Be kind to your compressor.

[jml755]

I must confess that I have NOT been kind to my compressor for the last 28 yrs. I got it as a 30th BD present, so I know the EXACT date it went into service. It is a Craftsman 1.5 hp, portable on wheels, standard design of the time. I emptied the tank of moisture once (I think) some years ago. Some time thereafter, I brazed a a rust hole. (Gee, wonder why it rusted). I checked the compressor oil a year or so ago. It was still full.

It still runs good, enough to fill tires with air and run the occasional impact wrench when removing tires.

The reason for this confession is to move my name to the top of the list for the "jack-booted supermodels" visit. Please advise on their arrival time, so I can be sure to be "cleaned up" and to make sure the mrs is "out shopping". [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Pat]

So now I have to junk my new compressor and buy one with oil in it? This after having brought it back to life with the guidance and encouragement of the DAVE!

Pat

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Are you saying, Pat, that your new compressor is an "oil less" design? I know they make them but I thought they were only for hobby use, like an air brush. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] Hmmm..... we are developing such a demand for air compressor inspections that I am beginning to suspect that guys are ratting THEMSELVES out in order to get a personal visit from our inspection team of jackbooted supermodels. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, How extremely clever and insightful of you to glean that information from my repeated inclusion of it in my posts.

My new two stage upright 80 gal Craftsman 175 PSI unit with recently fussed with check valve (now operating just fine thanks to you) is oilless as is the Devilbiss 125 PSI 30 gal which woke up one morning with diminished capacity for PSI.

Save on travel expenses and don't bother sending any jackbooted super model thugs out this way as I have all the resident female presence I can handle, or need, or tolerate.

Pat

[egon]

How can a fellow win if there is no disclosure??? [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Retract any statement I have made about compressors! [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] I hate to admit this, Pat, but I am actually unclear as to just exactly WHAT an oil-less compressor amounts to. Does it use ANY oil at all? How does it lubricate itself? I was thinking that to qualify as oil-less it MUST be a diaphram compressor, maybe with an oil-lubed crankcase and diaphram top end with just enough poop to run a paint spray gun, but yours has very high pressure, way more than any diaphram could handle. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] How about clearing this up for me? Hmmmm...?? [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, Before the ongoing story apread across two threads and made tracking it more complicated the following DISCLOSURE was made in one of my posts in Dave's original thread (Got the air compressor going!) where we were discussing my compressor woes.

Here is what I posted:

My compressor is rated for:

7 HP (max developed)
175 PSI
60 gal tank
it is 2 stage OIL FREE
9 standard cu ft per min at 90 PSI.

I assume OIL FREE would come across as oilless. Sorry for any confusion regarding multiple threads but I only posted any of my compressor comments in the "Jack Booted Super Model" thread in reply to Dave commenting on my compressor there. His thread so he can do anything he wants.

Wasn't biting your head off just reminding you of the oil free nature making it hard to have oil based blow by. Two out of three making up a majority (Dave agreed it was probably a valve), I will press on (when time permits) to check out the valves and piston seal (rings?)

Pat

[Pat]

Dave, You are asking ME???? Well DU-UH I dunno. Refer to Gary's comment about Teflon. I have had a total of 4 compressors (not counting the little 12 volt emergency units that plug into the lighter outlet) and only one of them had an oil fill hole (the tankless spray paint unit.) The other 3 units were the Devilbiss and Craftsman we discussed a bunch and the inhalation therapy unit I bought used from Parson's to use as a hookah rig for shallow diving sans tanks. The breathable air unit had graphite piston to cylinder wall contact.

A friend of mine and I used the hookah rig to clean the bottoms of our sailboats. We used no regulator, just a garden hose from the compressor to a cheap snorkel to get an inexpensive mouthpiece. To increase efficiency you needed to exhale quickly letting the exhausted air go out around the mouthpiece by loosening your lips and then breathe in at the rate the pump could provide at whatever depth you were at. Any excess air woiuld just free flow out of your mouth around your lips. We didn't need to dive over 7 feet to clean the keel and most of the time were less than 5 ft down.

Pat

[CJDave]

[img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] I see that you had what amounts to a very basic form of shallow water mask there, Pat. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] I used to live next door to a commercial diver and spent hours with him cooking on the BBQ and talking about his work. The reality of being a commercial diver is very different than the slick TV version. The work is usually in a harbor in very icky water and just as soon as you've worked your way under and over to the third ship from the pier, the compressor either quits or begins covering your face with oil. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] In the Phillipines they often dive with four or five man teams and ONE hard hat, anchored so they take turns getting air. **** The big thing in BIG compressors now is the screw type. I have inspected hundreds of Sullair Screws with my infrared camers, plus many other makes. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Take my word for it when I tell you that the interior temperature in the compressor cabinet on a hot day in a CA tomato cannery is HIGH! [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] I'm going to keep looking for the schematic for an oil less compressor so I can finally see how it all works. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Dave, Actually the air was not plumbed to a mask. We just taped a simple "J" snorkel to the water hose (used as air hose.) When you exhaled the supplied air just bubbled out around your loose lips along with the contents from your lungs. When you inhaled your lips automatically sealed on the snorkel mouthpiece.

Duty cycle was a limitation. All the time you were exhaling you were wasting the output of the pump. Your rate of inhalation was limited to pump output which varied with yoiur depth. To maximize performance we learned to exhale explosively to reduce the percent of time exhaling and wasting pump output. This was only an issue when working harder at greater depth like when scrubbing stubborn growth on the keel. The worst growth was of course closer to the surface and we typically scrubbed the water line using a regular snorkel.

I still have my Keene brand hose rig I put together along the lines of the gold dredgers hookah setup. Basically it is just a 50 foot high pressure hose which you insert between the first and second stage regulators of a standard SCUBA setup. You dive unencumbered by a tank on your back but you are tethered by a 50 foot hose to the bottle which we would leave on the dock or if anchored out at some island, in the dingy.

I shudder to think of the health implications of the substandard equipment used in some places. Poor or no filters, yuck.

I did some work for a commercial diver who mostly worked in Alaskan oil. He made big bucks and used that income to get into gold mining (on land.)

Pat