A couple of weeks before the plane arrives, I needed to get the garage cleaned up and setup. The first big purchase was the air compressor. I have never really worked with pneumatic tools before, so this was foreign territory for me. I know from reading other blogs I needed something quiet and BIG. Nobody really said how big or how quiet.
The air compressors I was looking at ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand. Since I am NOT priming and not painting the plane myself, I was not as concerned with some of the specs that seemed more important to paint. So I was really left with quiet.
The reviews on the Harbor freight Fortress Ulta Quiet were good, the price was right and it seemed to fit the need, so I tried it.
It took me a few trips to harbor freight and some amazon stuff to get the system set up how I wanted but here is what I have. It is a very simple setup and while I contemplated making this very complex with hard plumbed lines, inline oilers, water drains etc. that all seemed like overkill. I settled on a $25 Amazon inline Air Filter with Water Separator and Pressure Adjustment attaching to a 50 ft. 3/8 in retractable Air Hose.
Since the compressor has 2 outputs I am using one for a simple air hose to blow off the work surface and parts as I need.
I am oiling the tools directly with a few drops before each use and this simple setup seems to work perfectly.
The only thing I am planning to add is a manifold that I can attach to my work table with 4 – 10ft. lightweight hoses so I can have all the tools I need hooked up and ready to go rather than having to constantly switch out between drill gun, riveter, and squeezer.
As far a cleaning out the garage, we sold 2 bicycles, an old stroller, and my son’s ride in Jeep that he is WAY too tall for anyways. I organized the shelves, donating a LOT of old clothes, and just generally got rid of a lot of stuff we held onto because we had the room.
It’s not perfect yet, but it works and the Empennage plus Wings fit nicely in with my work area.