An air compressor is a perfect addition to your tool kit. It can be very useful in a surprising number of jobs.
Whether you are planning on starting a DIY job within your home or blowing up deflated bicycle tyres, an air compressor can surprise you with its usefulness.
Keep reading to find out the top five uses for air compressors:
1. Airbrush painting
If you find yourself getting bored of plain white walls in your home, or your living room is in desperate need of a new lick of paint, then it’s time to pull out the air compressor. Most people put off DIY painting jobs purely due to how much time they can take, but using an air compressor in this situation can cut a four-hour job to about an hour.
Simply attach your air compressor to a spray gun to see how easy the process becomes and how smooth the results are! After some practice, you could even use this method (with some masking tape) to customise and add cool designs to your motorbike, scooter or even a safety helmet!
2. Cleaning up messes
We’ve all been there – proudly admiring your completed work after a project only to look back and realise the mess you’ve made. Whether it’s dust from sanding down wood or cuttings on your driveway from mowing the lawn, clean-ups can be both boring and time-consuming.
Thankfully your air compressor can come to the rescue! Just put on a pair of goggles to protect your eyes, set your air compressor to 30 psi or lower, and watch as the short bursts of air rid the area of any mess.
3. Inflating pool accessories
On a hot summer’s day, the last thing anyone wants is to wait around for pool tubes, footballs and waterbeds to be blown up. Inflating them manually can take a very long time and may not achieve high-quality results.
Instead, try attaching a tapered inflator nozzle to your compressor to inflate any air-filled accessory within minutes. Just be sure the pressure is set correctly before inflating to prevent accidents or rips.
4. Installing trim
Nail and staple guns come in very handy during projects but sometimes the nail can split and damage the wood, slowing you down and costing you money to replace. By appropriately setting the pressure on your air compressor and attaching it to your nail gun, you can install trim and moulding like a pro.
The compressed air forces the nail through the trim without breaking it, and it can be used on stone, concrete, and steelwork. This also allows you more flexibility to complete projects alone as you can hold the moulding with one hand and press the nail gun directly onto the surface with the other.
5. Creating a winter dreamland
If you live in an area where a white Christmas is only achievable in dreams, then a tool as simple as an air compressor can turn it into a reality!
Using your air compressor to power an at-home DIY snow-maker is the best way to light up kids’ (and adults’!) faces during the holidays. There’s a variety of ways to do this, with some methods calling for valve and pipe pieces, and you can find free plans via online resources.
As fun and useful as using an air compressor is, safety always comes first. Always make sure that pressure settings are correctly adjusted and any attachments or hoses are checked for damage before use.
