Air Compressor.

[sicivicdude]

If you have welded the complete thickness of the vessel wall, you should put it out in the woods and pump it up as far as the compressor will manage. At least twice the pressure to be on the safe side.

I don't have twice the capacity.... but I do have the capacity. I'm going to run a nice long airhose out into the woods and throw the air to it. If she's blows, she blows but I highly doubt it will be catastrophic failure.

If anything, my 1" x 1" patch will blow off and release the pressure (which I seriously doubt will happen) and I'll turn that air tank into a nice smoker style grill or ornamental planter

 

[Blaaster]

The weakness caused by the accumulation of rust in the bottom of the vessel is probably far worse than your little patch.

 

[sicivicdude]

Or plan "C" pick this puppy up off craigslist for $20 (I KNOW RIGHT!) come home, install my regulator, plug it in, watch it pump to 120 psi and cut off like it's supposed to, and push it over into the shop.

I talked to my dad today about it and he told me to throw the old on in the garbage and go buy a new one, he got it for "nearly scrap weight" because a bearing in the motor locked up and his buddy didn't want to fix it.... he worked in a machine shop at the time so he turned another bushing out of bronze/oilite and stuffed in there 20 years ago... You'd have to know my dad to understand but he has NO attachment to tools at all. They're disposable in his mind....

The journey, however, is not over. At some point I am going to refit my garage with 240V ~100amps service and when I do I'm probably going to splurge on a nice 240v upright compressor off Craigslist (I try not to buy anything BRAND new unless I have to ). I'm thinking about bring that old tank out of the garage and cutting all the crap I just welded onto it off (so indecisive I KNOW!) and sticking it in the top of the garage for a later date. I'm thinking about using it for a little extra reserve on my air supply system....

@Blaaster: I figure the age of the tank is WAY worse than my patches.... Like I said, I'm not anticipating ANY problems out of those welds.

 

[Paulie B]

Heres a couple pix of my old pressor. Not bad for 49 years old and runs like a top.
It was my buddy dads then passed down to his son then passed down to me.
It's very quiet but doesn't quite have the power in CFM's I need so it's on a well earned break haha

 

[sicivicdude]

@ paulie: OH man that's an oldie but goodie.

One thing I noticed today that would help my old compressor pump is a blow-off valve connected in with the electric switch. My speedair had a 1/2" copper tube running from the compressor head down to the tank (through the "plate"). When the switch cut the motor off, the one way valve mounted into the tank would seal the tank off (so it wouldn't leak back into the pump) AND bled the pressure out of the line coming from the pump. Worked great, but the whole time the pump was running, that valve was leaking some. It wasn't much.... but I could hear it with every stroke of the pump. I took it apart when I first got it and changed out the o-rings and tried every which-a-way I could to put it back together where it wouldn't be bleeding off a little bit of the pressure from each pump but there wasn't a way it worked (as the one-way valve) and didn't leak too... That's just how it was designed.

The new one has a tube running over from the one-way valve to the control box and when the diaphragm trips the pressure switch, it also "pops" the line open to bleed off the pressure. That way no pressure is lost each stroke but the pump isn't left with pressure against it.

So far so good. The problem the guy said it had, it has LOL. The diaphragm inside the pressure switch leaks. Not a huge deal just sits there and hisses all the pressure back out. I'm going to check into a new diaphragm from harbor freight (not holding my breath on that one) or I'm going to disassemble the old one and try to find some rubber/silicone to cut one out of. The pump actually seems to pump a slightly smaller tank up (21 gallons vs about 25) slightly faster with only a single cylinder. Probably not much to do with how great this one is, but more how badly my old pump was leaking. I knew it was all along but didn't want to do anything about it until I HAD to....

The new one does need an oil cap (the old one's busted) and something done with the diaphragm but for $20?!, nothing on it's THAT bad....

 

[sicivicdude]

Upon further investigation, I've found the manual for it online with parts diagrams. I'm going to *try* calling harbor freight's parts line in the morning and see about getting the little rubber diaphragm and oil plug straight from them. The oil fill port plug isn't a huge issue, It has what's left of the old one still in the hole and unlike the speedair, it's not pumping air out of the hole... I only need it in there to keep oil from being splashed out...

 

[EvilElvis]

I would try Grainger they may have what you want in stock

 

[EvilElvis]

Parts Kit - SPEEDAIRE - Air Compressor Accessories - Grainger Industrial Supply

 

[Blaaster]

That new one looks the bees knees, and you gain a lovely pot plant holder!

 

[sicivicdude]

I would try Grainger they may have what you want in stock
Parts Kit - SPEEDAIRE - Air Compressor Accessories - Grainger Industrial Supply

Grainger does sell A "speedaire" compressor still but hasn't made parts for this particular model in many years. They've simply kept the name...

My dad tried about 10 years ago to get a rod for it and they told him parts weren't available for that model which is how I know B&S 5 hp rod happen to fit... LOL

 

[Paulie B]

Idk if you do much sandblasting but having an old compressor tank is the sh*tz. It has to have 2 outputs. Then you just connect the 2 tanks together with what i call a gay hose or a hose with 2 male ends. Then bam lots more air reserve.

 

[sicivicdude]

Idk if you do much sandblasting but having an old compressor tank is the sh*tz. It has to have 2 outputs. Then you just connect the 2 together with what i call a gay hose or a hose with 2 male ends. Then bam lots more air reserve.

That's what I'm talking about!

I do have a little el cheapo "venturi" sand blaster I use occasionally. I'm probably going to tap into the 3/4" NPT fitting on the top of the speedaire tank with a "T" and two quick disconnects for now (simple, easy, effective, and I can use all of the hoses and crap I have now with or without the extra reserve tank) and just use it as a roll around reserve tank.

 

[Paulie B]

I have an even older speedaire 30 gallon basket case that i use just for that purpose I:I

 

[sicivicdude]

Just a quick update, the new "central pneumatic" air compressor actually works pretty well. Even with my old speedaire blowing by something fierce it had more volume than the little compressor but it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I am going to tear the diaphragm out of the new one and see about cutting one out of silicone and reinstalling. Already the hissing is getting on my nerves... but I ran it today doing a little porting for about 2 hours straight and it didn't complain anymore than the old one.

I am going to cut the motor plate and handlebar off the speedaire tank and turn it into an auxiliary air tank. I'm just going to use a "T" and a male quick connect and female quick connect. Basically, it'll store twice as much air as before or now....

 

[Paulie B]

The benifit to the gay hose is the compressor will hold the presure after the hose is unplugged.

 

[sicivicdude]

True, the air tank could hold pressure once the hoses are unplugged if I put a female in and out and used a "all male" hose but then I have to make or source a hose short enough to make an all male hose. All I have right now are 50' rubber goodyear brand hoses. I'm not going to be chopping one of those bad boys up.... I need a short hose with 1/4" NPT's on each end just for this purpose.

 

[sicivicdude]

Slickerthanyou sent me a short chunk of rubber air hose, I'm going to be fashioning that into a male-male hose so I can make the short jumper and putting the "T" and two females onto the old tank.

I finally got around to tearing apart the diaphragm on the Central Pneumatic compressor. It had a big rip in it and the rubber was actually falling apart. It's a little different design, normally diaphragms are relatively flat, this one was curved.

I took the diaphragm out of the speedaire compressor switch and punched new mounting holes into it and bolted it into the central pneumatic compressor switch and tightened it down until it stopped leaking air. Still holding 120 PSI right now...

 

[Paulie B]

If I would have known you were in need I could have made you a hose for what you need. Slick was nice to be looking out for you though I:I

 

[sicivicdude]

I wasn't going to worry about it for a long, long time. Slick just happened to have an old air hose coiled up with one end cut off of it (one end still has the 1/4" MPT fitting and the other is getting a barb with a 1/4" MPT fitting too!) and volunteered it last week.

I was going to wait until one of my current air hoses (goodyear 50' 1/2" hoses, yeah, the good stuff!) got frayed or something and then make the jumper.

Thanks for the offer Paulie!

Before I came inside last night I let it pump until it hit cutoff, the gauge was showing about a needle width under 120 (fine because I run the regulator on 80 psi anyway) this morning I looked at it and it's down to about 110 psi. Not too shabby for some rigged up crap... especially considering it was leaking so bad before the compressor had a hard time overcoming the leak to get it up to shut off pressure.

 

[sicivicdude]

I worked on my air compressor setup on Saturday too. I went by my favorite parts store dive and got ~$40 in brass fittings.

I got several Milton style males and females, a 1/4" FPT "T", a bunch fo 1/4" close nipples.

I started by removing the regulator from the new air compressor. It was super aggrevating, they built the control box right beside the compressor itself so screwing anything into the side of it with more than a 4" diameter was impossible. To get my large regulator into the control box fitting I had to partially unscrew the control box, attach the regulator, and then turn the control box back around. Of course eventually this is going to wear out the NPT threads into the bottom of the control box and allow a leak there so I put a female quick disconnect fitting in the side of the box. I then fit the regulator with a male and female quick disconnect and a water trap I had handy with a male and female quick disconnect. That way each of the implements is removable and interchangable. Seat a stubborn tire bead, the regulator slows the output down too much. Now I can take the regulator out of line and get maximum air flow.

I installed the "T" and two female quick disconnects on the speedaire air tank and barbed and installed a male fitting on the short piece of hose slick sent me.

I rolled the speedaire tank all the way out back to the very back of the fence behind my shed and hooked it all up and then plugged it into the compressor and equalized the pressure between them (so both were at about 60psi). Then I turned on the compressor switch and let it pump until it reached cutoff. I bled off 10-15 psi and took a walk out back. Happy to report, there's nothing to report. It held the pressure fine, I then rolled it back up and plumbed it in with the air compressor and used it the rest of the day, no problem!