Air Compressor Refurbish

[abebehrmann]

I bought this old Sears Craftsman air compressor off of Craigslist last week. It was pretty old (1985), dirty, and the paint was flaking off the tank, but it was cheap, fairly well taken care of, and ran good so I bought it for 100. Got it home took it apart, changed the oil, replaced the patched power cord, replaced the drain valve, then sanded and painted it. In total I have about 150 in it, not too bad for a compressor that will do 7cfm @90psi. Here are some pics.

[bluedragon436]

Wow... that seems like a steal of a deal.... I have an old compressor, that I inherited from my ex's father when he passed... and that thing has seen better days... anyways wouldn't build pressure for hell, so I tore it down and found all the new seals online, and rebuilt it... It's nothing quite like this one, wish I could find a deal like that... I'd pick it up and rebuild it too... Have been thinking about tearing the power cord off of it and replacing it with one that doesn't looked hacked... and then cleaning it up and painting it as well... Hopefully my rebuild will come out as nice as yours did... and even more so, hopefully I can find one that is bigger and more powerful like that one you have there to rebuild...

[4.3LXJ]

Good deal Abe. Hard to find a good 7 cfm compressor nowadays

[denverd1]

Sweet! Nice big tank on it too

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[bluedragon436]

Well went and moved my little compressor yesterday from the storage unit to the house so it'll all be in one place for the big move... and found out mine is rated @ 6.9cfm @90psi.. so not quite where yours is... but almost 7cfm.. lol Was looking at it... I might have to take your idea, and completely repaint it once I'm settled in at the new place... But might just stick with tearing everything down and replacing seals and some other components.. but definitely want to replace the wiring, that works, but is crazy short, and looks like is pulling out of the main power/valve section of the compressor...

[denverd1]

was checking out my compressor the other day. It's a stacked tube model, kinda like this one. https://www.aircompressorsdirect.com...hoCfcAQAvD_BwE

but mine puts out 7 CFM. Pretty stout little compressor. Built a medium sized deck with a framing nailer hooked to it. It ran all day, but never missed a beat. I truly expected for that job to kill it, and be the impetus for me to upgrade. just kept on ticking.

only problem is I get 1 33 halfway inflated from wheeling pressure and it kicks on and stays on while I fill the them all.

Would like to add a bigger tank to it so it ran for 5 minutes and was then off for a while, depending on what I'm doing of course. Any point in doing this or should I just bite the bullet on a bigger unit?

would I run my tools off the tank or off the compressor? I'm thinking everything equalizes so it doesn't matter, but not sure.

[XJ Wheeler]

To be honest the bigger tank is only gonna get you so far. Mine is a 21 gallon, not big really but multiple sizes bigger than yours and it will only air up one of our 1 tons tires starting at 65 up to 80 psi and it'll cut on. This is because it's not really emptying the tank, it's getting to a certain pressure before it cuts back on so you're not getting down to unusable pressures. 35 psi isn't gonna do much for you. I think mine's set about 90 or just below to cut on. You'd need a giant tank to fill all your tires without the compressor refilling.

Now, you could fill a bigger tank like mine and probably fill maybe 3 tires if you have the compressor shut off manually.

I've considered getting a transfer tank to use for small things like airing up one tire or if I need just a quick burst from my impact because my compressor is a pain to set up.

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[denverd1]

so you're saying more volume of compressed air will NOT give it more time between refills...

[XJ Wheeler]

Not much if you're just letting it auto refill. But if you're gonna have the compressor off and let it drop till near equal pressure as the tires before refilling then you would see a bigger difference.

If it were me I'd get a bigger tank and have it as an auxiliary. And plumb it to where you can use it as part of your compressor OR wheel it over and use it till empty on little jobs and bring it back to your compressor to refill.

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[denverd1]

Hmm. We're not on the same page for some reason.

It's not about filling tires without it coming on, I simply used that as an example of how little it takes to make it kick on.

Yes aux tank. That's what I was talking about when i mentioned adding a bigger tank.

And I don't want it to NOT come on, it takes air pressure to run tools, fill tires or clean off the shop floor. I just want more capacity before it kicks on. No point in having a compressor if I'm gonna have 35 psi in it.




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[denverd1]

Looks like 7 cfm comps are standard up to 30 gal tanks. May try to find a tank to piggy back to mine

[XJ Wheeler]

Hmm. We're not on the same page for some reason.

It's not about filling tires without it coming on, I simply used that as an example of how little it takes to make it kick on.

Yes aux tank. That's what I was talking about when i mentioned adding a bigger tank.

And I don't want it to NOT come on, it takes air pressure to run tools, fill tires or clean off the shop floor. I just want more capacity before it kicks on. No point in having a compressor if I'm gonna have 35 psi in it.




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I think we're pretty close. I was just illustrating the differences. But ultimately what I'm saying is it doesn't take long to go from full to 90 psi when the compressor auto refills. Full blast 90 psi it takes maybe 20 seconds for my 21 gallon to come on. So if you're using a die grinder, paint gun, airing tires that uses air constantly it's not gonna make much difference, but things like air ratchet, impact, nail gun it will.

Hope I cleared that up some.

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[4.3LXJ]

You can have a mixed bag with a big tank. Once you drain it down, it can also take a long time to fill back up to that higher pressure we all like.

[bluedragon436]

I think with mine, once I am a bit more settled on my feet again, I want to try and order parts, and do a rebuild on it. With new seals, piston ring(s), new solenoids and pressure gauges, as well as replace the drain valve with one I can open a bit easier. I try to make sure every time I'm done using it, that I drain all the air out of it, so that way it will hopefully pull any moisture that is in the tank out with it, especially since I currently am not using it at all I don't want water just sitting in there if I can help it.. Figure worse case scenario it's lived a good life, and I got it for free.. so the use I've already gotten out of it is great, and further use is even more added bonus... One day maybe I'll be able to afford to upgrade to a larger better functioning one.. but for now this one meets my needs (well it has worked awesomely for them in the past when I was able to actually make use of it)..

[carloxj]

Looks great. It is worth the cost and effort.