I am thinking of getting a craftsman 33 gal Compressor for the garage for cleanup and powertools, and was wondering about moving to Pneumatic Orbital machine over the electric PC type. From what I read in the Griots catalog, the device is much smaller & lighter. Does anyone have experience with one of these?

 

33 gallons might not be big enough as they are air hogs ... my 60 gallon has troubles keeping up with large panels and I hate having to wait as the compressor "catches up"

 

I have a pneumatic orbital sitting in my room right now. These things can get going very fast if you run them at full throttle and pressure, for my purposes though I really don't need to run much over 40psi and even then I run it at part throttle at that pressure. Thanks to that they are not too bad on air consumption.

I have this one from harbor freight:http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93867

Very nicely built. Can take PC backing pads far as I can tell as it uses the same type of thread. The backing plate it comes with is very stiff, and just under 6in across, I am really considering replacing it with a 5in Lake Country backing pad.

The two main advantage I see the PC having over this are:
-No loud air compressor cycling on.

-Larger orbit diameter. In other words the PC has a bigger through, which probably helps make it work a bit better.


One thing I cant compare is the rotation aspect, on my pneumatic the pad is attached to bearing and pad rotation is driven by the force of the orbiting. I do not know how it works on the PC, although I imagine it is similar.

As far as sizing your compressor, while the tank size is important the rate it can pump air (in CFM) is a more important number. My compressor can deliver about 8cfm at 40psi (older version of what you are looking at I guess, mine is loud as hell though), plenty to run the orbital at that pressure and partial throttle for a good while before the compressor falls behind and the pressure drops below 40 (that said, I haven't actually tested to see if the air demand is enough to get it that low). Ideally you want the compressor to charge the tank, and while you run the tool for a while it charges the tank as needed and then turns off. Basically the compressor shouldn't have to run continuously.

There is another person on NAM who uses an air orbital as well who actually gave me the idea in the first place. Try and find some of my old threads in this section, I think the discussion came up while talking about hand polishing,

 

I am using an air orbital and love it. It has a regulator on it so it is easy to regulate the speed. And it is much smaller and easier to use. I got mine at Lowes (Kobalt).

Only drawback is the compressor noise as it does cycle on and off and I have it in the garage. Gets kinda noisy

 

I just did some more research and see that the Griots orbital requires a minimum of 8 CFM @ 40 psi, and the one from Harbor Freight has a minumum of [FONT=arial, sans-serif]16 CFM @ 90 PSI. These seem like very high requirements.

ScottinBend, what model orbital & Kobalt system did you purchase?

Some Guy, is your compress an old Sears Model? I am seeing now that for the most part, the ones I can view online only support 6 CFM @ 40 PSI.

Thanks folks!
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I have the Model LGA-980 sander. I am not sure of the req's, but my compressor supplies 8cfm/min at 40psi and I have to turn down the sander a lot to get the speed slow enough.

 

It is an older sears compressor, about 2 years old I would say. Mine does about 7 or so at 40psi, not night and day but it is something. Again though mine is really loud, much more than the 78db that the 33gal one advertises. Also, you aren't really supposed to use mine with an extension cord, which you can with the one you are looking at. The one you are looking at is pretty solid though. The next step up without spending a ton more might be this:http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...+%26+Inflators

It's oil lube though so you would have to maintain it. Probably overkill, especially if you don't plan to use the orbital all the time. You might have to pause every once and a while to let it catch up (the 33gal) but it just makes more sense if you only use heavy draw tools like that once in a while. That said I have seen some basically ancient oil lube compressors around my school, so I imagine that if you maintain well it will probably last a long time.

Keep in mind that the large numbers are taken under full load at full throttle. If you look through the specs in the manual you might see field that says "consumption under load". That number should be high, if you see one that has a really low air requirement then is probably the no load air draw.

The griots one looks almost identical to this one at harbor freight. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93742

The difference is that griot's uses hook and loop pads and is a different color. The one I have comes with a hook and loop pad. I expect the air requirements at 40psi to be similar. Even then though, I dont have to run at full throttle which saves plenty of air.

 

I have a lot of rotary time under my belt. I prefer the weight of the new electrical versions like the Hitachi and Metabo.

The pnuematic orbitals can provide more power than their electric counterparts but i'll take the Flex over other orbitals.

Unless the compressor is far away the noise of the cycling compressor gets on my nerves.

 

Yep........hate the compressor noise. But it is a lot cheaper than buying an electric PC !