Air compressor repair

Greg58

Greg58

Well-Known Member
My son bought his first compressor a couple of years ago, its a 10 gallon job smart from tractor supply. Last weekend we were building a deck at his house using air for nail guns, the compressor quit pumping. We had another compressor ( always prepared) so we didn't work on it at the time. Saturday morning I pulled the head off and found a blown gasket between the intake and exhaust chambers, its the same green paper that is used on some of the hts. I don't think that stuff is real gasket material because it crumbles easily . I glue a piece of felpro gasket material to the head and let it dry then used a box cutter to cut out the chambers and bolt holes. The compressor now seems to pump faster than it did new, I feel that the gasket had been leaking all along.
 
Always feels good to DIY fix broken gear!

If the new gasket is thinner, perhaps you increased the compression?

-Kirk
 
Good going fixing the compressor.

I worked on a much smaller unit for a vacuum food sealer. I inadvertently left the food bag with too much liquid in it and it got sucked into the pump. The smoked fish with brown sugar caramelized juices gummed up the works.

The manufacturer would not sell the parts only take it in for repair.

After taking it all apart an using hot water and soap, I put the same reed valve back in and it worked fine.

Some other thing I'm not yet sure how it will go is a 20 year old GPS that had gotten worse and then died. I opened it with the information on Youtube and found an inner non-user accessibe button battery that was leaking. It did not damage the board and maybe replacing or just leave it out and the thing may come back to life.

I think it was for a CMOS memory that may not be necessary other than keeping the data stored when the regular 2 AA batteries are removed. The 2 AA batteries are user assessable, but you know both ought to be. Maybe by design so you keep up to date. The memory transfer to PC for this unit was DOS. Maybe it is time to upgrade?

MT
 
Don't you just love fixing, or finding uses for old stuff?

We have a battery powered toenail grinder for our dogs. The thing worked good but eats batteries like crazy. Two uses, or eight dog feet and the two 'C' cells were gonners.

I had an old, very old, electric eraser. These were once common tools used by commercial artists and draftsmen and usually hung on the side of their drawing tables. I dug the thing out one day last week, made an adapter for the eraser chuck that would accept the grinder's sanding drums and it works great. The motor is almost silent, you can hold it like a pencil and it spins faster than the battery powered thing did.

A new life for an old tool. Cost? Zero $.

Tom
 
Greg58 said:
Tom I like to call that " repurposed".
Click to expand...
Not to be confused with regifting. That's where you give someone a gift that they once gave to you. Our family has fun with it on Christmas.

Char's brother likes to give weird kitchen appliances that you never use. Like a chicken rotissorie cooker. It is huge, and would take up a lot of counter space. We never took it out of the box. Guess what he got for Christmas last year. :)

Tom
 
I guess I'm weird! My rotisserie oven is multi-function though, so it stays on the counter. Warm, Toast, Bake (convection), Broil, as well as spin the bird, it does.

I do remember though when as a kid my family had one that sat and gathered dust, not so for the one I have.

Oh I lied, I took it to Burning Man a few times, but it some how survived and is still kicking.

Mt
 
To Be a member of my family you have to have a sense of humor, my brother in-law likes to resend Christmas cards. He takes cards from previous years and marks one line through the signature so you can see who sent it to him then signs it. I think its funny, some others don't.
 
Many years ago my Granddad always wore grey sweaters. He must have had lots of them too. About ten years ago my sister said "You can always tell when you're getting old; you start wearing grey sweaters." Referring to Granddad.

Guess what she got for Christmas that year from me. Now, guess what I got the next year. Yep, the same grey sweater I gave her the year before. Our brother is the youngest but he's getting up there too so the next Christmas he got the sweater.

That grey sweater has been circulating around between the three of us, going between Florida and Colorado for years. Every third year I have it. To my knowledge it has never been worn, still has the original tags on it but it's seen a lot of travel time. It has become a annual tradition and a source of lots of laughs.

Tom
 
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