Anyone made their own "portable CO2" setup for nailers etc?

[Bob Turkovich]

Did a CO2 tank exchange at Lowe's today. Cost $8.50 for the 20 oz. tank.

This will be the third tank I've needed since I purchased the kit a couple of years ago. The second tank didn't seem to hold its pressure as well as the first (longer storage + fewer shots). I've only used it for finish/brad nailer work.

[Josh Reet]

I'm a little jealous of the people who got in on the Kobalt $50 deal over black friday last year. I guess they might do it again, so I could probably stand to wait. If I've lasted this long without a co2 option for my nailer, it's not like I couldn't wait a bit longer.

Or I could just man up and buy the real one (or the slightly cheaper but + shipping Northern Tool one).

[Rick Lizek]

http://www.amazon.com/Palmgren-92101...sr=8-1-catcorr
I have one of these Palmgren portables...great compressor

[Karl Brogger]

Complicated? Ah yes, as opposed to every woodworking project on the site. You can buy chairs at the store you know!

Besides, the hose I would need would cost the same amount, and be far more annoying to deal with.

Its been my cure for lugging an air compressor around for quite a while. I got sick of toting the thing up stairs when I was working on some four story townhomes, where the kitchen was on the third floor. Leave the compressor on the ground level, run a 100' hose to the floor I was working on, add more hose when needed.

Even with a rambler, half the time I just leave the noise outside in a garage or porch. What can I say, I'm lazy.

[Todd Hoppe]

If you only need to drive a few nails, have you considered picking up a portable air tank that you fill from your compressor? Every now and then Northern Tool has them on sale for less than $30.00. Simply remove the air chuck from the end, and replace it with an air coupler to plug into your nail gun.

+1 I have one and use it all the time. You get several brad nails out of a tank

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

GBT1850K - 18 Gauge Straight Finish Nailer
GFN1664K - 16 Gauge Straight Finish Nailer
GFN1564K - 15 Gauge FN Angled Finish Nailer
GF28WW - 28° Framing Nailer

No compressor, no gas cartridge. Rechargable battery powered

[Laurie Brown]

If you only need to drive a few nails, have you considered picking up a portable air tank that you fill from your compressor? Every now and then Northern Tool has them on sale for less than $30.00. Simply remove the air chuck from the end, and replace it with an air coupler to plug into your nail gun.

That's what I got when my pancake compressor died. I had a 40-year-old homemade compressor passed down from my dad but no tank for it, so I bought one of these. I fill it up and cart it around the yard to fill car tires or run nailers. It has a handle but it's kind of heavy, so I sit it in the back of my cart that's pulled by my lawn tractor.

[Rick Moyer]

I just use an 8 gallon portable air tank, fill to about 80-90#'s, it will drive my finish nailer and/or stapler for quite a while doing trim around the house....

I was just looking at one of these:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_143677-43657...ProductDisplay

about how many 1" brads do you suspect I could drive before refilling?

My compressor isn't very portable and I won't try to snake 200' of rubber hose from the garage, through the house, upstairs, etc. Sorry Karl, that's not an option! If I could us eone of these to put up some crown molding or chair rail I think it would be worth it. Anybody have some experience??

[Justin Freund]

I have one of the Kobalt ones as well. I got frustrated at having to constantly refill the bottles. I'll admit I was using it as my primary source for nailers when my compressor needed a new regulator and I didn't replace it right away, but it was still disappointing. I ended up replacing the CO2 bottle with a bigger HPA (high pressure air) bottle so I could refill it myself at work using the SCBA cascade. Now that's not a real practical solution for non-firefighters (the SCBA cascade part) but you can also refill at a dive shop. If you wanted more air, you can get much bigger tanks or even adapt from a scuba tank or SCBA tank as well which can be had pretty cheaply used (maybe not enough for the OP though). If you have some coin and want to stay with CO2, you can use this from Powertank:

http://www.powertank.com/products/sfID1/34/productID/76

At 10lbs CO2, its like having 8 of the bigger 20oz bottles with a built in regulator.

Also, its cheaper if you go to a paintball shop or sports shop Like Dick's to refill the CO2 bottles. They were 3.50 or so IIRC. After 4 refils, you got the 5th free at Dick's.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I use an air tank too, but I increased the convenience factor by installing a ball valve and a male quick connect fitting on my compressor. I can fill the air tank in about 10 seconds this way, and its also a convenient tap for drawing down the compressor tank or blowing the dust out of my shoes.

[Rich Engelhardt]

If I could us eone of these to put up some crown molding or chair rail I think it would be worth it. Anybody have some experience??

Yep - sure do.

That's exactly the reason I bought one of those little mouse fart compressors. Lugging the tank up and down the stairs to refill it get's real old real fast.

I can tell you w/100% assurance that when you're using a portable tank that the number of fasteners you can drive will be one less than you need.
G-ar-un-teed!!!

You'll hang one piece of crown ok, start on the next, climb up on the step ladder, position it just so and run a tack & Wham! the rotten SOB will be proud..

Now you have to climb back down off the step ladder, with the crown dangling off the wall and lug the tank downstairs to refill it.
If you're lucky all the crown will do is dangle.
If you're not - like me! - when you let go it'll twist enough to screw up the coped edge you spent so much time doing...

Like I said before - mouse farts.. you can't beat 'em. They weigh about the same as an aux tank, cost about the same and they refill themselves.

[Curt Harms]

Yep - sure do.
............
Like I said before - mouse farts.. you can't beat 'em.

I've been laughing myself silly over that term.

[Harry Goodwin]

I am on the side of the small compressor. I have alarger porter cable that is too heavy to be that portable. A little one from Home depot does the job and will drive some longer larger nails as long as you work slow. Harry

[Rick Moyer]

Yep - sure do.

That's exactly the reason I bought one of those little mouse fart compressors. Lugging the tank up and down the stairs to refill it get's real old real fast.

I can tell you w/100% assurance that when you're using a portable tank that the number of fasteners you can drive will be one less than you need.
G-ar-un-teed!!!

You'll hang one piece of crown ok, start on the next, climb up on the step ladder, position it just so and run a tack & Wham! the rotten SOB will be proud..

Now you have to climb back down off the step ladder, with the crown dangling off the wall and lug the tank downstairs to refill it.
If you're lucky all the crown will do is dangle.
If you're not - like me! - when you let go it'll twist enough to screw up the coped edge you spent so much time doing...

Like I said before - mouse farts.. you can't beat 'em. They weigh about the same as an aux tank, cost about the same and they refill themselves.

Thanks, Rich. That's what I thought might be a problem.
What (mouse fart)compressor do you have? Any pluses or minuses I should be considering?

[Rich Engelhardt]

Rick,
I've got two. One is a Coleman 1 gal tank and the other is an Evolv 3 gal tank.

Both are oiless and about 1/2HP - or - enough to run an 18 or 23 ga gun.
They're not much use for anything else like filling tires or even blowing dust off due to the small tanks.

They are however ultra portable and being oiless, I don't worry about them tipping over in the back of the Toyota van or the Subaru and leaking oil.

The Evolv is much quieter than the Coleman and also my Ingersol Rand oil bath "hot dog". The IR is portable - but @ 68 lbs, not all that portable.

The Coleman was $49.00 at Lowes on a Black Friday sale. It came with an 18 ga 1 1/4" gun and some fasteners.
The Evolve was $59.00 on sale at Sears and it also came with an 18 ga, full 2" gun and some 2" fasteners.
Both guns are combo brad/staple.

Last Christmas season, both Lowes and HD had some mouse farts for about $50.00.
HD had a Husky that came with a 23 ga pinner and Lowes had a CH that came with a combo brad/staple gun (IIRC)

Both mouse farts will run a 16 ga gun in a pinch for a few fasteners.
The Evolv, w/the bigger tank, will run a couple 15 ga.
(I just came upstairs to type this and I was just using the Evolv with my Grex 15 ga. inside the downstairs bathroom - worked like a champ.)

The Evolv (IMHO) is the better of the two. nice accurate controls - the Coleman comes with no gauge - 3 gal tank for a little reserve and fairly quiet.

Recovery time is long. About 3 min from empty to full & about half that time when the pressure drops and it kicks in.
I like the faster recovery of the Coleman for running staples.
Since staples are usually always hidden, a proud one or two doesn't usually matter.

Harbor Freight had a twin to the Evolv a couple/three weeks ago for $39.00 on sale, BTW. It looked like the same exact machine.

Sears, Senco and Makita all make a step up in power/delivery that run about $100 to $120 or so. They are all very portable, oil bath and more than able to keep up with a 16 ga gun.
They're a little large for a mf...LOL! Maybe a rat fart!
These are much better machines if you're budget allows & you don't mind oil bath.