Swan Compressor Chopper

[2oolhound]

Swan Compressor Chopper OR Toolin’ Around


I saw this Swan compressor on CL but for one reason or another I didn’t act on it even though it was up there for about a week on a distress sale for $40. I’d really liked the look of it and began regretting not buying it and thinking “humph, another one that got away” . Shortly after a friend of mine was telling me about a compressor he’d bought and I realized he’d gotten it. I was glad it went to someone I knew but when he saw how much I liked it he sold it to me for the original price.





1st thing I discovered is how badly balanced it was. The weight was all on one side and it tipped over very easily. I added a small extension to the mounting deck so I could mount the compressor over a few inches to improve the balance.

Next came a belt guard. I used some scrap from an equipment rack that I bent around some round items that were a similar diameter to the pulleys.






By the time I’d completed the guard I realized how impractical the design of this compressor was for me. My garage is only 8 feet wide and this thing was taking up too much space and was a hassle to turn end for end. After a bit of digging around I found a smaller, wider tank for $20 and decided to change the proportions a bit. When you are out growing your space everything has to be as condensed as possible.






Although I really liked the smaller foot print of this tank it was still a little top heavy. The PO had added the wheels by brazing some struts underneath and putting an axel through them and against the bottom of the tank. It was quite flimsy and starting to bend.





At this point I decided to make a chopper . I didn’t want to compromise the integrity of the high pressure tank so every alteration I made would have to attach via the top deck, the brazed on wheel struts and/or the front foot. To lower the wheels I made legs that attached between the top deck and the wheel struts.

The tank profile was scribed on a piece of styro cut to the shape of my 1 1/4” x 3” rectangular tubing I’d use for the legs.






I then cut the styro template out and traced the pattern on the tubing and cut it out on my portable band saw.





Seen upside down in the photo below the wheel support legs had a 3/8” x 1 1/4” wide bar welded inside on the outward side which was then drilled and tapped on 2” centers so the wheel height could be adjusted. A 7” length of the same bar stock was drilled on 1” centers and the stub axels were bolted to it so adjustment could be made in 1” increments. To give it more strength a bridge connector of the same rectangular tubing was fitted to the bottom of the tank. that joined the left and right wheel legs where they were welded to the original axel mounts.





Feel free to critique. Are there too many pics? too many details? More to follow…...

 

[Ridjobradi]

I am looking forward to seeing more of your project. I am rebuilding a small Sears compressor and may use your frame dropping idea.

The new tank is probably in factory configuration, unless you see actual brass from the brazing. It is tank common setup. You have more compressor than is usually on a similar tank. The vehicle belts transmit less power than poly-v, so you may want to add the second belt to the pulley.



Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[2oolhound]

Hi, yes the tank has actual brazing. It's even more mickey mouse than I'm capable of producing. The guy I got it from had it inside stored for 20 years but he got it used. It's a nice thick tank he'd tested when he got it. The flywheel on the compressor has only one groove, the drive motor has 2 grooves. It was operational when I got it though so am hoping it's ok.

I have a 60 gal compressor now so this one will be just for when I don't want to fire the bigger one up.

More progress:

I realized the tank drain valve was now quite vulnerable with the low ground clearance so I attached a guard to the heavy bung that was factory welded to the tank.




I don’t have much of a budget for these projects so all materials have been scavenged, scrounged or bargain hunted, even my welding rods.
I didn’t want the pressure switch, safety valve etc all connected to the input port on the rear of the tank so I decided to stretch the deck 3” at the back to make room for it all between the compressor and the motor. I leveled the 1/8” plate to the deck, clamped an angle iron support under it, then removed the 2 pieces clamped together and welded them on the bench. Then I welded the extension to the deck.





I should mention here that I’m planning to rubber mount the compressor by using insulating mounts (got free at a garage sale but ticket price is over $100 ea.). The way this will work is I’ll add a second deck above the existing deck that will ride on the isolation mounts. I added 3/8” steel to the tops of the legs to facilitate drilling and tapping holes for these mounts.






This is roughly how it should all fit. Next I’ll make another set of legs to mount some front wheels on. I want to be able to roll it around and park it into tight spots in my crowded garage so I want it front wheels instead of a foot like was on this tank.





While cutting out the front legs my bandsaw blade broke. I have an odd sized saw so replacement blades aren’t available locally. I tried spot welding the blade which blew a hole right through it. Undaunted I proceeded to mig weld it and managed to get my old blade functionable enough to finish cutting out the front legs.

 

[2oolhound]

Got the front legs on. It's now on 4 wheels.



Single post type swivel wheels for the front would have been perfect as they could screw up and down for height adjustments but due to budget constraints I’m using what’s on hand. I had a set of 3” casters that had the swivel bearings in a narrow 1 3/4” pattern which meant I could cut 1/2” off each side of the top mounting plate. This allowed me to mount them higher along the contours of the tank to match the lowest setting on the back wheels. I used lighter rectangular tubing than was on the back. To mount the wheels I needed a flat plate on the bottom of the legs so I ran a piece of 1 3/4” angle iron (ex bed frame) from the back leg out under the front legs and I’ve left it sticking out the front until I decide just where I should trim them off. The design is seat of the pants un-finalized at this point.

I got a head full of ideas
that are driven me insane

 

[niferous]

That's a steal at $40!

 

[2oolhound]

Thanks niferous.

I got the top mount plate done. I had a choice of 1/8" or 1/4". The 1/4 seemed too heavy as I've been piling on the weight already. The 1/8 is lighter than the original deck though so I bent the edges along the middle span and will tack on some more support pieces once I get everything in position. Otherwise I don’t think it will stand up without eventually bowing.





I marked the centre balance point on both the compressor and the motor by standing them on a 1/4 stainless rod and seeing which way they would teeter. The compressor balances at the drive side mount flange of the block. This next pic shows the balance point on the right, the position I’d need to mount it if I used the inward pulley position of the motor and the left marking is the actual centre along the tank. Ideally the motor can mount to the left of centre to counter balance the compressor needing to be to the right. At any rate this is way better than it was when I got it.





As you can see, to utilize the desired centre position I’ll have to mod my new top mounting plate some more but this will give the best overall balance of all the components.




After studying the top photo of this last post I feel adding the isolation mounts and 2nd mounting deck has brought the height up higher than I like. It has raised the height 1 1/2” after I’ve gone to all the trouble to lower everything 3 1/2” at the wheel mounts. So now I’ve only lowered the compressor 2”, some chopper This is unacceptable.
Just to complicate things I'll lower the main section of my new top deck while keeping the attaching points, at the 4 mounts at the corners, as they are. It will be like a “low boy” semi trailer, high at the wheels but low in the middle so heavy equipment can get on. According to my calculations I can gain back 7/8”!



The main obstacle I’ll encounter is the back isolation mount clearance. It will need to be moved 1/2” outward and even then after adding a welded in support from the top of the iso mount to the deck it will just barely clear the rear side body of the compressor. Basically if I cut a round circle above the iso mount and welded a bearing race below it and then welded the lower end of the bearing race to the deck it would work. The bearing race would wrap itself around the contour of the iso mount and give just enough clearance for the compressor base to fit in the lowered section.

 

[FMC1959]

Looks like it will be really nice when complete. Nice work

 

[2oolhound]

Thanks FMC1959, I hope it becomes more than just an art piece. I thought of posting in the show your beginner welding projects thread but knew it would drag on through multiple posts. Photobucket lets me load images but I have to post them from another computer unless I upgrade my OS which I don't want to do yet. This is making it difficult to keep this thread up to date.

Luckily I had some 2 3/4” ID 1/4” wall seamless pipe I’d salvaged from a bent crane boom and it cleared the iso mounts by 3/16” all around.






I made four 3/4” high rings from this material and since I cut them off on the lathe I also tapered the inside of the top of each one to give even more clearance from the iso mounts.



The original holes for the iso mounts that I'd drilled into the top plate were bang on so to preserve this accuracy the support rings precise positions were scribed into the deck surface then clamped in place and tack welded into position.





I also flipped the top mount plate over so I wouldn’t have to cut off the bent edges I’d hand bent. (my next project will be a bending brake for my 20T press).




Once welded in the centers were cut out with a cutting torch.

 

[2oolhound]

A cylindrical snagging plug on my old 7” makita angle drinder was used to clean out the slag and bring the openings down to the finished state. I finished of with a 2” flap wheel on a die grinder. Because the pieces were all custom cut on the lathe they are all slightly different in size and the caps were made to fit tightly in each one to maintain the precise mounting positions. This is why I number stamped each set.





We have these mounts on a compressor at work so I know they don’t move much. Here you can see close to 1/4” of clearance all around. On the one crucial mount I will grind some of the outer mount exposing the iso mount inside as the fitment is that tight.





Welding magnets made easy work out of setting up the caps for tacking into place.





I cut away a bit more of the leg support to clear the flywheel. I may cut it down too so the belt will have enough clearance for removal and fitment. The top plate will also get shaved a bit more.





Here you can see the tight tolerances between the rear mounts and the compressor.





I have ground away enough or the outer mount ring to clear the compressor and the drain plug although I still need to clean it up a bit.





Next I’ll add some 3/4” x 3/4” x 3/16” angle iron bracing all around the mount plate to the edges or the outer mount rings as my light plate material has distorted from the welding. I’m thinking of heating it and peening it a bit, clamping the plate down flat to a heavy piece of steel, then welding in the angle iron ribbing.

 

[2oolhound]

I decided to add a rack and pinion system to aid in tightening the drive belt. I salvaged the rack and pinions along with the bushing bosses out of a treadmill where they were used to raise and lower the incline.




I welded the bushing bosses in line with the bent up sides of my top mount plate then clamped in the long angle iron rib supports in an effort to control warping of the top plate during welding.




The one angle iron rib extends the full length while the left one in the photo terminates at the compressor. On the underside a 3/8” x 1” bar runs side to side perpendicular at the termination point and is threaded for the compressor mount bolts. I’m relying on the unibody construction to help withstand the rigors of time. The bent up sides will be extended to run the full length from front to back.




To try to control warpage I clamped the top mount plate to a piece of cold rolled 3/8” steel using 3/4 dr sockets in the iso mount cups. Since there would be little room for getting to the compressor mount nuts I welded lugs on the underside which were then drilled and tapped.




It was impossible to keep the top plate in the jig for all welding and when I put a straight edge across the tops of the sockets in the picture you could see they tilt outwards. I used a torch to heat the plate and peened and banged all the corners back into acceptable tolerances.




I cut holes in the top deck so the pinion gears would sit lower (actually they stick out the bottom). I decided to cut the traveling motor mount plate into 3 strips and weld them flush with the rack gear strips on the top side instead of just welding them on the bottom. This would lower things another 1/8” so by cutting the holes in the mount plate along with this move I’m lowering over 1/4”.




Next I welded some 1/4” x 1” bar to the underside of two 1 1/4” x 1/8” angle so I could drill and tap every 2”. These would be the traveling motor mount plate anchor rails. The rack gear strips will be located in the tight channel between these rails and the angle iron ribs to prevent the traveling motor mount plate from moving sideways and square to the pinion gears as well as keep the motor and pulleys in line. They will weld in on the bottom edge to the main mount plate and at the sides, to the bent up walls of the deck.




After carefully leveling and shimming them for height they were tacked then welded in position.




I had to stretch the 1/2” pinion shaft so it would extend past the edge of the top mount plate and a handle could be fixed to it.




A keyway was cut in the shaft to locate the pinion gears grub screw locks and the handle too. This was done using an end mill in the lathe chuck and mounting the shaft in a boring bar fixture.




The turn handle was made by grinding the teeth off a worn sprocket and welding a short length of bar inside it. The bar was bored for the 1/2” rod and drilled and threaded for grub screws to hold it on.




Here it is assembled and it works great. It’s quite a relief to reach this point. There is still some trimming to do but I'll do that after I progress further along.