Tools Day - Compressor

[Sundayjumper]

After much deliberating and procrastinating, I finally bought a compressor this week.

Saturday afternoon I was trying to fit my new tyres but my poor little 12V compressor was just not up to the job of seating them onto my RACING wheels. I had to put out a plea on the club Facebook group to go and use someone's compressor

Time to bite the bullet. Sunday evening I ordered one of these:





https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272339776062

It arrived today. That's good service.

It's not *actually* silent, obviously, but it's quite impressive. Years ago I had a regular type compressor and it was so noisy I was embarrassed to use it. It was actually painfully loud to be near it. This one is maybe the same level as standing by a car with the engine running and the bonnet open. No problem talking over it. Builds pressure at a decent rate too.

On the downside, the tools I ordered with it (just basic tyre inflator, etc) are being delivered separately and won't be here until Thursday, so I can't actually do anything with it yet. It looks nice sitting in the hallway. I'll update at the weekend.

[KevH18]

Hopefully you get plenty of use out of it.

On a slightly related note, I'm sure you take your own tyres off the rim if you're fitting them yourself. What's the best way to do it and do you use any specialist tools to do it? I bought some wheels with tyres and was looking to separate them and sell either just tyres and keep the wheels or sell separately.

[mik]

Twin engine

I donated my compressor to StrongBroo Racing - I was only using it about once a year!

[Sundayjumper]

On a slightly related note, I'm sure you take your own tyres off the rim if you're fitting them yourself. What's the best way to do it and do you use any specialist tools to do it?

I've got a simple stand thingy like THIS. It does work but it's not easy ! After two I'm sweating like a pig and wishing I'd got someone else to do it. And the lever it comes with won't do your alloys much good. I wouldn't use it on nice wheels.

Conversely, putting tyres on is quite easy, relatively. You can do it with nothing but a regular crowbar if you're not too worried about marking the wheels.

[mik]

My dad bought one of those, and like you - found it to be a great piece of equipment to damage rims.

[integrale_evo]

Hopefully you get plenty of use out of it.

On a slightly related note, I'm sure you take your own tyres off the rim if you're fitting them yourself. What's the best way to do it and do you use any specialist tools to do it? I bought some wheels with tyres and was looking to separate them and sell either just tyres and keep the wheels or sell separately.

Unless you’re mental, don’t even try it, it’s a nightmare not sure what SJ uses but I have a manual tyre changer like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133554155268 which needs bolting to the floor, and I had to substantially modify the bead breaker section to make it strong enough not to bend in use. I also bought a nylon tipped no mark tyre bar.

Not really worth it for the odd set, but at one point I was always chopping and changing wheels so found it worth it, and also quite enjoy it. I’ve got a puncture repair set too to go with it which has been handy.

I’d imagine trying it with a set of tyre levels will lead to lots of swearing and injury to both yourself and the wheels

[Sundayjumper]

Also - use plenty of lube.

I've ordered a 5kg tub

[integrale_evo]

Yes, the more lube the better.

Although I have found leaving one section of the inside rim of the tyre dry helps stop the tyre trying to spin as you turn the new one on. Not much of an issue on smaller tyres with big soft sidewalls but can be a pain on lower profile stuff.

[simon_g]

Heard good things about those. I have a much smaller “silent” (but not) 6l compressor for nailguns, blowing dust off things and the odd tyre inflation. Most cheaper compressors are stupidly noisy, which put me off getting one for ages.

[Nefarious]

Twin engine

I donated my compressor to StrongBroo Racing - I was only using it about once a year!

And a very kind donation it was too Gets used pretty much every time I'm at the workshop!

[mik]

This pleases me - nobody needs a low-mileage garage-queen compressor....

Actually I just remembered that Flewy received an identical one with a dodgy wheel. Postal order many many moons ago arrived damaged. The one you have was the replacement, but they mever collected the damaged original.

[KevH18]

Hopefully you get plenty of use out of it.

On a slightly related note, I'm sure you take your own tyres off the rim if you're fitting them yourself. What's the best way to do it and do you use any specialist tools to do it? I bought some wheels with tyres and was looking to separate them and sell either just tyres and keep the wheels or sell separately.

Unless you’re mental, don’t even try it, it’s a nightmare not sure what SJ uses but I have a manual tyre changer like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133554155268 which needs bolting to the floor, and I had to substantially modify the bead breaker section to make it strong enough not to bend in use. I also bought a nylon tipped no mark tyre bar.

Not really worth it for the odd set, but at one point I was always chopping and changing wheels so found it worth it, and also quite enjoy it. I’ve got a puncture repair set too to go with it which has been handy.

I’d imagine trying it with a set of tyre levels will lead to lots of swearing and injury to both yourself and the wheels

I will take the advice of two much more experienced car fettlers and take them somewhere! Thanks

[Mito Man]

I have a similar smaller one for go kart tyres - would say nightmare is an apt description but speaking to my tyre fitter he said that very small tyres are harder and more time consuming than usual car tyres so I felt better after that.

[integrale_evo]

Yes, I struggled to get a front tyre off a lawnmower. Patched several punctures and it still went down over a few days.

Have put some tyre goo in now to try and seal them instead

[Sundayjumper]

Had a bit of a play, even recorded a 0-120 video ! Which is supremely dull, but it does it in 1m40s, which by my rough maths equates to 200 l/min or 7 cfm. The advert bizarrely claims only 26l/min. I had a feeling that was wrong.

7 cfm should be plenty for domestic use. I'm quite looking forward to painting something, anything, with the spray gun. Should be loads easier than rattle cans.