School me on this OLDER Air Compressor

[acasanis]

Great forum! First post here...I picked up this compressor for $80 this morning. The seller did not know much about it other than it was his late Fathers.

I have no experience with these compressor systems – only those cheap 2 Gallon porter-cable pancake deals used for brad nailers

I have not powered the unit up as of yet.

Compressor
Should I drain and re-fill the compressor oil. If so, how do I know when filled enough? There’s no dipstick or anything…
There is a drain plug at the very bottom front. There is another plug on the right side about 1” up from the bottom on a 90 degree elbow, and then there is a larger opening with spring flip cap about ½ way up. What are these openings used for? There appears to be two

Tank
I have found the in port, and obviously the output port with regulator. There is a spigot on the very center/bottom of the tank with what looks like a lever and valve. Opening it released a little water, followed by oily water mixture. I am not sure if this is supposed to be in the tank, or completely drained.

Water Seperator
Have not figured out too much about this unit. There is a port on the bottom front. Opening it released water (about 1 TSP) followed by some odd looking oil. As soon as the oil appeared I quickly closed it for fear of losing something needed. Do these units require oil filling? The air output of the water separator “T’s”. One side to what I assume is some kind of pressure relief switch, the other side to the holding tank. The pressure relief switch powers the motor and appears to have springs inside. Does this unit look safe with the exposed springs?

Any information would be most welcomed. Here are a few pictures outlining the questions I have:

 

[kams1973]

I'll play...

Is there supposed to be somthing covering this?
Yes, there should be a cover of some sort, but I'd be more worried about the broken
insulation on the wire going into the pressure switch.

Does this get completely drained?
Yes, drain the condensation.

Air input port?
I guess it could be used as an input port, but that's the port I would use as the
primary output port.

What is this for?
Simply another port that is capped off.

Air output port?
Technically yes, but I wouldn't want to pull air from the bottom port due to
condensation.

Air Intake?
Yes.

Should these have some sort of filter attached?
Yes. They are missing the filter media and the caps.

Oil fill?
Yes.

Oil drain?
Yes.

 

[TireTracks]

Looks like a nice compressor.

All the water gets drained from the tank and the water seperator. The oil is probably oil that has migrated from the pump into the seperator.

 

[acasanis]

Thanks very much for the info!

This may seem like a silly question, but how do you know how much oil to put in?

There's no sight window or dipstick etc....

 

[cbluecheese]

This is my first post, too. While I've been an avid reader of this site for many, many months, I haven't reached out for assistance. If I may "school" you with a bit of etiquette, there are users of many tools & different trades on here. Don't mock what you don't know. While porter cable may not be your tool brand of choice, no need to bash. There are no such "2 gallon" porter cable pancake compressors, the "cheap" ones your most likely referring to are 6 gallon, are inexpensive, and work great for us independent contractors that install doors, do trim work, etc, that use porter cable tools, compressors, brad nailers daily, and with a great level of success in completing a job successfully. You might find you'll get more assistance with questions by not calling out tools & brands that others use, like, and rely upon to make a living. Good luck with your compressor issues....

 

[acasanis]

This is my first post, too. While I've been an avid reader of this site for many, many months, I haven't reached out for assistance. If I may "school" you with a bit of etiquette, there are users of many tools & different trades on here. Don't mock what you don't know. While porter cable may not be your tool brand of choice, no need to bash. There are no such "2 gallon" porter cable pancake compressors, the "cheap" ones your most likely referring to are 6 gallon, are inexpensive, and work great for us independent contractors that install doors, do trim work, etc, that use porter cable tools, compressors, brad nailers daily, and with a great level of success in completing a job successfully. You might find you'll get more assistance with questions by not calling out tools & brands that others use, like, and rely upon to make a living. Good luck with your compressor issues....

you wasted your first post.

 

[mayday0017]

ROFL I like this thread and this new guy already

way to go acasanis