If so you are better off with an oiled one. I have 90 feet of pipe before the first trap, no water gets through, my painting drop has another trap after 30 more feet-as insurance. If you mount one right after the compressor it won't work. Good traps are about $150 or more. Be sure you drain the water out of the compressor after each use.
 
Thanks, CNKS.

I've figured out that spray painting is [i:9910c26245][b:9910c26245]way[/b:9910c26245][/i:9910c26245] over my head (and budget). :shock:

I'm out of my comfort zone with enough other aspects of this Little Tractor Project - don't think I'll make spray painting another one.

I will now slink back to the other Forums, where I belong... :oops:
 
I don't think it is over your head, budget, maybe. 1st job I tried was on a Chevy pickup in the early 80's. These forums did not exist, nor did the internet to common people. What I learned ahead of time was from virtually worthless automotive magazines and the local PPG dealer, who was knowledgeable, but I didn't really understand what he said. The only thing I did right was the bodywork including body filler, every thing else went wrong. Stopped me from painting for about 18 years. A long time hobby painter found me asking questions on another forum similar to questions on everyones 1st job; when I retired. That was before this forum existed. I wanted to restore tractors as a hobby, I was more concerned about the painting than anything else. He told me exactly what I needed to do by email and it worked, the first time. Rod(NH) who posted much more often than he does now confirmed everything the other guy told me, word for word in answering other peoples questions, although he probably doesn't know he was confirming the person who answered my questions. Had some problems on the second tractor I did, I don't know what went wrong to this day. There are a lot of things to remember, do one wrong everything goes wrong, everything is related. It is not simple, but also not hard to learn.
 
It's not above your head Tom. It just takes practice and patience. There are plenty of people here willing to help and try to walk you thru it. If you want some practice, go to a junkyard and get an old fender and hood and practice spraying on them until you get the feel for the gun and how to lay down paint. The worse thing that can happen is it looks bad, so you sand it off and try it again. In the 20 years I've been painting I have had just about every disaster happen that can at one time or another. One thing about body work...you can read all you want on it, people can tell you all they want but no two body men do body work the same way. You have to find what works for you. As always you have my email if you need to ask me something in case I miss it on here. As far as the water traps I ordered one and the other one I made. Any autobody supply shop will have a water trap set up or you can make one. Years back before traps with desiccant became popular they used to sell these traps that used a roll of brown paper towels. They were about the size of a roll of toilet paper, and the roll just slid down in the canister. The air came in one side and went out the other and it unscrewed so you could replace the roll of towels, and yes I have seen actual toilet paper used in them. I made one but I use the blue shop towels in it because they hold a lot of water and they don't have a lot of lint in them like regular paper towels. The disposable filters for your gun you can get at an auto body supply, oreillys, harbor freight, most anywhere. They just screw on the end of your gun and your air line fitting screws on to it.
 
It doesn't matter what color it is. You have to look at the specs. Sears doesn’t make anything but catalogues.
 

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