The Steamboating Forum

I've been repairing my air compressor I bought for a while now. But it finally mostly almost works:

I bought it cheap but it had apparently been overhauled and ready for work.

There was a very satisfying clunk as it went over TDC and BDC. Once I had taken it apart, I found the crank pin bearing was broken in half and the piston bearings were shot.

Fortunately the valves were new.

My dad has cast a new crank pin bearing with white metal and bored it out. He also bored out the piston and made a new pin. I have cleaned it all, checked the main bearings, painted everything and reassembled it. I've also repaired the oil pump.

I have also done all the electrics/electronics for the motor. Its a 3-phase motor running through a 3-phase inverter.



The compressor is 24" up to the middle of the head.




These are the parts to the valves.




Flywheel, was almost impossible to remove because the key had been hammered in too hard.


Head being painted.




Compressor after taking the sump off.

Looks like some nice work done and a cracking piece of kit. What are you planing to use it for? Im sure it will last for ever but it seems quite a labour of love for something just too push air into an airtank.

Daniel

My old air compressor is not working properly any more and due to this I also thought about repairing the compressor. I think I won't repair the old air compressor and instead buy a new one. I think if I would repair the machine it would break down any time soon in any case and so the work would be all for nothing. I decided to take an air compressor rental into consideration in order to bypass the time until I find a cheap offer for a new air compressor.

An update to the compressor: