Popular Post sheepers Posted March 23 Popular Post Share Posted March 23 this is the old compressor from work. its been on a pallet kicked around from place to place for the last 10 years or so. its Italian, 44CFM 7HP 3 phase with a 270L tank. and because of that its fucked in many ways. the pressure switch is smashed off, the inlet filter is completely gone, the shroud around the belts is badly broken, the wiring for this thing is all up the shit also the electric motor shroud is all smashed in. it hasn't run in many years and when i picked it up from work it wouldn't even turn. i took it home, waterblasted it and pulled it to bits. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepers Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 once id gotten the thing apart i had a look inside the tank and it wasn't great, it also wasn't terrible but yea. im sure there are many, many tanks being filled with compressed air every day that look way worse but still i wasn't keen on having it explode in my face. so i took the tank to get pressure tested. the joker said it was too rusty for him to certify but that's cool with me, i don't need any documentation, i just need to know its safe. so its at the testing place now. once its tested i will get the tank blasted and then ill paint it some colour, probably whatever colour i have enough of to do the job. then i had a go at fixing the belt shroud. i had to make a bunch of metal brackets to bridge all the breaks i could and bolt it all back together. I also had to make a big aluminium bit to fill in a huge piece that was missing completely. when its a whole unit its pretty strong, ill make a bracket to support the far end of it (the whole thing hangs off the 4 bolts around the crank spigot and thats it) once i put the thing back together on the tank. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepers Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 then, to make it go faster, i painted the electric motor red. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 13 minutes ago, sheepers said: this is the old compressor from work. its been on a pallet kicked around from place to place for the last 10 years or so. its Italian, 44CFM 7HP 3 phase with a 270L tank. and because of that its fucked in many ways. the pressure switch is smashed off, the inlet filter is completely gone, the shroud around the belts is badly broken, the wiring for this thing is all up the shit also the electric motor shroud is all smashed in. it hasn't run in many years and when i picked it up from work it wouldn't even turn. i took it home, waterblasted it and pulled it to bits. We had a similar one at work but a precision brand. Fark me that poor thing rattled and banged away for hour after farking hour. It would blow a head gasket quick pit stop and away she would go again. It actually never died we swapped it out for a screw compressor and sold it on. That machine will ace for home use. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepers Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 Shit also I forgot to say the red thing up there ^^ weights more than the sun 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yetchh Posted March 23 Popular Post Share Posted March 23 Nice... looks like a red dwarf.. At "some point in the future" I have this 10hp Broomwade to reco.. Think it was out of a mine 9 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUNAMUCK Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 ^a long time ago i helped Dad decommission a pair of Broomwades, and install a new atlas copco. Those broomies are big, noisy ugly old things. But they run forever. I used to flat with a guy who used to work at a compressor place. He told a similar tale about how they fed a couple of them onto the metal shredder at the scrappies. And the horriffic noises the shredder made as it munched them up. (Probably not a bad as the noises they made while they were running! Lololol) /ling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 On 23/03/2024 at 23:03, yetchh said: Nice... looks like a red dwarf.. At "some point in the future" I have this 10hp Broomwade to reco.. Think it was out of a mine Haha my old man was given one of those, it was somehow a oil free model to pistons or some shit was in the Auckland uni to pump air in a fish tank! Painted many a car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumberSS Posted March 28 Share Posted March 28 You going to put a heat exchanger between pump and tank? I'm also rebuilding my old compressor, with much less enthusiasm than you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sheepers Posted March 28 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 28 So I took the tank to get pressure tested and it had a crack where the motor plate is welded on. I decided to see what was available on the tard and a perfect (almost) tank was for sale for a price less than another pressure test and paint so I bought it. Is 300L, made in 2014 and comes with a pressure switch and some fittings I don't have. The only problem is the inlet port from the compressor to the tank is in the middle. I don't have a pipe long enough to plumb it. I need a new pipe for that, probably about 900 long. I'll try to mount everything into the tank today and get it running without the pipe. Let's see how far I get. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sheepers Posted March 29 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 29 It works. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepers Posted March 29 Author Share Posted March 29 Need help. The pipe that goes from the compressor to the tank is to short. The fittings are M33 x 1.5 and the tube is about 35mm aluminium. I've seen some jokers using a nylon braided flex line which I'm not sure about. This pipe gets hot which is why they're copper or aluminium. Having said that the pipe from the compressor to the tank in my MS51 is nylon and it gets plenty hot. 10 years without and drama. So yea what do you reckon? Anyone got experience with a flex line straight off the compressor? Tell me what you think. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 11 minutes ago, sheepers said: Need help. The pipe that goes from the compressor to the tank is to short. The fittings are M33 x 1.5 and the tube is about 35mm aluminium. I've seen some jokers using a nylon braided flex line which I'm not sure about. This pipe gets hot which is why they're copper or aluminium. Having said that the pipe from the compressor to the tank in my MS51 is nylon and it gets plenty hot. 10 years without and drama. So yea what do you reckon? Anyone got experience with a flex line straight off the compressor? Tell me what you think. I'd go a hydraulic hose, or we used a hi temp braided line on our 12v compressor in our service ute as it gets farking hot. Or hydraulic hard line with some cutting rings? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickJ Posted March 29 Share Posted March 29 Good excuse to put some form of heat exchanger in the system? A car AC condensor will be rated to ~250psi which would be an easy addition. Guess would be original was 1-1/4" tube? A std polymer hose won't be up to the temps unless it has some form of reinforcement, depending on the application, service temp can really drop the rating too. Almost any metallic tubing at that size range will be good for 100Bar and not care about temp. Metallic connection will also give at least some effort of dumping heat before the receiver, comes down to access to suitable bending gear and compression fittings can get spendy over 1" If you go for steel, make sure the bends are in such a way so that thermal expansion doesn't try to pull them apart, a big elbow usually does the trick. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepers Posted March 30 Author Share Posted March 30 And now it has wheels. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sheepers Posted March 31 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 31 @cletus came over yesterday for a visit and remarked how the compressor looked bigger in real life than on the Internet so I commissioned this portrait with the hope of conveying the size of the compressor accurately. 17 3 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
440bbm Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 The other common reason for using alloy and copper is heat dissapation. Cheap AF heat exchanger pipe if you will. Braided ss line is good for flexi use. We also used these alot in trucks as the heat and pressure together kills everything the OEM fitted too quickly. Gunna be alot easier but probably not as cheap then using other materials, depending on your ability to do it yourself., which you seem more than capable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegreatestben Posted April 1 Share Posted April 1 I’ve got a much smaller but very stout homebuilt compressor and that’s got the flexi braided hoses. Has lasted well and it’s worked pretty hard for me at times. the guy who built it also added a large pc fan to the compressor head to draw air across it. It’s an IR head so has quite nice castings so I’m sure the air flow helps keep it happy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sheepers Posted April 4 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 4 I got a Teflon lined hose and plumbed everything up. It works. The switch turns it off at 110 psi so I'm going to up that a bit because why have something explode at 110psi when your could have it explode at 140psi. The thing I haven't finished yet is the purge valve. I have a bracket for it I just need to wire it in, I'll probably do that now. Anywho, it works. 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post sheepers Posted April 4 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 4 I increased the pressure a bit then left it over night It has lost exactly 0 psi which I'm quite happy about. Now the next thing I need to set up is a drier type thing and some decent air feeds in the shed but I think I'll wait to plumb it into the new workshop when it gets built 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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