I recently went from having no compressor to now having 2. I have the Craftsman 33 gal & the little evolv 3gal. I've owned both less than a year. I'm still new to maintaining my own, though I've been using air tools for years.
I was looking into getting a more powerful small one, possibly either the Hitachi or Bostitch 6 gal ones from Lowe's. I went through reading the manuals for each, including the HF 6 gal one. One thing I noticed is that in both of the Sears ones, the manual provides no procedure or even a mention of a break-in to be done. I hadn't done any break-in for either one, the big one seems to be fine but the small one runs longer than I think it should (have no measurement but it feels long for 3 gal) and I think it might be due to not breaking it in. I did buy that one used/clearance and I don't use it that often so who knows.
So in general, is the break-in procedure that the HF manual specified, (30 mins wide open with an open male end stuck in it) an appropriate break-in for any compressor? Should I modify it based on the size of the tank or motor output? Is there anything I should do now with either compressor that might make up for not breaking it in when it was new?
Does anyone have a recommendation for the best 'small' compressor? The 6 gal ones are the biggest I think I could get away with.
I was looking into getting a more powerful small one, possibly either the Hitachi or Bostitch 6 gal ones from Lowe's. I went through reading the manuals for each, including the HF 6 gal one. One thing I noticed is that in both of the Sears ones, the manual provides no procedure or even a mention of a break-in to be done. I hadn't done any break-in for either one, the big one seems to be fine but the small one runs longer than I think it should (have no measurement but it feels long for 3 gal) and I think it might be due to not breaking it in. I did buy that one used/clearance and I don't use it that often so who knows.
So in general, is the break-in procedure that the HF manual specified, (30 mins wide open with an open male end stuck in it) an appropriate break-in for any compressor? Should I modify it based on the size of the tank or motor output? Is there anything I should do now with either compressor that might make up for not breaking it in when it was new?
Does anyone have a recommendation for the best 'small' compressor? The 6 gal ones are the biggest I think I could get away with.