Found a compressor...I think!

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
5,703
After finding out that I need to stabilize my wood scales and that I rather not heat the stuff up I remember that I'Ve seen something that looks like a compressor at my dad's. Well here it is. Looks like a home built one and I have no idea of how old it is. I am guessing the compressor is on top and the bottom part is the tank. Don't know what the gizmo with 30.60 psi written on it is. So what I need is to set up a vacuum with this. Pretty sure I don't the tank and since I don't trust it I don't want to test how many psi it can take before exploding in my face. I've got a few hoses with this and a bunch of connectors. I've already got some pointers from the good folks here so onward I go. Of course I would welcome any other pearls of wisdom you folks have for me. :D

Here are the pics:

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Hey how'd that get in there? :) Hard life isn't it?

Back to the compressor

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Thanks.

Pad
 
The thing with 30-60 on it is a pressure regulated switch. It might be set to turn on the motor at 30 and off when it hits 60. Kinda on the low side. You could check the tank by hydro testing it. Disconnect all fittings and then plug all but one on the very top and one to fill with and with a good gauge attached fill the tank completely full of water (no bubbles)and it is running out the top. Plug the top. Now you need a way to pressure it up. You could use an old grease gun filled with water and tilted with the pump down and the hose connected to the tank. It shouldn't take that many pumps if it has no bubbles. Go to 1.5 time the highest pressure you will use the tank at. If it should rupture the water which does not compress will lose its pressure rapidly and not cause any problems other than a wet spot. I do this (with a better pump) to test vessels and piping to over 2000psi at work.Another thing you could do is use an old propane tank for the tank. Jim
 
Pad,

I guess I don't think you need to head into the wood stabilizing regime to make pinned wood handles without imbedded metal. Lots and lots of folks don't use stabilized wood. I use fine cut files to keep from scubbing worn sandpaper over wood and pins trying to reduce both at the same time. I pre-finish pins with a #6 cut swiss half-round needle file. A person doesn't need much sanding after that... it's finer than 320grit (US 320, FEPA P400... about). Top funiture finishers don't go past 320grit before finishing.

I'd run the compressor making sure the psi didn't get too high... like in the 30-45psi range. I'd run it up and dump the air out the hose a bunch of times, then, with the tank up to pressure, let the air out the bottom drain. If I got a lot of rust in the oil/water, I'd maybe look for a tank tester. If there wasn't much or any rust, I'd figure out the max working pressure for the tank by tracking down the data through the manufacturer or through a compressor sales outfit, and use it as is. Also, local folks who know compressors could tell you the likely top-end range.

If you are set on turning it into a vacuum pump, maybe it could serve both jobs... a compressor is a good tool to have... you can get by without stabilized wood pretty easily.

Mike
 
The thing on top is the compressor, the bottom is the tank, the grey gizmo is the pressure switch, the black thing is a pressure regulator. You can static test the tank by filling it with water all the way to the top, and applying pressure over the waterwith a hand pump. that way if there's a blowout there is no real explosion as most of the volume is water which does not compress, therefore not storing potential expansive energy. That's how they pressure test tanks in industry (actually in industry they apply pressure directly to the water, so there is no blowout)

-Page
 
Thanks for the testing info guys but I don't think I want to mess with the tank. I just thought that the compressor on top had place that intakes air and could be used to create a vacuum.

Mike, thanks, I got the impression I needed stabilized wood. I will pursue both, with and without stabilize wood.

Pad
 
The black muffler looking deal maybe the intake. Rub the compressor a lay a piece of rubber against it and see if it is sucked to it. If so it will create a vacuum. To keep it from sucking your agent into the compressor make a piece of say 2" pipe with a T at the one end. Stand it up, connect the compressor suction to the top. Now you want the T so an opening faces out and one down. Plug the down and connect your stabilizing pot to the side opening. Now if you suck up a bit of agent it should drop to the bottom of the T. If you put a nipple and a cap on the bottom opening of the T it would have more room for the agent to drop out. I don't know how much suction you will get from a compressor suction. You could make a venturi and get more. In a venturi you shoot the air from the pressure side thru a special T. Ehe pressure side of the T has a reducer inside that comes to about the middle of the Ts side opening and as the air comes out the reducer it creates a vacuum in the side opening. I see them on Ebay for cheap. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/AIR-...023QQitemZ360140013736QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

Your compressor probably can't do 4 cfm though
 
Not to act smart, but "We" (the royal we) aren't going to get any bad acting fumes into the compressor unit, are "we"? I mean, I've got NO idea if that is any kind of problem... just wondering.

Mike
 
Harbor Freight has both hand and electric vacuum pumps for almost nothing. I would get one of those, and use the compressor for what it was designed.
If you are going to all this trouble to keep metal away from your pin holes, try this: after filing and sanding your handles, scrub them with 0000 steel wool.
 
I haven't posted any comment on using a compressor as a vacuum, but since this seems to be a good place:
The seals ( rings on some, seals on others) on compressors are not usually made to hold up under negative pressure (vacuum). If you draw a vacuum on a regular compressor, it may well boil/evaporate the oil. The oil in a vacuum pump is a very different type than the oil in a compressor.
On an oiless unit, you might be OK, but the seals may still be made for pressure, and leak under vacuum.
Also, the evaporate of the stabilizing compound may destroy the seals or contaminate the oil.

Just a note of caution before anyone risks an expensive compressor.
Stacy
 
It's possible judging by the low pressure and the green quick connect fittings that it's a clean air BA (breathing apparatus) compressor. It may not be, but those look like non standard pressure fittings.
 
Well stabilized wood does have other advantages. I will still try to finish both stabilized and un-stabilized wood.

Thanks Stacey and Bill, I'll try a vacuum pump from HF.

65535, the gent who gave the compressor to my Dad did use to do scuba diving. Don't know if this means anything.

Thanks again folks.

Pat
 
That is a small compressor set up for low pressure shop jobs and things like low pressure/air flow tools like brad nailers. It would run an air brush,too.

BTW, scuba tank filling compressors run in thousands of pounds.
Also, it would be very unsafe to breath air run through that rig. Breathing air compressors are very different.

Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
That is a small compressor set up for low pressure shop jobs and things like low pressure/air flow tools like brad nailers. It would run an air brush,too.

BTW, scuba tank filling compressors run in thousands of pounds.
Also, it would be very unsafe to breath air run through that rig. Breathing air compressors are very different.

Stacy
Click to expand...

Exactly what i was going to say i have one just like it mine is dead now but it is an old portable compressor i am not sure why the low pressures mine went to 100lbs when i used it for my brad nailer for trim work..

Bob
 
Actually many dive on a setup with a small compressor. They run a hose from the compressor to the diver. No tanks other than maybe a small escape bottle. Some do run a large compressed cylinder in the boat as a back up if the compressor fails.The compressor system does not need high pressure, just clean air. Many of the commercial sea urchin and sea cucumber divers do this and stay down in depths around 40-50 feet for hours a day. One of my friends was down 50' when a dumb ass in a sport boat ran over his hose and drug him up. He spend some time in a chamber over that one. Most of their setups use a gas engine and the compressor uses special oil and has special filters. The motors exhaust has to be move away and you must have a surface attendant. I don't know about now, but they made a ton in the late 80s and early 90s when I was commercial fishing.
 
Yep, back in the late 60's, I had an Evinrude Aquanaut. It was a floating bellows compressor with two 30' hoses. I did a lot of hull cleaning and prop changing with that rig. It took a whole summer of hull cleaning to pay for it.

We also had a deck compressor. It was good to about 60 feet. It had intake filtering, moisture traps, and filters in the output line. There was a small tank attached, but not for air storage as much as to buffer the pressure spikes from the compressor. It had a place to hook up a scuba tank. There was a low pressure safety valve that opened the regulator on the scuba tank if the pressure in the hoses dropped below something like 50 PSI. Once I had the Aquanaut, we sold the deck rig. That compressor was not cheap ( I think it was $1100 back then), and very different from a regular shop rig. Funny you should mention the oil....IIRC, we had to use castor oil for the compressor.

That was why I stated that you can't use a regular compressor to dive.....and if you do, best leave a note for your next of kin.

Stacy
 
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