So I have decided to do some DIY around my house and I am short a number of tools. So its shopping time….man-shopping time :). One of the issues though, is that having made my earlier life in another continent, I have had to leave behind most of my electrical goods because it was just not worth dealing with all the hassle of getting them to work here in China. That unfortunately included all my power tools of which I had a truck load ready for all sorts of jobs around the house. This time around I think I might try something different: Air tools. As the name suggests, they are powered by air from an air compressor. If and when the time comes for me to move on from here to another land far away (read: with different electrical standards), then I will be able to carry most of my tools with me and just get a new air compressor which is the only part of the equation that is powered from an electrical socket.

i have never bought air tools before so I was initially pretty excited about delving into this new power tools field, but it is turning into a lot more complicated a subject than I initially anticipated. You have to be a bit of a physicist and know about air volume and air pressure, etc because apparently there are an almost endless number of air compressor types and air tools and you need to make sure that the compressor you go for has the characteristics necessary to power all air tools you plan to use with it. Anyway, enough of me trying to faff around the subject, others have provided much better explanations on air compressors and their complimentary air tools, so I will leave it to them. All I have to do is buy them.  Should be simple enough but even though this is the land of almost everything manufactured, I have been hearing some horror stories as to how many fake products there are here in China, so I have decided to stick with some name-brand tools to ensure that I get something that actually works as it’s supposed to. That’s assuming that they haven’t faked the brand as well!