A while back I bought an old air compressor that was built into a shopping cart. The compressor pump I later found out is from an AC unit from the 60's (from what I can tell). Very heavy built, made in USA. All the gaskets were made from lead.
The very dirty air "filter".
My design inspiration.
Ended up sandblasting everything after disassembly. Drew up new gaskets in AutoCAD and cut them out on my vinyl plotter out of gasket paper (the paper in the picture is just normal paper used for testing).
Gave everything a heavy coat of paint. Used ACE Hardware rust reformer.
Brass parts were all very dirty and painted black.
After paint stripper.
A little polishing and clear coat.
Cut out a piece of 1/8" steel on the waterjet at work. Had a coworker bend it up on the CNC brake. I welded nuts on the underside of the holes for everything to bolt to.
Flywheel has just enough clearance.
Copper tubing from the pump to the tank.
Tank sandblasted. It's an old water softener tank, about 15 gallons.
Rear axle welded on. Metal is from the shopping cart.
Ends are threaded for a bolt.
Everything welded up ready for paint. You can see how I used the shopping cart wheels for the back. The front "foot" is a piece of u-shaped tubing out of the scrap bin at work. The handle is the original shopping cart handling with a section cut out of the middle to make it narrower.
Using the shopping cart "grill" as a pulley guard. Mocked up here.
Just enough room.
Upper mount made from angle iron and aluminum tubing.
Final assembly.
A little bit of gold pin striping.
Still need to order a pressure switch for the motor and buy a regulator/filter. Also going to add a check valve on the input to the tank. Found one that is both a check valve and pressure release for the compressor, so it doesn't have to start with pressure pushing on it.
The best part about it is it is REALLY quite. Standing next to it, two people can have a conversation without having to raise their voice.
The very dirty air "filter".
My design inspiration.
Ended up sandblasting everything after disassembly. Drew up new gaskets in AutoCAD and cut them out on my vinyl plotter out of gasket paper (the paper in the picture is just normal paper used for testing).
Gave everything a heavy coat of paint. Used ACE Hardware rust reformer.
Brass parts were all very dirty and painted black.
After paint stripper.
A little polishing and clear coat.
Cut out a piece of 1/8" steel on the waterjet at work. Had a coworker bend it up on the CNC brake. I welded nuts on the underside of the holes for everything to bolt to.
Flywheel has just enough clearance.
Copper tubing from the pump to the tank.
Tank sandblasted. It's an old water softener tank, about 15 gallons.
Rear axle welded on. Metal is from the shopping cart.
Ends are threaded for a bolt.
Everything welded up ready for paint. You can see how I used the shopping cart wheels for the back. The front "foot" is a piece of u-shaped tubing out of the scrap bin at work. The handle is the original shopping cart handling with a section cut out of the middle to make it narrower.
Using the shopping cart "grill" as a pulley guard. Mocked up here.
Just enough room.
Upper mount made from angle iron and aluminum tubing.
Final assembly.
A little bit of gold pin striping.
Still need to order a pressure switch for the motor and buy a regulator/filter. Also going to add a check valve on the input to the tank. Found one that is both a check valve and pressure release for the compressor, so it doesn't have to start with pressure pushing on it.
The best part about it is it is REALLY quite. Standing next to it, two people can have a conversation without having to raise their voice.
DREWLIENTE
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