Air compressor
 

Hello

I got an air compressor from Lidl, and whilst its ok for painting etc, its not powerful enough to remove the wheel nuts.

Has anyone had success with a product that could be recommended.
Thanks

Andrew

You need to watch this Andrew :

https://youtu.be/cL7jyXCQ2Zc

I bet you only went in for bread and milk as well! :lol:

As for your compressor, first question is what have you got the pressure regulator set at? Also have you tried plugging your impact wrench into the unregulated output from the compressor?
Next, is it an impact wrench or an air ratchet? Air ratchets only give about 45lb/ft at best, impact wrenches go up to about 250lb/ft if the torque setting dial is set high enough.

Also have you tried a few drops of engine oil into the hole in the end of the air connector on the impact wrench? Hold the trigger while dribbling it in, connect the airline and give it a burst but drape a rag over the body (not the shaft though!) and hold it under where the air is expelled to catch the excess oil.

Now having hopefully got your impact wrench going, i should tell you NOT to use it on wheels nuts! :nah: You'll damage your wheels expensively and eventually. Also you're in danger of the wheel studs shearing if the nuts are over-tightened.

Best method is to use a breaker bar (24" long is the handiest for most things) to release the nuts and a torque wrench (63lb/ft) to tighten them evenly. Go round again after the first time to double check, follow the pattern as if you're drawing a 5-pointed star like a pentagram or if you prefer, imagine the topmost stud is #1 and they are numbered from there to #5 going clockwise and use the sequence 1, 3, 5, 2, 4 and back to #1 to start your second try. :thumbs_up:

Andrew, Dave is right; you need an impact wrench and it should have an adjustment available on it to change the tightening torque. I use mine all the time but for I'm not sure the cost of the wrench is warranted for occasional use. I would suggest money will be better spent on a simple spider but when tightening the nuts, and always without fail use a good "click" type torque wrench...which will also be used elsewhere. Don't overtighten wheel nuts as it's a sure way to end up with warped discs.
Garth.

Air compressors don't need to be powerful to operate an air tool. They need pressure and storage of air. A very cheap compressor should be able to produce enough pressure.

The usual issue is that they don't have much storage or power to maintain the pressure with an air hungary power tool, so you have to keep waitng for them to recharge.

Typically you are looking for about 100psi for a power tool, but the flow is the problem. If there is no storage the pressure in the pipe will dissappear in a fraction of a second. If there is storage, you are going to have to wait between bursts for it to recharge.

Air isn't a great system for home use, at they track I see people use electrica battey impact drivers for wheel nuts.

Typically any decent use of air volume (tools, die grinder, sand blasting) will need more power that availble via a 13A plug. Really needs to be 3 phase, otherwise you spend most of your time waiting for it to recharge.

I own this.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clar...SABEgLrWPD_BwE

It's hardcore!

I know who to talk to when i next need to do a CV boot on my Rover then! :tounge_smile:
Driveshaft nuts are 420Nm (about 315lb/ft) on it! :speechless-smiley-5

Joking aside, i have another option i'm investigating plus a 12V impact wrench with torque settings on it but only goes up to 340Nm or 250lb/ft ish.

Air Compressor
 

Thanks for the replies. The compressor goes to 8 Bar on the unregulated one, the impact gun I have says 6.2 bar.

If its not good for alloys, then I wont use it, it was ok on my other vehicle on steal wheels, even though the Volvo wasn't as tight it wont do it, there is a lot of resistance on the threads, its the same with new front wheel bearings (hub).

I'm sure you will get 6.2bar or more for a very short space of time, but what is the compressor, does it have a resevoir, control solenoid and a outlet pressure regulator?

Front wheel bearing you need a serious breaker bar to undo and tighten them, don't use an air gun. I use a 0.6m 1/2" drive hinged breaker and it feels like it gonna break, its probably a 3/8" job.

All household air compressors sell you false hope....

If you have a spare 15 mins have a look at this youtube video, try to excuse his "french". It explains a lot more than I'll be able to type out...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfjSm_ieRkE

Jeeez, that guy sounds hand-carted! :speechless-smiley-5

If we're being led up the same garden path with ratings, a 6cfm compressor is likely to only produce 3/4 of a cfm. If it's capable of sucking in 6cfm @ 15psi approximately (atmospheric = 15psi/1bar/1atm approx) and compresses it to 8bar/8atm/120psi then as it expands to escape from the reciever, the effective volume will decrease as well by the same factor. Therefore 6cfm/8 will be the logical output, factors such as temperature ambient air pressure, humidity etc will all effect it.

Given my experience of domestic compressors, i'd say my guess isn't too far wrong. I've got a sand-blast gun that's only meant to need 4.3cfm, my compressor is (allegedly) 6cfm and it can't keep up unless i rest it 75% of the time which makes any sandblast work very long drawn out. Using the windy gun (when i had it) meant a short burst of about 10 seconds then wait 30 more for it to recover. It's fine for inflating tyres, blowgun use and similar but anything more and it struggles.