Vintage Air Compressors

[Old Faithful]

Here's a closeup of what's remaining of the label on the pump with my interpretation above it.

Any other ideas what the label is likely to be? All I know is it was made by Campbell Hausfeld in Harrison, Ohio, and the the motor is a 1/3 HP Leland Electric Repulsion Induction AC Motor, age unknown...

I FOUND IT!!! It's a "Pressure Queen Air Compressor" :-D

And to prove it, an ad from Popular Mechanics from 1947

 

[Loose Ctrl]

That's awesome. It appears it was never meant to use a storage tank. No wonder it has four cylinders.

 

[Old Faithful]

To follow up on my score (it was just 30 loonies and the seller met me halfway as it was in a small town far away - that would correspond to about USD15 in your market), in case someone here knows anything about these, I have a couple of questions:

1) How is the pressure controlled and maintained on these machines? There are NO pressure and power switches at all, and NO pressure relief valve... What is to prevent the machine to build pressure beyond a safe level? Or is cast iron and thick metal used here that strong that the motor will never be able to exceed safe working pressure? The ad says 50-60 PSI, but I easily went to 70 with just my finger on the hose... Just wondering how people used to work with it... Anyone?

2) This thing is VERY heavy - unless you consider 75 pounds for the motor and pump without hose or sprayer a piece of cake to lift with just one hand - I guess these were meant to be used by young, hard working folks with strong backs - I'm vintage myself so not too keen with the asymmetric loads on the old back - could it be because of the huge antique repulsion induction motor? From the picture in the ad, the motor on this machine was installed by the buyer, as a matter of fact, they used to sell it with or without motor ($99.95 with a 1/3HP, $109.95 with 1/2HP or $69.75 no motor) and you could also install your own gas engine...

 

[Old Faithful]

That's awesome. It appears it was never meant to use a storage tank. No wonder it has four cylinders.

Thanks, Man I found it awesome too, these 4 cylinders, and the motor is amazing in its own right

I've started to clean out the valves, from the action they're obviously discs with a spring underneath, so they should last longer than any reed valves... When I get them unstuck ... At first three of them were stuck, got another one loose shortly after, the other two have been soaking in Releasall, hopefully that will get them loose too and hopefully I'll be able to actually remove the assemblies from the inlet bores for deep cleaning to make them work nice again

The pump is working without knocking but needed oil, at least it wasn't run dry like one of my previous acquisitions, the ad says it uses a forged crankshaft, bronze bushings and a forced lubrication system, so yeah, that's awesome for sure

From the pump cylinder wall width (2" inside the fins) and spacing between outlet ports (1.5") I believe the pistons are 1.5" in diameter and considering the crankcase is 4" wide, I presume the stroke should be around 1.5" as well, so the cubic inch output should be nothing to sneeze at: ((1.5/2)^2)*PI*1.5 is 9.42 cubic inches, which should produce a free flow of around 5.4 CFM at 1000 RPM pump speed. A pump like that should be able to sustain even faster speeds, considering its size, especially if the pistons are aluminum. Things to ponder...

 

[Old Faithful]

Some pictures...

Pump Side view with Oil Filler and Drain Plug

Cylinder Block showing Pistons

I noticed the Breather Tube that comes out at a slant from the Cylinder Block seems brazed shut, any ideas why?

Also all cylinders appear to be in perfect condition, except perhaps #4 cylinder, still showing machining marks. Piston is also the dirtiest. Could it be this piston has seized rings?

 

[Old Faithful]

Once the head was off I made some measurements and made some calculations:

- Stroke order 1-2-4-3 stroke, 1 fill and 1 compression per stroke (like a 2 cycle gas engine)
- Piston Diameter D: 1.370 inches
- Piston Stroke S: 1.690 inches
- Displacement V: ((D/2)^2)*PI*S*4 = 9.97 CuIn
- CFM raw @ 1000RPM: (V*1000)/(12^3) = 5.77 CFM

Not bad at all!

I also noticed that with the existing motor rotation, considering the pulley fan blade orientation, the pump pulley fan PULLS air instead of pushing it, which seems odd. Any ideas? I've seen a video here showing the same clockwise rotation, so I guess it's supposed to be that way, but I am still puzzled, since improper rotation would starve the engine bearings of oil (remember, it's forced lubrication)... I guess that will be discovered only when I take it apart and I hesitate since I don't have a piston ring compressor...

Here's a picture of the compressor:

Compare the pulley fan blade pitch with the one in the ad:

And here is a video clearly showing the same compressor as filmed by a youtube user: Notice the fan is oriented exactly the same as mine and rotates clockwise (best seen at the end of the video)

Here's a screen grab from that machine showing the fan blade orientation is the same as on my machine (enhanced from the video):

 

[pharmerphil]

Coool!!!!!!!

 

[dwall174]

Coool!!!!!!!

+ 1 on the cool factor.

I've always been a fan of the older style air compressors!

Here's a LINK to a old post of mine showing some pictures of a small single cylinder Champion compressor that I rebuilt & customized to use with a scroll saw.

Doug

 

[Old Faithful]

+ 1 on the cool factor.

I've always been a fan of the older style air compressors!

Here's a LINK to a old post of mine showing some pictures of a small single cylinder Champion compressor that I rebuilt & customized to use with a scroll saw.

Doug

That cooling coil is way cool, Man!

I've been trying to devise a cooler for my Sears 2 cylinder compressor to reduce moisture but one of the problems with coolers is that it reduces compressor efficiency, and you need to devise a drain system at the end of your cooler before its gets in the tank...

 

[N_Jay]

That cooling coil is way cool, Man!

I've been trying to devise a cooler for my Sears 2 cylinder compressor to reduce moisture but one of the problems with coolers is that it reduces compressor efficiency, and you need to devise a drain system at the end of your cooler before its gets in the tank...

Use a aftermarket automotive oil cooler.

Feed in the top and "T" the bottom into a drain port with a trap before the tank.

 

[Old Faithful]

Some more pictures showing the internals

Here's the crankshaft, quite a beauty with its bronze bushings
Pistons are easily inserted thanks to the flare at the bottom of the cylinder walls, no ring compressor needed

End bushings are held by set screws, not visible on the pictures.

Crankcase with Oil Trough - Wonder why they did it this way. Any ideas?

This is the Crankcase as I opened it - Notice the Oil Trough and the skewed Oil Pump - Uh-Oh!

This is the oil pump as I discovered it - Someone had probably loosened one of its external locking screws (picture below this one) and it went askew, damaging both the plunger , the casting (has a nasty crack in it, fortunately still works) and the oil pump cam on the crankshaft

Detail of the crooked oil pump showing side damage on the plunger

Scored Crankshaft Oil Pump Cam

Oil Pump Correctly Installed

Oil Pump Positioning Screws with Lock Nuts

Oil Pump Outlet In Operation

 

[Old Faithful]

Use a aftermarket automotive oil cooler.

Feed in the top and "T" the bottom into a drain port with a trap before the tank.

I was thinking using a coil placed like a car spring so it would drain naturally... but an aftermarket oil cooler should work if it can drain itself by gravity... How are they configured internally, like a small car rad with parallel rubes running from top to bottom?

 

[N_Jay]

I was thinking using a coil placed like a car spring so it would drain naturally... but an aftermarket oil cooler should work if it can drain itself by gravity... How are they configured internally, like a small car rad with parallel rubes running from top to bottom?

It depends on the brand, but most are just like a radiator.
Plate type
https://www.motamec.com/motamec-oil-cooler-19-row-235mm-matrix-10-an-jic-black-alloy.html
Pipe type
https://www.autoanything.com/drivetrain-differentials/flex-a-lite-heavy-duty-oil-coolers

 

[z1kzonly]

Have this 30 gallon CURTIS. Deciding what to do with it! Has sentimental value, as It was my Dad's. He was killed in 1972 in an Industrial accident, 1 was just 13 yrs. I used it up until 1996. It is one heavy SOB! I took the motor off to move it around a few times. Old Century 1 hp electric motor 110/220 volts. No time to restore it.
Look familiar to anyone? I might have posted something about 2yrs. ago. I guess new guys don't fit it with the gang? never get any replies?

 

[BlueBomber]

Have this 30 gallon CURTIS. Deciding what to do with it! Has sentimental value, as It was my Dad's. He was killed in 1972 in an Industrial accident, 1 was just 13 yrs. I used it up until 1996. It is one heavy SOB! I took the motor off to move it around a few times. Old Century 1 hp electric motor 110/220 volts. No time to restore it.
Look familiar to anyone? I might have posted something about 2yrs. ago. I guess new guys don't fit it with the gang? never get any replies?

Hey, Z1kzonly, that sure looks like an old one! From the tank tag alone, "St Louis, United States of America" with no state mentioned seems to indicate pre-1950s at least.

As for what to do with it, that depends on your situation. If you have room for it, and no other air compressor solution, then put it back together and let it do what it was built for. On the other hand, if you already have a better air compressor and/or no room to store it, it might be time to put it up on Craigslist and let it find a new home.

 

[Old Faithful]

Have this 30 gallon CURTIS. Deciding what to do with it! Has sentimental value, as It was my Dad's. He was killed in 1972 in an Industrial accident, 1 was just 13 yrs. I used it up until 1996. It is one heavy SOB! I took the motor off to move it around a few times. Old Century 1 hp electric motor 110/220 volts. No time to restore it.
Look familiar to anyone? I might have posted something about 2yrs. ago. I guess new guys don't fit it with the gang? never get any replies?

I remember... Saw it last time you posted it. Thought you had done something with it long ago! What exactly are you looking for in terms of advice, don't you want to keep it?

 

[dwall174]

That cooling coil is way cool, Man!

Thanks!

I've been trying to devise a cooler for my Sears 2 cylinder compressor to reduce moisture

I plan to run a loop of black pipe around the top of the walls inside my garage.
Haven't tried it myself yet!

But somebody here on GJ has, I remember seeing a post about it before.

Doug

 

[Modern Garage]

Love the Pressure Queen. I have couple of the smaller sisters, the Pressure Princess.
I've found no info on these so I'm only reasonably certain that they are single cylinder compressors although the cylinder block looks oblong enough to have two pistons inside. Never needed to take them apart to look.
Any fan of WW2 hardware will recognize the war surplus breathing oxygen tanks under them. When I bought my first one I wondered if CH sold a kit so a guy could make up his own portable compressor set since the parts seemed a little cobbled, but after finding the second I concluded that apparently they were sold assembled.
The brown one is the Pressure Princess and the orange one is the Tankmobile. Two slightly awkward names in my opinion. I'm guessing the Tankmobile is newer with the self adhesive label vs riveted label on the PP but as I said I have no real info.
Joe

 

[Old Faithful]

Love the Pressure Queen. I have couple of the smaller sisters, the Pressure Princess.
I've found no info on these so I'm only reasonably certain that they are single cylinder compressors although the cylinder block looks oblong enough to have two pistons inside. Never needed to take them apart to look.
Any fan of WW2 hardware will recognize the war surplus breathing oxygen tanks under them. When I bought my first one I wondered if CH sold a kit so a guy could make up his own portable compressor set since the parts seemed a little cobbled, but after finding the second I concluded that apparently they were sold assembled.
The brown one is the Pressure Princess and the orange one is the Tankmobile. Two slightly awkward names in my opinion. I'm guessing the Tankmobile is newer with the self adhesive label vs riveted label on the PP but as I said I have no real info.
Joe

They look fabulous! I'm not sure you could call them 'smaller sisters', they seem fairly large! And the pump seems sturdier as well, larger bore, air filter inlet, riveted name plate... Mine has none of these industrial grade features! And with an oxygen tank pressure vessel I'm sure they could withstand much greater pressures than ordinary air tanks!

The interesting thing is the patent numbers matches the one on mine... Haven't been able to find anything about it though...

 

[Modern Garage]

I looked up the patent and it applies to the interchangeable and easily repaired inlet and outlet disc valve assemblies.
Joe

 

[Old Faithful]

I looked up the patent and it applies to the interchangeable and easily repaired inlet and outlet disc valve assemblies.
Joe

You mean the Hartmann 1916 Patent? I looked at US3109444A in which that patent number was referenced as prior art but, could not find the actual Hartmann Patent drawing itself...

I've tried the Us Patent Office but get all kinds of errors trying to view the pages for this patent. It seems they don't have it in a PDF format that can actually be viewed, perhaps it's because I'm in Canada and there is some geographic or other obscure restriction in place?

 

[Modern Garage]

I went back to the patent I found. It was automatically redirected (apparently) to number 2585773A. It's granted to Clarence Hartman in 1952. (Applied in 1949 if I'm reading it correctly. I've never gone this deep before -thanks for the push.) Here's the photo. I'd like to upload the whole page but I don't know if it's possible (or allowed).
Joe

 

[Old Faithful]

I went back to the patent I found. It was automatically redirected (apparently) to number 2585773A. It's granted to Clarence Hartman in 1952. (Applied in 1949 if I'm reading it correctly. I've never gone this deep before -thanks for the push.) Here's the photo. I'd like to upload the whole page but I don't know if it's possible (or allowed).
Joe

Thanks for getting back! Indeed the picture shows as a small thumbnail on your post - I simply couldn't access the page myself (I didn't try a proxy though) so it would seem it's the knowledge police at work, which is absurd considering patents are PUBLIC DOCUMENTS and in this case, it had expired by 1969, almost 50 years ago

If you have access you could bypass this absurd censorship by viewing the document full screen at its highest resolution and taking a screen grab.

On my side I'm unfortunately unable to work on the compressor for the next few days as I have urgent problems to attend to with my truck, but I'll take some more pictures showing what I can see of these valves as soon as my present emergency is over. I cleaned the valve assemblies and acid treated them to remove rust, but saw no obvious disassembly method. They are basically discs with a spring within a cylinder with rims. I suppose the spring and stainless steel disc were assembled in the cylinder housing and the inside rim was pressed in and machined after that to lock them in place, although I saw no obvious evidence of such machining.

But this is nevertheless a very nice compressor - just extremely heavy for its output

 

[Dogwoodfarms]

This little guy (2" bore, 3/4" stroke) was in forgotten in some old shed and has a hard time in retirement. The tin cap is very brittle and something fell on it, cracking it in several places. I just finished the IRAN and put a new set of work clothes on him. I love the '40s art deco styling. It had a neat zoomy-looking handle off the back but that pot-metal broke some time ago.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50010202@N07/6743550133/" title="100_3620 by 49tandc, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7153/6743550133_c8d76309f0.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="100_3620"></a>

http://flic.kr/p/bgUtwD

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50010202@N07/6743555173/" title="100_3623 by 49tandc, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7175/6743555173_8903bc2393.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="100_3623"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50010202@N07/6743551761/" title="100_3621 by 49tandc, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6743551761_3883217b28.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="100_3621"></a>


49T&C

What is this good for? Painting? Looking at the same one.

 

[Loose Ctrl]

What is this good for? Painting? Looking at the same one.

Low-pressure sprayers from my understanding.

 

[Modern Garage]

OK lets see if this pic of the check valve shows any bigger.
Joe

 

[Metal-man-mike]

first time posting on here. I recently bought a house with a shop that has this fascinating compressor that, unfortunately doesn't have any identification tags on the pump. The tank is a Scaife, but it doesn't appear to match the pump. The compressor doesn't build air past 20psi, so I pulled the head off the side I thought was the problem and found at least 2 bad check valves out of the 5 valves in the head. So can anyone help me identify what this pump is and possibly steer me in a direction to get new parts for it?

 

[930dreamer]

^^^ Saylor Beall?

 

[Loose Ctrl]

first time posting on here. I recently bought a house with a shop that has this fascinating compressor that, unfortunately doesn't have any identification tags on the pump. The tank is a Scaife, but it doesn't appear to match the pump. The compressor doesn't build air past 20psi, so I pulled the head off the side I thought was the problem and found at least 2 bad check valves out of the 5 valves in the head. So can anyone help me identify what this pump is and possibly steer me in a direction to get new parts for it?

That's a nice comp head. You shouldn't ever run out of air with that unit.

 

[heyyou]

Thats some homemade rig. The black ball on top is the refrigerant compressor out of a fridge or freezer. Super quiet almost silent. Lots of guys build them today with small 1-2gallon tanks for airbrushing. Low CFM's but almost no noise.

I'm glad someone else finally noticed this besides me. There is no way your going to clean the (reed valve) located inside the hemedic pot, unless you grind the weld and split it open? Or am i not seeing something? I have made many vacuum pumps from these, but never tried to make a compressor. No offence intended, just an honest observation.

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

first time posting on here. I recently bought a house with a shop that has this fascinating compressor that, unfortunately doesn't have any identification tags on the pump. The tank is a Scaife, but it doesn't appear to match the pump. The compressor doesn't build air past 20psi, so I pulled the head off the side I thought was the problem and found at least 2 bad check valves out of the 5 valves in the head. So can anyone help me identify what this pump is and possibly steer me in a direction to get new parts for it?

Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

MetalManMike: you should start a separate post about your compressor. Just saying.[emoji6]. Hopefully a moderator will move it. Cool looking machine, hope you get it fixed!
I’ve never seen that configuration before. Was it from the movie set of Flight of the Phoenix?
Can’t believe I’m saying this but I believe it. The second stage is through the crankcase .If I’m wrong then laugh later, it looks real to me. Some Engineer really thought Outside the Box on this one, or else I’ve been Had by very bored people.
Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

So that’s a refrigerant compressor?


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[Stillgottimefor1]

Maybe it was designed for extremely cold conditions so running the high-pressure side through the crankcase would warm the oil...coo-coo idea?


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[TRWham]

first time posting on here. I recently bought a house with a shop that has this fascinating compressor that, unfortunately doesn't have any identification tags on the pump. The tank is a Scaife, but it doesn't appear to match the pump. The compressor doesn't build air past 20psi, so I pulled the head off the side I thought was the problem and found at least 2 bad check valves out of the 5 valves in the head. So can anyone help me identify what this pump is and possibly steer me in a direction to get new parts for it?

I believe that is a Wayne 6400. Those castings are the intercoolers and aftercooler. Each bank has an intercooler and the one in between is the aftercooler.

 

[TRWham]

Maybe it was designed for extremely cold conditions so running the high-pressure side through the crankcase would warm the oil...coo-coo idea?


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

No, the intercooler on each cylinder bank just runs from the low pressure discharge to the high pressure suction side. The aftercooler is between the banks and connects to both high stage discharge ports and combines into one outlet. Saylor-Beall uses a similar arrangement on its V-4 models.

 

[Old Faithful]

OK lets see if this pic of the check valve shows any bigger.
Joe

Sorry!!! I didn't see that at all!!! Thank you so much !!!

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

This 1948 picture from ebay


Sent from my iPhone using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[Metal-man-mike]

I believe that is a Wayne 6400. Those castings are the intercoolers and aftercooler. Each bank has an intercooler and the one in between is the aftercooler.

So I'm pretty convinced that its a Wayne of some sort. Quite possibly a 6400, but I'm having a hell of a time finding any info on Wayne as a company, much less my compressor. Is there a place I could call that might have information about it and/or sell parts for it? I need a minimum of 2 "spring and disc" type exhaust valves, but id like to replace all of them if possible and do a full tune up if I can afford it. Ive talked to a shop near me but they thought it was an older devilbiss based off of my pictures, but I wasn't able to turn up anything that looked the same.

 

[Metal-man-mike]

This 1948 picture from ebay

Did you save that link by chance? I did an eBay search, but couldn't find that picture anywhere.