Hi all, dunno where this belongs so posting it in here.
Got a big old compressor for not a lot of money on the basis that it didn't actually compress. Had a look round it and the link pipe between the low and high compression cylinders has been broken in two at one of the special cast fittings on the cylinder, and then rewelded together with lots of pinholes and cracks etc. The tubing screws into it with a 50mm od ultra fine thread that I cant identify in my charts what it actually is supposed to be then it goes into a cooler , so making a whole one would have been a sod and I think noah used this one to blow his boat trailer wheels up (spirod?) so a new manifold is out the window, so I bored out the intake and sleeved it past the porus weld and sealed up the insert to the head with a aluminum o ring. A quick tweak down of the nema and a test run to 4bar stood outside for a few mins whilst listening for bangs/things rupturing noises and it was fine.
Ive just moved it into its final place, and took it to 6bar, whereby the gasket on the sleeve gave way. In my temper and not so not wanting to spend another precious weekend on it, I seen my bottom and did exactly the wrong thing and welded the flange onto the cylinder with the arc set, mild steel rods on cast the lot.
Now, its actually sealed up mostly and its holding at 6bar when the nema valve cuts out but its just passing tiny leaks of air if I pass a wet hand over the joint when its pumping and I get the feeling it takes slightly longer to get up to pressure as its fighting the pinholes.
Given that it heats up quite hot (too hot to hold) at these pressures and its before the cooler, is there anything I can smear over to try and block up the pinholes? Araldite rapid would go a bit funny with the heat I reckon...
Id drill the pinholes out and weld them up, but I doubt it'd be any better the second time porosity wise as the base metal is a bit weird, it could do with brazing properly I suppose...
Any quick fudges? Id rather spend next weekend using the air rather than fixing it...
Got a big old compressor for not a lot of money on the basis that it didn't actually compress. Had a look round it and the link pipe between the low and high compression cylinders has been broken in two at one of the special cast fittings on the cylinder, and then rewelded together with lots of pinholes and cracks etc. The tubing screws into it with a 50mm od ultra fine thread that I cant identify in my charts what it actually is supposed to be then it goes into a cooler , so making a whole one would have been a sod and I think noah used this one to blow his boat trailer wheels up (spirod?) so a new manifold is out the window, so I bored out the intake and sleeved it past the porus weld and sealed up the insert to the head with a aluminum o ring. A quick tweak down of the nema and a test run to 4bar stood outside for a few mins whilst listening for bangs/things rupturing noises and it was fine.
Ive just moved it into its final place, and took it to 6bar, whereby the gasket on the sleeve gave way. In my temper and not so not wanting to spend another precious weekend on it, I seen my bottom and did exactly the wrong thing and welded the flange onto the cylinder with the arc set, mild steel rods on cast the lot.
Now, its actually sealed up mostly and its holding at 6bar when the nema valve cuts out but its just passing tiny leaks of air if I pass a wet hand over the joint when its pumping and I get the feeling it takes slightly longer to get up to pressure as its fighting the pinholes.
Given that it heats up quite hot (too hot to hold) at these pressures and its before the cooler, is there anything I can smear over to try and block up the pinholes? Araldite rapid would go a bit funny with the heat I reckon...
Id drill the pinholes out and weld them up, but I doubt it'd be any better the second time porosity wise as the base metal is a bit weird, it could do with brazing properly I suppose...
Any quick fudges? Id rather spend next weekend using the air rather than fixing it...