Exactly that, this thread is to discuss the variety of air-compressors, air tools and their multiple uses & applications, as well as techniques of use.
To start, the noisey air squeezer itself, what size do I need? How much are they? How many CFM's do I require, how many does this one put out, what's a CFM?
Hopefully this thread will answer these questions and many more.
Take mine for example, it's a Coleman (usa), 5 HP, oil-less (with a 3 petal metal intake reed), 27 gallon tank, 130 psi max. output, and runs one or two 90 CFM (cubic feet per minute) consuming air tools without a problem of over use and over heating. And works great with the hand plasma-cutter.
Oil-less means that the motor and comp. are more or less one piece, and make a higher pitch whinning sound. The other is a two piece system, where the motor (elec. & gas) and the comp. are separate, joined buy a belt & pulleys, and make a bop, bop, bop, bop, bop....., sound. The comp. crankcase has oil in it for lub. This is the more common one.
Some comp. are vertical, some horizontal. They come in all sizes and prices. If all your going to do is air brush art you'll not need a big system, and the same goes for the heavier duty needs. Big job, big air.
I'd be lost without my air-comp. It would render all those wild air tools redundant.
What you did say is CFM stands for cubic feet per minute air output. But why is that important? Most air tools will have a recommended CFM requirement. If you have a decent size tank you can use your air tools trackside for a limited amount of work. The air jet attachment is useful for blowing out carb jets and other areas that need cleaning. Also a 27 gal tank as Pegdrag has will inflate at least a dozen flat tires without needing to plug it in to recharge.
What you did say is CFM stands for cubic feet per minute air output. But why is that important? Most air tools will have a recommended CFM requirement. If you have a decent size tank you can use your air tools trackside for a limited amount of work. The air jet attachment is useful for blowing out carb jets and other areas that need cleaning. Also a 27 gal tank as Pegdrag has will inflate at least a dozen flat tires without needing to plug it in to recharge.
Having the proper CFM tools rated for your compressors output means that it won't run on and on, because if the tool requires too much CFM's to run, then the comp. keeps running to keep up with the air used, especialy when the storage tank is small. The bigger the tank is the less your comp. will come on, however it takes a longer time to fill a big tank. So again you'll have to balance budget, needs, knowledge, and CFM requirements.
At the track it's a hard time without an air-compressor or a least an air-pig(portable air tank only), and when you've got one, it seems your very popular.
CFM output is definitely important, in the past I've had to stop working on something and let the compressor recharge because the tools I was using used too much air for the compressor to keep up.
On the other hand I have an air compressor that I never used so I don't know if it even works anymore. It was basically a six cylinder radial engine that was converted to a compressor, three cylinders ran the engine and the other three were the compressor. It only put out 90PSI but it would supply that to three jackhammers all day.
Yeah, it is kind of wild I'll see if I can get a pic of it. It really wasn't practical for us to use as it was noisy, used a fair amount of gas, and put out way too much volume for us to ever use.
It's actually not home made, they were at one time available for sale. All that I can tell you is that this one was once owned buy the Southern Pacific railroad. My uncle worked for SP and when they were going to dispose of it he took it home instead, and when he decided to get rid of it we took it. It's been so many years since we used it I don't know if it still runs but it does still turn so I assume that with a little work it would probably run again.
The merits of having an air- compressor. 
