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Valuation question

babyseal

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Dec 24, 2023
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Supposed to go look at what was billed as an antique air compressor today. $25. The single blurry pic is on my phone, no idea how to port it to this post. It was odd looking, obviously very old, my first thought it was a very early Devilbiss (or something similar) portable tire pump. Then, while sleeping it hit me. It's the complete equipment tray out of a refrigerator; mounting stand, motor, tensioner, compressor, and at least part of the bellows mechanism that turns it on and off. Probably a late '20s or early '30s Frigidaire. It's pretty rough looking, crying to be saved. I think it's complete, supposedly the motor turns over and it has compression. Completely outside of my experience though.

Is it worth anything/messing with? Or just more rusty scrap to take up space?
 
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finn

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My wife’s uncle has something like that, but probably ten or so newer. He was an appliance repairman in the fifties, so I imagine he cobbled it together then. It has Some sort of WW II military surplus oxygen / air tank hooked up to it.

I don’t see much, if any value to it other than a curiosity, personally, although the air tank (receiver) itself is a sort of cool looking display piece, if you’re into that sort of stuff.

You sometimes would see similar home made compressors in the corner of photos in old Hot Rod magazines from the very late 1940s or early 1959s, and magazines like Popular Mechanics of that era. There weren’t many hobbiest compressors available back then, so these shop made compressors had to suffice.
 

djbmw

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Supposed to go look at what was billed as an antique air compressor today. $25. The single blurry pic is on my phone, no idea how to port it to this post. It was odd looking, obviously very old, my first thought it was a very early Devilbiss (or something similar) portable tire pump. Then, while sleeping it hit me. It's the complete equipment tray out of a refrigerator; mounting stand, motor, tensioner, compressor, and at least part of the bellows mechanism that turns it on and off. Probably a late '20s or early '30s Frigidaire. It's pretty rough looking, crying to be saved. I think it's complete, supposedly the motor turns over and it has compression. Completely outside of my experience though.

Is it worth anything/messing with? Or just more rusty scrap to take up space?
A pressure vessle of unknown condition, and well past any reasonable certification expiry date ... is just a show piece, at best.

Whats the intended use?
 
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babyseal

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Haven't seen it yet, but I don't think it's been converted to an air compressor judging by the plumbing I can see in the crappy pic. I think it's straight out of a refrigerator with the piping clipped off. I know those old refrig's are collectables and people restore them, so the equipment tray complete should be of value to someone. Just not to me.

Probably going to go ahead and drive up and look it over. The pic background screams "old farmhouse" and she says she's got 3 outbuildings of junk she wants to sell, so no telling what's in them. If the price of admission is buying her $25 "air compressor", it's probably worth it.

A pressure vessle of unknown condition, and well past any reasonable certification expiry date ... is just a show piece, at best.
It's a refrigerator compressor equipment tray (I think), complete. There is no pressure vessel. If it was the '20s/30s tire pump I thought it was at first glance...rebuild and resell or keep for myself, easy peasy. If it's the more or less intact guts out of a very early refrigerator as I'm suspecting...dunno. That's the question I'm asking. Is it worth anything? It's nothing I have interest in, or knowledge of, other than possible re-sale .
 
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babyseal

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Just more cool rusty ****, unless you have a defined use case.
Worst case...the motor/belt tensioner off it would be worth the $25. Can always use a period correct (I'd assume 1/4hp) motor restoring old shop tools. Of course, then I'm left with the rest of it going "oh man, this is too cool/old to just throw away".

OTOH, woman spazzed out in the parking lot, drove through the front of my garage, did $70k worth of damage, collapsed the roof, totalled her sparkling new Escalade. Finishing up on the rebuild...and have hauled junk out by the contractor dumpster loads. 3 generations worth of accumulated junk. So now I've got plenty of room for new and improved junk.

#Note; when 100+ YO oak framing and Escalade's collide...the oak mostly wins.
 
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babyseal

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Why are you asking for our opinions, if you are then going to tell us that (TO YOU) part of it is worth the total asking price?

Or was this a case of wanting validation for your decision?
Why are you bothering to reply? Why are YOU here, if not to talk about garage related things? Are you that desperately in need of someone to shat upon? Did it make you feel better? If so...glad to be of help for your mental hygiene.

Is this not a place for polite discussion about all things garage related, however trivial?
 

The Cobbler

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fridge compressors typically don't have a lot of volume, but they do run nice & quiet . I had some old time dental compressors that were refrigeration compressors, I gave them away . but they ran almost silent.
I'd check them out, and see what else is in the hoard .
 
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Cruzan80

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I don't see where I was impolite. I simply stated that you asked a question. Then you proceeded to answer your own question, differently than other posters did. And provided a possible reason why you may have done so.

I have been seeing this pop up more recently on here, where the initial post is to ask something. Then later on, the same person is pointing out where all of the offered advice is incorrect, or they have one for sale after asking what it is worth, etc. Or they simply thought that others would agree with their idea, but wanted validation without appearing to ask for it. If you are not sure, then ask away. However, I dislike those posts that seem to be soliciting advice, only to change later into the main point the OP wanted to make, but for some reason didn't do so in their first post. Either state your position initially, or don't ask questions only to later tell others they are wrong.

I think you are reading into my post way too much as targeting you personally.

All of the above is just my opinion.
 
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babyseal

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I don't see where I was impolite. I simply stated that you asked a question. Then you proceeded to answer your own question, differently than other posters did. And provided a possible reason why you may have done so.

I have been seeing this pop up more recently on here, where the initial post is to ask something. Then later on, the same person is pointing out where all of the offered advice is incorrect, or they have one for sale after asking what it is worth, etc. Or they simply thought that others would agree with their idea, but wanted validation without appearing to ask for it. If you are not sure, then ask away. However, I dislike those posts that seem to be soliciting advice, only to change later into the main point the OP wanted to make, but for some reason didn't do so in their first post. Either state your position initially, or don't ask questions only to later tell others they are wrong.

I think you are reading into my post way too much as targeting you personally.

All of the above is just my opinion.
Asking a grown man if he's seeking "validation" from internet strangers is polite? Who knew?

There's a funny thing about advice, freely solicited and freely given. It ain't always right, nor are you under any particular constraint to take it, even when it is. That probably goes double for internet advice. Doesn't mean I don't appreciate the people who replied with something constructive, especially when they were, in fact, correct. So you really shouldn't get butthurt if someone doesn't follow advice. What do you care? If you're not interested in discussion for it's own sake, you probably shouldn't reply to begin with. See the header above? "General Garage Discussion".

"If it's the more or less intact guts out of a very early refrigerator as I'm suspecting...dunno. That's the question I'm asking. Is it worth anything?"

As reiterated, the original post is asking about the value as a complete unit. Advice here was; Scrap metal. That leaves "oh well, I can always scrap it for the useful parts". It's not about "validation", it's about your ability to leap to judgement...without bothering to read and/or comprehend what was actually written.

After posting here, via the wonders of the internet, made contact on another forum with an actual expert who rebuilds/restores antique fridges for a living, to whom I could send the actual pic via phone. Nice fella, pleasant to talk to, learned a few things...and now I've got a useful contact for parts and expertise, and he's got another contact keeping an eye out for parts he can use. Both he and I came out ahead by having a polite discussion. That's worth far more than whatever few bucks the parts may have been worth.
 
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bwringer

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I don't see a ton of value, unless you have a very specific use case where you need very quiet, very small quantities of air. (Together with a filtering system, air brushes use similar compressors.)

But if you just want to monkey around with a cool weird-looking old machine, go right ahead and offer an amount of money you won't miss that's more than scrap value. $20 or so, perhaps? I think I paid about $40 for a really old finger-chopper desk fan a while back.
 

Cruzan80

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Asking a grown man if he's seeking "validation" from internet strangers is polite? Who knew?

There's a funny thing about advice, freely solicited and freely given. It ain't always right, nor are you under any particular constraint to take it, even when it is. That probably goes double for internet advice.
I think you again are reading way too much into what I wrote.

"Validation" in this case simply meant "I think X is the best option. Do you agree?". Polite in the sense that I didn't call you names, insult you in any meaningful way, or otherwise suggest you are not a good person.

Quoted the second part, as it basically says "You don't have to agree or listen to me anyway". Which I agree with. I was simply expressing an opinion.

I would not have purchased it for any amount. If I wrote "Scrap metal", I would be saying "Worthless", not "What values individual scrap pieces may have", and that is the context thru which I read other's answers.
 

gmcgeo

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It’s tough to tell how people mean things online because you lose all the normal cues like tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language. A short message might come across as blunt or hostile when the person just typed it quickly. Without those “human signals,” text is easy to misread, so arguments can spiral over stuff that probably wasn’t even meant the way it sounded.


For me it’s even harder, because I usually read people in person, I pick up on their tone and body language. When it’s just words on a screen, I can’t grab those clues, so it’s easy for me to take things the wrong way.
 
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