Waited 25 years to build my shop and then when I finally got it built and finished, the economy goes South and put my plans for major tool purchases on hold.
Seems the economy is back and with it and little luck, I've been able to put a 'finally big enough' air compressor, a drill press and a hydraulic press in the shop.
The air compressor is big enough to cycle on and off when I blast in the cabinet and ran my TiP '99er' pressure pot at 80 pounds without a problem.
I was using a Craftsmen 6.5 HP oiless before and the difference in air and noise is considerable. Way more air and way less noise.
The drill press is the lucky part of this story. A casual friend offered me the drill press free for taking it out of his garage. These presses are still made and parts are still available. This particular one is something older than 1962 according to the factory. The column was bent, the motor was trash and the rest of it was rusty. In the picture of the compressor, the barrel to the left is an 'electrolytic deruster' that I used to clean all of the major pieces of the press. I can highly recommend the process for rust removal. Found the SBP very helpful in setting it up.
The press I built over the last couple of weeks. The 'new' drill press was used to drill the 3/4" holes and the compressor sandblasted it in less than an hour prior to the paint job.
One of these days, I'm going to hafta work on one of the trucks!
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