[modeleng] Re: Air compressors
- From: "Jeff Dayman" <jeffdayman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 08:12:20 -0400
No question TEL - the method will work on older engines, and has been around
forever, but I wanted to urge caution with new cars, and maybe save someone
a lot of money. The gas/air mixture would still worry me though even on an
old engine.
There were a lot of car-powered gizmos for using the car to do all sorts of
chores. One wild rig I saw had a big conical screw attached to the wheel hub
via the wheel studs, for splitting firewood. The idea was to jack the back
end of the car up (rear wheel drive US cars of course), start it and put it
in drive, and push the wood end on into the screw. Some units had chutes
attached to the fender to keep the wood from rotating. All in all, a good
way to take an arm off on a Sunday, while saving money too!
There was a great one around for spray painting using the exhaust gas from
the car AS the compressed air - just hope you don't have a backfire into a
paint pot full of laquer and thinner!
Before I bought an electric motor compressor I had a good one I built. This
was a gas engine powered rig, and the compressor was a 2 cylinder 5 cfm
Tecumseh refrigeration compressor reclaimed from a junkyard. All that was
wrong with the junk compressor was a stuck valve reed, easily replaced with
one of shim stock. The compressor had an electric clutch on the V belt
pulley, so the engine could be started without the compressor load, then the
load switched in. I had a large 110V to 12V transformer and rectifier setup
for the electric clutch on the compressor. I also had a leadwire set so I
could operate it in the field from my truck's battery. The base and a few
brackets were all I had to make, and I set the whole thing on a surplus hand
cart. Worked like a charm for many years until the >sob< old gas engine wore
out. I was also catching some complaints due to the gas engine's noise.
However, the compressor unit was still good so I gave it to a friend who had
a large electric motor lying around and he is still using it.
Maybe someone looking for a compressor would have similar luck in the
junkyard. The Tecumseh units (and many clones) are used in truck
refrigeration units and air conditioning systems. Many millions in use all
over the world, so some should be in the scrapheaps somewhere.
Cheers Jeff Dayman
----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry Lane" <tel@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 4:33 AM
Subject: [modeleng] Re: Steam engine RPM?
>
> Them things were about before the advent of the cheap plug-in compressors
> Jeff - they were popular as an alternative to hand pumping back in the
> 70's - also pre electronic ignition, oxygen sensor and catalytic
converter.
>
>
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