FIL blessed me today!

Jeff Horton

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The Heart of Dixie
Moral of the story. Better be nice to your Father-in-law.

Today my FIL was buying my wife a new radio for the wifes car. Hers ate a CD last week and he has a brother in the Audio Business. She is up there this morning and they are installing the new unit. She calls me and says her dad needs to talk to me.

He asked me if I needed a large air compressor? He is a junk yard scrounger so my first thought is what he has found. Is it worth messing with? Often not. Then he tells me his brothers new shop had a large air compressor when they moved in. Building owner bought it, it didn't work. Gave him his money back and didn't want the compressor. Told him to us scrap it. They thought the motor was bad. OK sounds interesting. I have motors laying around.

It seems they are expecting the Tax Accessors office to visit the shop. He will get taxed on that as equipment even though it doesn't work. So he just wants it out there to save trouble.

Ken (FIL) was just grabbing it rather than letting it be scrapped and he really didn't need it. My darling wife mentioned that I would like to have a larger compressor. So he brings it by and it's a nice looking .... well, name brand I can't think of. 5hp 60 gallon upright. I check the label and now I am excited. That will power the HVLP sprayer I really wanted but my old compressor was too small for.

We unload it. Noticed its missing the line from the compressor head to the tank. Everything else seems to be there. We look at the motor and the windings look fine, not burned. We check the pressure switch, doesn't seem to work. Decided to just put on a power cord and see what happens. Remove the belt, plug it up ... nothing. Quick check and we find a problem Wire nut on the cord came loose. Repair that (it just temporary for testing) plug it up, still nothing. Take the belt off so I can test the electrical and not loose a finger. Realize the switch is off. Turn it on, the motor runs. :)

Put the belt on, turn it on. It runs perfect! Compressor is putting out lots of air too. :D So looks like I just have to fab up a line to the tank. Worst case, some rings in the compressor. Either way this is cheap air compressor!

See moral of the story once again! Your FIL might just Bless you too!
 
Thats a nice get Jeff. I could use a bigger compressor myself.

My Dad is a lot like your FIL. He is good friends with a guy that owns a hardware store. Anything that is returned, my father gets, free of charge. You would be surprised what stupid little things stop a machine from working properly. Its an unwritten rule that dad gets everything...good or bad...and then sorts out what is fixable and what isn't. Still he's got a lot of stuff for his shop on the cheap that way.

As for my real FIL, he's done me good too. He's a retired boatbuilder (painter though) and gave me a lot of his old tools and stuff. Some decent layout tools and a nice 1950's Craftsman Miter saw and box. But the best thing was his brand new 246 Husky saw. Now I am a Stihl man so I did not really want to soil my nice snowmobile shed walls with a husky hanging off a shelf, but I smiled and took it. Its a wee bit light at 46 cc's, but its perfect for lobbing off branches, carpentry woork and cutting those trees on my first snowmobile ride of the year. In short, I use the thing for everything but felling.

You are definately right, it certainly helps to be nice to the FIL. Of course now that I have Alyson, I realize I am going to have to be a FIL...and I got mixed feelings about that. Too bad you can't pick out the SIL!:thumb::rofl:
 
No photos didn't happen.... well I finally got around to fixing that little problem. Meaning, I am getting close to needing this compressor so it was time to get it running. Since I always have a project going on I tend to work on an "as needed" basis. That or I just sick of something and decide to work on one of the old machines. Or vice versa.

I knew I was going to need the compressor soon and wanted to go ahead and buy the HVLP sprayer. But I wanted to make sure there were no hidden problems first.

compressor2.jpg

The copper line you see here was missing. It had been removed for some reason and I finally decided to just give in and buy a tubing bender and fabricate the pipe. Neither was as expensive or as hard as I was expecting. Took about 30-45 minutes to fab this up and make it fit.

compressor3.jpg

I did a little "Home-owner" style wiring. :D It's just temporary! I didn't have a spare plug that would fit the heavy wire on the motor so I removed the receptacle and just wired nutted it in place. I will hard wire it in box proper now that I have seen it run.

compressor1.jpg

Here is it is. My $20 compressor. For the curious it is a Charge Air. Never heard of them but they are a division of Devilbiss. So I assume this is their consumer line. Fired it up last night and let it build up some pressure and shut it off and checked for leaks. Couldn't find any so I let it run. It cuts off at about 115 PSI and stayed charge all night. Heard it running this afternoon, I assume, for the first time. So looks like I just need put my filter and regulator on there and I should be ready to go.

Not gloating. It was gift and my FIL happened to be at the right place at the right time.
 
Jeff,
Sounds like your FIL likes his little girls choice in a husband!:thumb:;) Very cool find on his part and great repair job on yours.

I have the same model in the garage. Yep, it's a light duty unit (ie not commercial grade). I picked it up from Lowes many years ago for about $350. So $20 and an hour or so is a great deal! I've used it for sandblasting car parts etc. in a cabinet I made. It will keep up with that, so painting should be no issue at all for it!

Wes
 
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Truly a case of the right place at the right time. Congrats on the new acquisition. That may be the best $20 you'll spend all year. :D If you're planning to spay finishes, you might consider making an air drying rack.
 
Air drying rack?? :huh: What for do you speak of?

I spray some now. Just want to move to a HVLP gun.
Something along these lines...

comp2_sm.jpg


(From a hot rodder forum, where a messed-up paint job can be costly.) Tod and Marty have similar setups. I'm working on one too, even though it's way overkill for my current needs. (I figured if I'm adding a real compressor, I might as well do it up all the way, so when I do need clean, dry air, I'll have it already.)
 
:doh: one of those!! I was thinking air drying parts I had sprayed. :eek:

At the price of copper I think a good mechanical dryer would be cheaper. ;)
Mine's 3/4" galvanized pipe...Marty's is black iron. I'd bet Tod's is also black iron. Copper's nice, but not the only option. I went with galvanized since it was only a few bucks more than the black iron, but black iron is also plenty workable.
 
:doh: one of those!! I was thinking air drying parts I had sprayed. :eek:

At the price of copper I think a good mechanical dryer would be cheaper. ;)

jeff,
a "mechanical" drier like a toilet paper unit? or a cartrige type? the small particle seperators will not remove moisture (at least enough to count)...
i`m a firm believer in iron pipe, the walls are thicker=thermal mass, the inside is kinda rough=air turblance/ better condensation....plus it`s cheaper than copper.
you`ll still need a method of trapping small particles after you cool/dry the air but short of a refrigidated drier these loops of pipe work pretty well.
 
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