my compressor build and air line install

[thieltech]

thanks. here's a shot of the loft, as it sits right now. i'm going to clutter it up with a good bit of equipment from the garage below while i sheetrock and finish the garage, and then i can go back and organize it. i'll probably start a garage build thread in the coming months, as i feel i'm finally far enough along to justify it.


that access door is just a temporary one, but i needed something i could open and close, and walk on while im up there working. it is just a basic 2x4 frame with 1/2" OSB. it is far too heavy for my liking. i will eventually be building a new, lighter version once the rest of the garage below is finished. I have a thread for the trolley and hoist here, but the winch is just the HF 1200 pound unit that many others have used.



even though the 2 stage is only drawing air in 1 cylinder, the CFM is rated much higher than my quincy. is the volume of the 1st cylinder of the IR pump greater than the two cylinders on the quincy 210? if so, wouldn't the IR pump always supply higher CFM than the quincy, even at low pressure? and if that's the case, would it just make sense to use the 2 stage exclusively?

WOW that is upstairs of your main shop !?!? thats pretty awesome ! i wanna do the same in my shop upsatirs . i have tons of cabinets like u have up there.

Can you post more pics of the whole shop and outside pics of the garage plz?

 

[87jeepwrangler]

IT RUNS!

I pulled the oil pump assembly out of the 210 to see if i could find a problem, and after looking it over, it seemed like it should have been working. the only possible issue i could see, was that it seemed dry enough that it possibly couldn't pull a prime. not so dry that it had zero oil on it, but dry like it had been sitting for 15 years and had all but a micro film of oil left on it. so, i pulled it all apart, oiled everything up real good, and put it back together. when i fired it up, it immediately changed its tone, quieted right down, and the oil pressure gauge shot up to 15 psi.

spinning like a top


climbing to 100 psi


overall, it is super quiet and i'm happy with the noise level. i may experiment with an intake muffler, but honestly, its not bad. you can stand next to it and have a conversation.

it does vibrate a little bit up there, so i'm going to do some experiments with feet and possibly a anti-vibration idea i have. we'll see how that goes, but even if left as is, it's not bad enough that i feel like i have to make any changes.

 

[87jeepwrangler]

WOW that is upstairs of your main shop !?!? thats pretty awesome ! i wanna do the same in my shop upsatirs . i have tons of cabinets like u have up there.

Can you post more pics of the whole shop and outside pics of the garage plz?

i'd be glad to get you some pics of whatever you want to see, but i've started gathering all the pictures of my garage/house addition to start a build thread. so if you can wait a little longer, i'm going to start a relatively in-depth thread in the garage gallery section very soon. i will link to it in this thread once i start it.

 

[1Garageman]

Great job, glad to hear that you fixed it. That is NOW a very nice looking air compressor. Great job!

 

[Grigg]

bolting the compressor to a heavy chunk of concrete could help with vibration. Perhaps not ideal for an attic location though...

 

[87jeepwrangler]

time for a little update. things have changed quite a bit, and for the better

shortly after my last post, the 210 started knocking again on startup and read 0 oil pressure. there was clearly an issue. i had a spare 210 laying around, so i pulled the pump internals out of the spare and swapped them over. to no avail. the pump started knocking when i fired it up again, and then immediately made a loud bang. i thought for sure there would be pieces of rod outside of the crank case, it was quite loud. thankfully, there were not.

back to the IR 2475 i was offered from a buddy for $150. i met up with him the following weekend at one of our races and he gave it to me, but wouldn't take any money until i had it up and running and was happy with it. fair enough.

the IR 2475 is most often listed for use with a 5 or 7.5 hp motor, so i knew going into this that i am a bit underpowered. the associated RPMs with the given motor sizes is usually given as 1040rpm/1500rpm, respectively. the minimum allowable rpm is listed as 575. since i'm running a 3hp baldor, i resized my sheaves such that i would be spinning the pump at 600 rpm. although i would be at the minimum rpm, and thus get minimal SCFM out of the pump, it should meet my original goals for the build of this compressor: quiet as possible, cheap as possible, enough air for my needs (and still out-perform the quincy 210 i had on there).

at 600 rpm, my calculations put the pump at around 10 scfm, up to 175 psi. since the old quincy supposedly put out about 6-7 scfm at 100 psi max, even spinning the 2475 as slow as i am should yield more scfm, and do it at a higher pressure.

the result:
i up'd my pressure switch setting to 125 psi (up from 100 psi with the quincy pump). it now kicks on right around the 100 psi mark, and shuts down at 125. this is way better than before, where the tank pressure would drop to about 80 psi before refilling. as for the noise level, WOW. it is VERY quiet. i can literally stand next to the compressor while it is running and hold a conversation with someone. it is not only quieter than the 210 spinning at 1000 rpm, but is also smoother. there is basically zero vibration, and this is on 2x8 floor joists on my loft. overall, i am very pleased with this setup, and don't think i would change a thing. even if someone offered me a higher hp motor, i don't think i'd have any interest in changing things around.

 

[LG63]

Very nicely done and great attention to detail. With that pump loafing at 600 rpm it should last forever and then some.
Do you have any info on the motor tensioner- make/model etc.

 

[87jeepwrangler]

Very nicely done and great attention to detail. With that pump loafing at 600 rpm it should last forever and then some.
Do you have any info on the motor tensioner- make/model etc.

Thanks. The tensioner came up a little earlier in the thread, and although I'm not positive. I believe it to be an Overly Hautz.

Here's the link to the info I mentioned earlier in the thread... link

 

[87jeepwrangler]

Just a little update, nothing too major to report. The major components have been working flawlessly, but i ran into a small problem with the check valve/unloader, of all things. After about a month of using the compressor on an extremely light-duty cycle (turn it on, use it, shut it off), I noticed the tank pressure started dropping quickly. At first, I assumed a leak somewhere. After firing it up to investigate, I quickly discovered air leaking past the unloader/check valve after the pump shut down, which was draining the tank down. A quick dis assembly revealed the unloader stuck in the open position. I assumed bad unloader, or maybe just some dirt got in there, so i disassembled, oiled it and reassembled. Within a few days, I quickly had the same result. Time for a new Load-Genie from Grainger, they were only like $15. I put in the new one, and immediately it started sticking. Seriously? A quick internet search yielded others using a Grainger load genie with similar sticking issues.

I decided to play around with it and see if I could fix it. With the valve in my hand, I could slam it open hard enough to get it to stick in the open position; most likely exactly what was happening when it was installed. I disassembled the entire thing, and the fit and finish was very good throughout, but my best guess is that some of the machining tolerances were just a touch too tight in the last couple thousandths of throw. I used some red scotchbrite and polished down all the parts real good until I couldn't possibly get it to stick no matter how hard i slammed it open. Assuming it would fix the problem, i reassembled everything, only to find a new banging noise when the pump fired up. After some more investigation, I was positive the noise was coming from the check/unloader slamming back and forth as the pump ran, although funcionally, the damn thing actually closed after the pump made pressure. So now I had a fully functional setup again, but the noise level of the unloader slamming open and closed each pump cycle was unacceptable.

I had a spare check valve that was NOT also an unloader, i believe it is a grainger/CDI control #6x207. I drilled a micro sized hole in the top of the check valve to allow it to bleed off the pump head pressure (yes, obviously it bleeds off some air while running as well, i think it was a .015" hole, and meant to be a temporary fix). After putting it all back together, everything worked almost as expected, but I can still hear the check valve slamming open and closed as the pump runs. It was much quieter than the polished load-genie, but I can still hear it, and it bothers me. Is there such a thing as a silent check valve. I realize my compressor is ridiculously quiet, but i have a hard time believing the check valve should be heard. any recommendations?

here's a few pics just for reference...

load genie stuck open.


dissasembled.


scotchbrite polished piston in the load-genie.


6x207 check valve

 

[redmondjp]

Wow - thanks for the very detailed update! One possible solution that was used on compressors many decades ago was a small accumulator chamber at the compressor's output. I believe that this serves to dampen the pressure pulses that are causing your check valve to chatter.

I know I have seen pictures of this accumulator chamber on the vintage compressor thread here - a square, cast-iron chamber sitting on top of the tank next to the pump.

I'm eager to see what other posters have to say about this issue, especially those that also use this same IR compressor pump and/or those with other very quiet compressor pumps that may be able to hear their check valves.

 

[87jeepwrangler]

Wow - thanks for the very detailed update! One possible solution that was used on compressors many decades ago was a small accumulator chamber at the compressor's output. I believe that this serves to dampen the pressure pulses that are causing your check valve to chatter.

interesting idea. any idea if the accumulators were just a chamber, or did they have an internal piston or similar?

I'm eager to see what other posters have to say about this issue, especially those that also use this same IR compressor pump and/or those with other very quiet compressor pumps that may be able to hear their check valves.

ditto, although it wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't a lot of input on this particular topic. especially being buried in this thread.


i've got an extravagant solution, but i'm far from being at that point, as i'm just getting started with this problem, and hope there's a simple solution i just dont know about. (it's that silly). also, i don't have a real decibel meter, but if i remember, i'll run the pump and use my iphone decibel app to get some readings so we at least have some type of baseline volume comparison.