Acorn Presser Idea

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I've had some issues since marchish with air compressors, I need a run capacitor for my 20 gallon 5 horse craftsman compressor, then I got ahold of a monster vintage 1930's homebrew setup that was supposed to work...does but it takes 15minutes to pump up, so the 1946 carrier brand(yea came off an air conditioner) compressor that's rated for 20cfm is obviously broke, I rebuilt the heads but the reed valves are pitted so that's probably the problem and they don't make parts for 60+ year old compressors anymore...anyway longer story short I got the stuff laying around and need to make this [expletive deleted] work.

Brilliant idea BTW, I'm glad you brought it up!

[Christ]

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If you can solder, you should be able to get everything you need in the plumbing section.

The OE spark plug holes are M14x1.25 IIRC, If you don't care about ever being able to use the head/block as an engine again, I'd probably just drill them out and tap them to something in SAE or NPT.

If you say a 1/2 NPT fits it though, I'm not inclined to disagree. Should be fairly close anyway.

I'll make you a lowe's shopping list of everything you need... can you solder or would you rather use screw/slip fittings?

[Christ]

Also, an A/C pump works great as a compressor. Just need to run an oil bath filter and air/oil separator on it.

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If you can solder, you should be able to get everything you need in the plumbing section.

The OE spark plug holes are M14x1.25 IIRC, If you don't care about ever being able to use the head/block as an engine again, I'd probably just drill them out and tap them to something in SAE or NPT.

If you say a 1/2 NPT fits it though, I'm not inclined to disagree. Should be fairly close anyway.

I'll make you a lowe's shopping list of everything you need... can you solder or would you rather use screw/slip fittings?

I can solder if I have to but I would rather not have to! It was the 3/8" NPT fittings that screwed into the head, and I don't mind if it gets ruined...just a spare anyway, and I've got another.

[jason_]

Don't you mean 855? If Cummins ever made a 955 I've never seen one. And I've seen about 100 855/N14s...

Yes, 855, annoying to auto prediction...

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[jason_]

Yea I was thinking about that, I wasn't sure how it was gonna work out, so I might see what lowes has in the plumbing department. Maybe some of those sharkbite things, or even 3/8" couplings on each cylinder, kind of depends on the space between fittings...I'm not sure how it will work, I think I need to try and use 3/8" npt size stuff so that I can use cheap check valves...?

Jason...I don't have a problem with drilling tapping cutting and fabbing a whole head/manifold but that's gonna be as expensive if not more than attempting what I want to do...if I just use the block it takes away the wow factor of having a complete engine mounted on top if a 60 gallon tank with a 100lb propane tank on tap for extra reserve. I know the prices of small pieces of steel, and I can imagine a piece of 1/2" steel stock will cost quite a bit more than $50 worth of pipe fittings...which i'd still need. Simple cheap and effective is all I'm after.

Yeah, I took the other route of efficency. Every stoke down pulls air from 4 reeds, every stoke up pumps through injector hole. To get away from check valves or 1way valves for the supply would of required making my own head. @ $80 a reed assembly x24.... I wanted to save work and money. Actually the more I remember, I don't think I could squeeze 5 reeds on those heads.... Hmm. Been a while.

This way I dri(ed/milled the valve holes and a little modification. My drill press accepts moris bits, vertical lathe
Punched my own gaskets.

Few month project, couple hours there and here. . I'm happy with it. I got th3 block free as a rod let go and punched a hole in side. So I welded with 99 nickel and half assed ground it smooth, then dropped a sleeve in it so I could use the factory piston that luckily survived the disaster. Melling sells reasonable sleeves, so it turned out decent.



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[Christ]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-500-A36-Steel-Plate-12-x-24-rectangle-/170432036996?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27ae8a8084

1/2'' 12x16 plate. Closest I could find that would work. No head gasket is actually necessary, a thin layer of RTV should work fine, or you might be able to re-use the old head gasket if you can get it off in one piece.

It's the shipping that kills if you have to order it from somewhere that's not local. You can get the same sized plate of aluminum for about $60 shipped, that piece of steel will be about $90 shipped.

Your idea about the exhaust valves may work... Instead of trimming the stock springs down, I'd just put some really weak ones in their place... something that's just enough to hold the valve closed or maybe slightly more.

I'll make that shopping list later tonight when I get home for you, using no-solder parts.

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I don't know what I was thinking, it's actually 1/4" NPT threads that are close to the spark plug threads, not 3/8....

anyway, I stopped at apex feed & supply, lowes, and tractor supply and nobody has any check valves less than 1/2" and the best they have is swing check valves, which don't even have O-rings, so they would leak air.. soo, I suppose I'm probably going to have to order the stuff off the interwebs if I can find it there. I'd like to stick to a 1/4" at least going into the check valve, after that the pipe could go up to a 1/2" if it has to, the pipe comming off the current compressor is 1/2".


I'm not really sure, is this the kind of thing that would work? maybe I can get some threaded pipe to go from the 14x1.25 to which ever barb on this is the inlet then 90 out to the rest of the manifold. Who knew putting together some pipe fittings would be so hard..

http://www.amazon.com/Amico-Thread-Brass-Compressor-Check/dp/B009XPCSAS/ref=sr_1_20/178-0187867-3728968?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1376858230&sr=1-20&keywords=1+1%2F4+check+valve#productDetails

this is really what I need I think..

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/ALPHA-Check-Valve-5UPG5

I always thought you had to have a buisness account with grainger to buy stuff, but there's a grainger store here local, I wonder if they'd sell to me if I told them I really needed it? maybe slip the guy a 20?


Any links or ideas short of making a new head/manifold...I don't have a problem with buying online and waiting for shipping since I can't find anything local.

[Christ]

If it's 1/4 that fits, that's gona cause a lot of excess heat in the head area... you're trying to push a lot of air through a very small passage if that's the case. If you're not worried about using the head for anything else ever again, I'd suggest pulling it and drilling the plug holes, then grabbing a 1/2 NPT tap and going to town. You really can't screw it up, even if you start the thread off-center it's not really a precision job.

If you can do that, you can get 1/2 NPT copper 'gator-bite' etc fittings and use copper tubing... even with those fittings and all, you should still come in at around $50 worth of fittings and tube. The 10' stick of type M pipe is less than $10 IIRC. I'm gonna get started on that shopping list in a few mins anyway.

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Haha...I was thinking that keeping the tube out of the head small would keep the compression ratio down, its already going to suffer a lot from the 5"-6" piece of 1/4". If it gets too hot I can try something different later, the next step (imo) would be to just rip the head off and do the custom manifold, but I'm hoping this works out at least to some degree, and I can adjust or mod it later.

I got ...something...done today, I have a piece of 3/16" steel cut for the back brace I just need to drill the holes and probably grab a piece of angle iron to weld on as tabs to bolt down to existing holes...I swear I had some angle around here but I can't find it >.<

Pics so you guys can see what I'm doing, this thing is gonna be awesome if it works..

I don't doubt the internet fsm for the old compressor when it said it weighed 175lbs lol, it was everything I had to get it off there!

[Christ]

Total cost is gonna be in the neighborhood of $100, and that's just to make the air manifold, not to connect it to the engine.

Parts list from Lowe's -

4@$7.72 AMERICAN VALVE 1/2-in Brass Female In-Line Check Valve Item #:369235 | Model #:M31 1/2

1@$10.59 Cerro 1/2" x 10' Type M Copper Pipe Item #:23786 | Model #:1/2 L 10

4@$4.78 Mueller Proline 1/2-in x 1/2-in x 1/2-in Copper Push-Fit Adapter Fitting Item #:79410 | Model #:650-103LW

3@$6.77 Mueller Proline 1/2-in x 1/2-in x 1/2-in Copper Push-Fit Tee Fitting Item #:192076 | Model #:652-003LW

That gets you as far as actually having the manifold built and ready to connect to the spark plug holes.

If you plan on using 1/4 out of the head, remove the 4@$4.78 and include the following:

4@$4.59 Watts 1/2-in x 1/4-in Brass Pipe Fitting Item #: 90379 | Model #: LFA827


And you'll have to find 4 pipe nipples of the correct size that are 1/4NPT from a local plumbing store. Not much use for 1/4 pipe anywhere.

[Christ]

It's looking good thus far. I was thinking you might make a mount that attached to the A/C bracket or something so that the engine appeared to be a standalone unit lol.

[sketchman]

This is cool. Watching.

[lessersivad]

THIS is getting interesting!

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Got it mounted enough so that it bolts in place. Need to finish welding the brackets, broke my welder, but they're tacked good. Need those one way check valves... I'll try to get something worked out this week, maybe tomorrow.