homemade air compressor

[bx24]

I like your build. I have used these compressors where I believe four of the eight cylinders are for the power and the other four are for compressing air. As you can see by the link, they move a boat load of air ...

Nice job

GrimmerSchmidt... construction, utility, portable and industrial air compressors

 

[Cap-n-Cray]

I have always wanted to build one of these: VW Air Compressor.

Just never got around to it.

Cary

 

[Renze]

The idea crossed my mind, to use a 1.7 liter Volvo engine as sand blasting air compressor... I dont have time for it, but maybe one day i will....

When i do convert it, i'd be definately using big rubber balls as valves, into a home made cylinder head made of a thick sheet of steel.

Vacuum pumps of manure tankers use 2-1/2 to 3" rubber balls as valves. Cheap and easy. I just wonder if these rubber balls are able to withstand more than the 1 bar pressure of manure tankers... ???

anyways, i've got plenty of other things to do first...

 

[Dan69GTX]

When i do convert it, i'd be definately using big rubber balls as valves, into a home made cylinder head made of a thick sheet of steel.

Vacuum pumps of manure tankers use 2-1/2 to 3" rubber balls as valves. Cheap and easy. I just wonder if these rubber balls are able to withstand more than the 1 bar pressure of manure tankers... ???

The rubber balls will have to be silicone to resist the high temps of compressed air. If you are going to machine your own head - just make it for reed valves. If you do use the rubber balls - other then melting them one issue to remember is weight. The more a "valve" weighs the more "float" you will have at higher RPM - that is the main issue with my compressor. Now if I would have remachined the camshaft (like what is available for the VW, dodge 6 cyl, and some V-8's) then I wouldn't have had an issue with valve float.

 

[Newblue]

I like your build. I have used these compressors where I believe four of the eight cylinders are for the power and the other four are for compressing air. As you can see by the link, they move a boat load of air ...

Nice job

GrimmerSchmidt... construction, utility, portable and industrial air compressors

That's cool, I used to work at Grimmer. They even made one compressor for natural gas that would pump up to 4,800 psi at 125 cfm. It used a turbo charged Ford 460 where 4 of the cylinders were for power and four were for pumping NG.

Mike

 

[bx24]

You know, the other thing I was thinking about was using either and A/C pump or an actual air pump off of a air brake diesel truck. I am not sure how must PSI or CFM the A/C pump would give, but there are millions of them around ....

 

[MikeD74T]

That's cool, I used to work at Grimmer. They even made one compressor for natural gas that would pump up to 4,800 psi at 125 cfm. It used a turbo charged Ford 460 where 4 of the cylinders were for power and four were for pumping NG. Mike

4800psi compression from a Ford engine ????? or are you talking about 2 different compressors ?? MikeD74T

 

[BTDT]

tractor

This one was made by the LeRoi air compressor folks. Nice looking unit. Scroll down and you can see that front 4 cyl. are for engine, rear 2 are air compressor.

 

[jimmer2880]

You know, the other thing I was thinking about was using either and A/C pump or an actual air pump off of a air brake diesel truck. I am not sure how must PSI or CFM the A/C pump would give, but there are millions of them around ....

I looked into the air brake diesel truck compressor before. It runs off of the crank shaft though, so it would not be easily adaptable. I'm sure you could pull it, then somehow connect it up to a PTO, but you'd need to gear it up.

 

[dbdartman]

I remember reading a magazine article from the 70's about using a Chrysler RV-2 (2-cyl V configuration) A/C compressor as an air source. This was for tire inflation. With a large enough tank, I'm sure it would run some small air tools, for a short time anyway. The reason they used this compressor is because it has it's own lube oil supply & doesn't rely on lubricant in the refrigerant to lube the compressor.