Category Archives: Shop, Tools and Fabrication

Air compressor

Hey just needing some input. I have a 33gallon craftsman air compressor I have been using for a couple years now. It is one of those oil less ones which I am not finding is not so great. The compressor works good but the biggest thing I have had issues with about the entire life of the compressor is it tripping my house breaker when it kicks on. It was originally wired in with the rest of the garage. I recently re did some wiring and it is wired now with 12awg, a 20 amp breaker, 20 amp outlet, no extension cord and about 15-20ft of wire between the outlet and the breaker. I am still having issues with this thing tripping the breaker. I don’t know if it is a bad capacitor or something on the motor but it gets old. It will trip it a couple times then cycle on and work perfectly fine. The garage is heated in the winter and insulated. Any thoughts on this? I thought of running some 10awg wire and a 30 amp outlet and breaker but I feel like the air compressor is rated for 15 amps I should not need to double that.

I would like a new compressor but right now that is out of the question with my current life situation and until I can afford a new one I need to make this one work unless it is going to cost me a ton of money to get working right since I only paid like $250 for this thing 4 yrs ago.

Air compressor

Hey just needing some input. I have a 33gallon craftsman air compressor I have been using for a couple years now. It is one of those oil less ones which I am not finding is not so great. The compressor works good but the biggest thing I have had issues with about the entire life of the compressor is it tripping my house breaker when it kicks on. It was originally wired in with the rest of the garage. I recently re did some wiring and it is wired now with 12awg, a 20 amp breaker, 20 amp outlet, no extension cord and about 15-20ft of wire between the outlet and the breaker. I am still having issues with this thing tripping the breaker. I don’t know if it is a bad capacitor or something on the motor but it gets old. It will trip it a couple times then cycle on and work perfectly fine. The garage is heated in the winter and insulated. Any thoughts on this? I thought of running some 10awg wire and a 30 amp outlet and breaker but I feel like the air compressor is rated for 15 amps I should not need to double that.

I would like a new compressor but right now that is out of the question with my current life situation and until I can afford a new one I need to make this one work unless it is going to cost me a ton of money to get working right since I only paid like $250 for this thing 4 yrs ago.

Best All-Around Bandsaw?

I’m finding out that a good bandsaw is one of the most versatile and valuable tools to have in a shop. So I’ve been trying to find the best bandsaw for the money that can cut everything from wood, plastics, steel or aluminum without breaking the bank. I’d really like to stay under $1,000 new, but it sounds like a good variable speed band saw is going to run about $1,600.

I know most bandsaws are not variable speed and it seems like they are mainly geared for cutting wood, but after researching it sounds like it’s best to cut metals at a lower speed than most bandsaws are set at.

So do you guys have any issues cutting various metals with the high rpm single speed bandsaws? I’m mainly going to cut metals on mine and like the idea of a variable speed saw, but if I can save $600 or $700 and get a fixed speed unit then that might be the way to go as well.

Here’s the Jet variable speed bandsaw:

Here’s a good bang for the buck and highly rated single speed bandsaw: