Speaking of compressors, rotary vane?

[cgallery]

The other thread about the HF got me to thinking.

I borrowed a book from the library about woodworking. It was an older book. In the finishing section they had a picture of a neat little compressor that kind of looked like a bowling ball on a little tripod, with a motor sticking out the stop. Sorry, I didn't scan it and I haven't been able to find any similar pictures on the Internet.

Anyway, it was connected via hose to a gun. They referred to it as a "high-quality portable rotary vane compressor."

When I search for RV compressors I only come up with ungodly expensive and HUGE instruments.

So what is the tradeoff between rotary vane and piston compressors? And are there any current small, portable rotary vane compressors offered?

Are rotary vane compressors simply the same thing the mini HVLP equipment uses?

[BobSch]

Here's n explanation of RV compressors:

http://www.about-air-compressors.com...mpressors.html

and they aren't all huge, spendy, but not huge:

http://store.livingwateraeration.com/rv33.html
http://store.livingwateraeration.com/rv100.html

I think most HVLP sets use a turbine compressor.