Of course, as a teenager, I worked in my Dad's service stations where we had big air-compressors, but I don't even remember the brand or size of either of them. But after I was grown, married, and a home owner, I think I started with a 7 gallon, then up to a 12 gallon, then a 20 gallon compressor for home use in town. When we sold the house and became full time RVers, I carried a little 2 gallon DeVilbiss oilless, 1/2 hp compressor (my first oilless). When we first bought the place in the country, I made the mistake of buying one of those Craftsman, 30 gallon horizontal, 4.5 hp, oilless compressors by DeVilbiss. But since I use a compressor so much, it had to be rebuilt every 6 to 8 months, so I finally bought a 60 gallon vertical, V-twin, 230 volt, 6 hp Puma compressor for my shop. Of course that 4.5 hp in the Craftsman and the 6 hp in the Puma were the old phony ratings. The dealer from whom I bought the Puma even told me they called it an "imitation" 6 hp and showed me one of their true 5 hp compressors (much bigger motor, of course). When we sold the farm and moved back to town, temporarily in an apartment, I bought one of the little Craftsman 3 gallon, direct drive, oiled compressors.
ALL of those compressors went to a maximum pressure of 120-125 psi. But 5 years ago, when I bought this house, I bought an Industrial Air (by Powermate) 30 gallon verticle twin, 120 volt (can be converted to 230) with a 1.8 "running" hp motor with a working pressure of 125 to 155 psi. It's amazing how much different that addtional 25 psi makes when using the blow guns, which is the majority of my use now. I do have a 3/8" ratchet, a 1/2" impact, a one qt. paint gun, a siphon gun, and an angle die grinder, but the 4', 2', and very short blow guns are used regularly.
