Compressor Air Filters

Stuart Ablett

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15,917
Location
Tokyo Japan
A short time ago, I took apart my compressor << HERE >> to find it was in need of some major clean up and such, I think the main problem was the really low budget air cleaners that it came with, they let too much stuff into the machine, which caused most of the problems with it.


The other day I bought the stuff I need to make some better air filters.

I did look at just buying some from Hitachi or Toshiba, but the air filters, with the housings would cost me well over $100, so I decided to go the DIY way :rolleyes: :D

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OK, this is what I'm starting with, I'm going to make a filter for each of the compressors heads.

The filters are for weedwackers, I think, but they look well made (made by Kawasaki Heavy Industries no less!) They have a foam pre-filter over a pleated filter.

The housing will be in two parts, one part screws into the head of the compressor via at short pipe nipple. The other part will cover the inner housing and the filter. Very much modeled after the kind of compressor filter housing you see on decent compressors.


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The length of pipe I have is thick walled stuff, it will fit into the straight joint coupling, but now the fit is tight, as it is designed to be water tight, I need to turn down the outside of the pipe a bit to make the fit loose, so air can pass between the outer and the inner housing, but muffle some sound too.

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I have this large cone I used for something else a while back, it just mounts on my regular nova chuck.For the tailstock end I need to turn a cone, the one I have on the Oneway live center is not big enough.

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I mount this piece of Maple on the screw chuck and then drill a hole in it for my Beal threader.The bean threader will not fit into my drill chuck, so I just remove the drill chuck from the tail stock.


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I stick a 14mm wrench on the square end of the tap, and set up the toolrest to hold the wrench from spining. I advance the tap into the wood by turning the wheel on the tailstock, while turning the hand wheel on the lathe. You can see the can of Pam there, I spray this on the tap and the hole, it makes the tap go in easier.

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There the piece is mounted on the lathe.

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I then turn a slight taper on the piece, so I can use it for the tailstock end.
 
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I then turned a dovetail tenon on the front, as I need to clean up the back end of the block. I have a 1/4" parting tool with a 15% angle on the cutting tip, this lets me make dovetails easy tenons.

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I then put it on the adapter that goes on the Oneway live center.

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here is the piece of pipe mounted between the cones.

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I don't need the whole things, so I cut it down to about 13cm, as each piece I need will be only about 6cm long.

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What I do is use the parting tool to cut almost through the pipe, as it gets close, the pipe gets smaller, as the pressure from the tailstock towards the headstock makes the soft thin plastic kind of crumple.

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From there, with the lathe off, I can easily cut the rest of the way with my box cutter.

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There, that piece is cut, now I mount it again........

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and then turn the outside down by about 2mm, I used the small Ci2 tool for this, worked great, but man is it messy!
 
I then cut the straight joint piece in half......

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The cone that I made for the tailstock end was not big enough for this piece :doh: so I used one of my vacuum chucks, worked fine.

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Next I put the cut in half piece in the jaws of my Nova Titan chuck and cleaned up the ends.

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Here you can see the filters in the middle, with the inner and outer of parts of the housing done.

I'll get more done tomorrow! :wave:
 
Here is what I got done......

First a look at the new filters

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They both have a removable foam pre-filter which will hopefully extent the life of the pleated filter. These look well made.

I had to turn the plates for the housings, the pipe sections will fit onto the plates, I turned a recess for them.....

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I have to say, the vacuum chuck sure works great :D

I did have the tailstock up just in case for all but the final fitting of the pipe onto the plate. Turning plywood is dusty, dirty,and nasty :doh:

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So that is how it fits together, simple enough

I do need a bolt in the center to draw the outer housing tight over the inner housing......
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So I found a chunk of plastic like stuff and drilled a few holes....
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Worked great!

I then drilled a hole in the top of the filter.....

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... and that fits nice......

Cont...........
 
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There it is all done for now, I will epoxy it all together, paint it and then mount it, should look fair good when done.

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Here is a comparison between my new filter housing and the old one.

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and so you can see the problem, the old filter is on the right...... yes, that little blob of dirty foam was the filter :eek: :doh:

I think the new filter will do a much better job of keeping the inside of my compressor clean :thumb:

One t go!
 
Stu well done. You inspire me and never cease to amaze me.:thumb:
It does strike me that you were missing your lathe though so you cooked up the project to get close and comfy with it.:D I bet when you cut the pipe for your dust collector you did not do it on the lathe? But then there is a great deal of room for rough cuts in that case Eh!
Nice filter i am sure its going to be a 1000% better than that old little piece of foam.

Question is do you give those sponge filters a touch of filter oil or should they remain dry. Reason i ask is my son has a Radio control bb engine type car and the filter used there is one of similar sponge and they have an oil for it that you "coat for want of a word" the filter in. It them makes the dust stick to the sponge which then gets cleaned out periodically.

Hey you been watching the Olympics? How do you choose sides? Gotta be proud of the old home though Eh!:):D:thumb:;) The boys showed the Russians the other night.
 
Thanks Brent, and Rob, I just simply enjoy doing this kind of thing, makes me think and come up with stuff :D The fact that I'm saving money and doing it right makes it even better!

Stu well done. You inspire me and never cease to amaze me.:thumb:
It does strike me that you were missing your lathe though so you cooked up the project to get close and comfy with it.:D I bet when you cut the pipe for your dust collector you did not do it on the lathe? But then there is a great deal of room for rough cuts in that case Eh!
Nice filter i am sure its going to be a 1000% better than that old little piece of foam.

Honestly Rob, this kind of thing sucks on the lathe, it is messy, messy messy, smelly and the dust is really bad, takes a LOT more time to clean up than regular turning. I run the DC while I'm turning the plywood, as it is nasty stuff, the dust is really awful, and will dull regular tools in a heartbeat. I use the Ci1 tool for most of it, it works well, and does not need sharpening, but it too dull a lot faster than usual. The spaghetti from the plastic sticks to everything, and it wraps itself around whatever you are tuning, and can, in an instant become a weedwacker, so you got to stop the lathe and pick it all off. Sure, it is better than digging a ditch in the rain, but it certainly is not nearly as much fun as turning some nice green wood or finishing up a bowl :dunno:

Rob Keeble said:
Question is do you give those sponge filters a touch of filter oil or should they remain dry. Reason i ask is my son has a Radio control bb engine type car and the filter used there is one of similar sponge and they have an oil for it that you "coat for want of a word" the filter in. It them makes the dust stick to the sponge which then gets cleaned out periodically.

They came pre-oiled, but yeah, I know all about that, I even have some of the oil and the air filter cleaner in my bike garage, I have owned a lot of 2-smoke bikes in my time :D :thumb:

Rob Keeble said:
Hey you been watching the Olympics? How do you choose sides?

Nope, just reading about it on the net, NHK in all their wisdom are not showing the games live only tape delayed at about 3AM the next day, and they have asked the the live streaming to Japan be blocked, so I can't watch it live on the net, I should have got a Sling Box :doh:

Rob Keeble said:
Gotta be proud of the old home though Eh!:):D:thumb:;) The boys showed the Russians the other night.

Yep, they are redeeming themselves after they let them Yanks win :eek: :doh:

The Women have won the Gold medal again and I hear it was a very good game too!

Cheers!
 
I got the second one done, now I just need to glue them together and paint them!

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They should work well, and they cost me:

Pipe: $7
Coupling: $2.50
Filters: $20
Plywood: FREE Scraps
Bolts etc: FREE on hand

So both for lets say $30, better than the store bought ones for $100 :thumb:
 
Na Ah Don. Hockey is Canada's game you aint taking gold home for that. Sorry but we had quiet a bit of time to practice on the other teams since we lost to you the other night. :D;):wave:

Go Canada Go....
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Sorry for the hijack Stu.

Nice filters though whats more is the price aint bad.:thumb:
 

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