What do you guys prefer for your garage/car work, a compressor with pneumatic tools or the new electric and cordless tools out? I am trying to decide which direction would be best for me to go for my garage projects for both cost wise and tool performance. I would think the tools I would use the most would be an impact gun and cutoff wheels and a diegrinder. Are the electric/cordless tools comparable to their pneumatic twins? Which would be the best bang for the buck pneumatic or electric/cordless? thanks for the help

pneumatic are fine if you have enough air to run them, and they need a ton of air. I dont so I use my electric impact and die grinder all the time while my air tools gather dust.

thats for the reply! I have a small pancake compressor now for house projects etc, but if i go the pneumatic way I plan on getting a new compressor for the garage to support the tools I buy.

any other opinions?

I say go air. A nice air compressor will do a lot of things for you beside running air tools.

thats for the replies, any other opinions out there

I typically plug in my tools at home in the garage. I have a Harbor Freight here and buy their cheap 4" angle grinders. I also have a compressor that I use to sandblast and paint.
I will say one thing about air tools the cheap ones wear out too fast and the good one are hard for me to justify the price for home use.

Jeff

The only "cordless" I own is an 18 volt dewalt screwdriver...

Everything else is air. Air tools don't get hot!

I have a bunch of Dewalt 18volt stuff like Impact, drill, sawzall,flashlight, noisey vacumn and even just got a right angle drill that I love. Barely use the air tools anymore unless there is a really stubborn lugnut that the Dewalt won't get off.

Get a 4.5" electric dewald grinder with a thin blade and a flap sanding disk they work great on cutting steel and finishing welds. I rarely use my die grinder now

I have a set of Milwaukee 18V cordless tools- sawzall, drill, circular saw, flashlight and best of all 2 different 1/2" impacts one is lightweight- about 3lbs and 180ft-lb and the big 325ft-lb thats like 7 lbs the impacts are great!! I use them to teardown and build rear ends- makes getting a pinion nut off at the junkyard a breeze! This is some of the best$$ I have spent on tools- I hardly use my compressor anymore-waiting for it to build pressure and the noise factor sucks! the big impact I have been using for 5-6 years - I absolutely LOVE IT! just recently I have upgraded to Li-Ion batterys and thats a great improvement- my first try at the boneyard I pulled 3 nova rear ends with 1 battery! I wouldnt be without em! the other tools help around the house for cutting wood-trimming tree branches and that flashlight is handy too - they even offer 28v now-Check E-bay but read carefully there are 3 different 18v Batterys

They all have there place.When I work on cars whether auto body or mechanical its air. I have just about every tool known to man battery tools such as Dewalt are good for certain things on a car but I wouldn't depend on them totaly.I would say if your talking just for working on cars I would stay with air,especially auto body.Your not going to find a DA or fileboard in battery or electric at least of any quality...this is...JMO...

Love the cordless. Have an18V Dewalt 1/2" impact that takes rusty lugnuts off of sprinkler tires in the corn fields. Have a 3/8" too, it's pretty handy.

Over time, my Dewalt batteries wear out and don't keep their charges as long. They are a lot handier because I don't have to pull out the hose, but I do get tired of recharging and replacing batteries. If I'm going to be using a tool all day long, I'll go with the pnuematic. For quick jobs, I stick with batteries.

H.

For working on cars - pneumatic. For household projects and general repair - battery. For framing and carpentry - pneumatic.

Having a good air compressor is the way to go if you have the space for it. I have a 35 gallon upright that puts out 175psi and I use it all the time. For car work, impact gun, ratchet, file, die grinder, painting, blowing things clean, and believe it or not... actually filling tires.

I love my DeWalt 14.4v and 18v kits for household stuff just due to the flexibility. I can wear out batteries within 12-18 mos due to use, not due to sitting.

For real carpentry work I go back to air for nailers and staplers as the there really is no battery/cordless comparison for all day use. I even had a Pasolode gas charged I eventually sold on eBay as it wasn't cost effective to use regularly.

I have both. I use the electrical/battery powered for quick small jobs, but I would never consider getting rid of my pneumatic. Unfortunately most people do what I did and get a compressor that isn't big enough. Next summer will involve some modifications on the house and garage and will include a new, larger compressor that will be in a room outside the garage so the noise/heat factor won't be an issue.
If you have to choose, I would encourage you to determine your needs first, then choose your poison. Electric/battery powered burn up over time and good pneumatics are expensive but last a long time.

Air power is great for turning bolts,sanding,and drilling.For Grinding and cutting,I like electric better.I used to use air powered die grinders to port heads,and even with a fairly large compressor,it seemed as if the thing never shut off.When doing big jobs on sheet metal,a cut off wheel uses a lot of air and is slow.Electric nibblers are great for getting the big chunks of panels out,and an electric drill and grinder will do wonders for breaking the edges away.In a real tough jam an air powered chisel can really help and is my choice for big chunks of floor and frame,but a grinder will make the job neater.
with a pancake compressor right now,I would limit the air tools to the kind that turn bolts and an air chisel.