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Oil-less compressor racket...any fixes??

4K views 40 replies 15 participants last post by  powerrodsmike 
#1 ·
Moving tons of stuff to the new place and my old piston compressor got tipped over and bent the crank...so we dusted off the old (but barely used) Sears 33 gal oil-less.

This thing is unbearable. No resale value, so I wonder if anyone has got some ideas to make it quiet(er)

When I shut it off, you can hear the big tank "chime" as the motor stops. So I think the tank is resonating like a huge bell.

This tank sits on real tires with valve stems, and I tried putting a soft foam under the front metal stand...no difference.

Has anyone tried mounting the pump/motor unit, remotely off of the tank? Is it worth a try?
 
#3 ·
Vince, Had I been able to test run it before I bought it new at Sears....I NEVER would have bought it :mad:

My "new" shop was a furniture store that is 25x90 long, but I'll bet even if I put it in the back corner, it will still be bad.

I was cabinet blasting last night, and this thing makes you want to quit the hobby :D

I have so much to do around here and don't want to waste time remounting it if that won't help. I was just wondering if there was anyone who has tried some tricks.
 
#5 ·
Those things are obnoxious, lucky I was able to put mine in the breeze way between the house and garage.. makes it barable at-least. The think would vibrate across the floor until I stuck a piece of rubber under the front mount.

I was considering making an adapter plate with some vibration dampaning mount from McMaster-Carr, havn't gotten around to it yet though..
 
#6 ·
Frame out a closet and insulate it, put the compressor in there.
Just make sure to pipe some inlet air to it.
(that's what woodworkers do for their shop-vacs)
I know, it may get hotter, but if you're lucky, it'll wear out
and you'll have to get a good one later. :thumbup:
 
#8 ·
I know, it may get hotter, but if you're lucky, it'll wear out
You read my mind :D

I spent all day putting in a used breaker subpanel & new 10 gauge wiring down to the back end of the shop. Then I used the former 1/2" galvanized overhead LP gas pipe that ran the length of the shop, as the main air line to get air up front. Now the compressor is WAY back there...and behind 2 cars.....AND IT'S STILL NOISEY :rolleyes:

Yes, an insulated box is next.
 
#9 ·
Try wrapping the tank in some insulation,It might help some.Is rhere anyway you van straighten the crank in the other one out?
I have a spare pump (that won't hold a headgasket) for it, but I'm not sure if the crank is the same :rolleyes:

Yes, I tried to straighten the crank, no luck so far. I need a bigger hammer :D
 
#11 ·
It won't show in a pic...It was about 1" runout before I tried fixing it. Now it has maybe 3/8" runout. I put a 4 foot pry bar between the cylinders & pulley and then belted the opposite side of the pulley with a decent sized hammer. It is a Sears twin conventional...around 4hp.

Plus I lost our camera during our many trips while moving to the new house :rolleyes: One whole cardboard box is missing and people who were helping me may have tossed it in the dumpster while cleaning :confused: ...or it blew out of the truck.
 
#12 ·
I've got a Craftsman 2 hp oiless. It's junk. It is so noisy that I don't even know how they can sell them.

We got a HF 2 hp tank style with a piston compressor. Heck it' almost as bad. We stuck it under the house in the crawl space which is heavily insulated and it still can drive you crazy. I moved it over to the streetrod garage and it is is so bad that I only use it when I really need it and just wear ear muffs. I tried enclosing it in an insulated box, but it just made a different but still loud and obnoxious noise.

I think noise is inherent with air compressors. Even a screw compressor is noisy.
 
#15 ·
Bentwings, just a side note. Nothing like standing next to a radial engine when it starts up. Especially a double row. IIRC the f4u1d had a 4-row radial. Sorry to digress but that video made my day. :D yea, another plane-head.

I've got the same junky oiless compressor. So noisy I wear ear plugs when near it. A real PITA. I'm also hoping it will quit so as to justify a nice quiet one. I'll definitely fire it up first. For now, I just locate it as far away as possible. :pain: :smash:
 
#16 ·
The PW R 2800 is a double row of 9 cylinders used in most of the radial fighters and some bombers of WW 2. It was from about 1800hp in the early model to 2400 hp in the later models. These were 18 cylinders 2800 cu in.

The 4360 "corn cob" was 4 rows of 7. 28 cylinders and made up to around 3000 hp. These were used in the F2G Corsair and the F8F Bearcat.

The plane in the video is an F4U-5 Corsair from the Korean War era. It has an R-2800 and about 2800 hp and 3000 on war emergency. It was probably the best ground support plane ever built. They were even used in Viet Nam. It also is the subject of my next giant scale r/c plane. 96 inch wingspan and 35 pounds, 8 hp, 24 inch prop.

These P & W engines were a real hemi and incredibly tough. They could continue running with several cylinders shot off and bullet holes in some of the others. The Corsair carried 50 gallons of oil so what didn't leak out first could be used to pour out the bullet holes. haha That's what my FIL who flew them said.
 
#17 ·
Build a 5-sided wooden or cardboard box ("acoustic silencer"), a bit larger than the compressor rig and put it over the thing with the open end facing down, a few inches off the floor (for air inlet, and to get the hose/power line through). Line the interior faces of the box with open-faced insulation or carpet matting to help dissipate the sound pressure. That should make it bearable.
 
#19 ·
Build a 5-sided wooden or cardboard box ("acoustic silencer"), a bit larger than the compressor rig and put it over the thing with the open end facing down, a few inches off the floor (for air inlet, and to get the hose/power line through). Line the interior faces of the box with open-faced insulation or carpet matting to help dissipate the sound pressure. That should make it bearable.
I'll make some sort of box asap. I'm overwhelmed in trying to convert this former 25x90 "furniture store"-before that it was a "pottery kiln"...before that the foundation was for a "chicken coop" :D I also have a spare good foundation that must be 110 feet! ...I don't think I'll live long enough to build on it though. :confused:

-I just conquered the 1940 LP gas furnace yesterday...put on a attic ventilaton fan to replace the burned original fan motor. Then I figured out how to wire the fan to the orig sysyem so the fan goes on & off as the burner temps dictate...heck I even have the wall thremostat working now :cool:

We hacked into the side for a 7x9 garage door to get my cars & big tools in. Today I will add door seals & w-strips. We put up a 6 mil plastic room divider so I can heat 25x38 for now. We tore up the wood sleeper floor in that part; the cement is not the best as far as level in spots. We removed one center "carrying beam post" to get the cars in. Those posts only hold up the ceiling system; they do not support the roof at all.

I've been adding cold start 8' floresents, added a breaker box, wiring for Mig, Tig & compressor. Some shelving too. Plus fighting cold temps. It's getting there..I guess..

Still need to clean out a little of my last shop PLUS my first shop at the ex's :rolleyes:

Corsairs in Vietnam, I did not know that!
Me neither, and they were built in my state, as well as the engines. I did read years ago that P-51s were used in the early Viet Nam years?
 
#20 ·
F&J said:
Me neither, and they were built in my state, as well as the engines. I did read years ago that P-51s were used in the early Viet Nam years?

Wow! did not know that either!

The Skyraider was legendary in Vietnam but I did not know about the Corsairs and Mustangs. I have to wonder if there would not be a place for those things today? Naw, probably not but it sure would be fun to see a few new ones around! :)
 
#21 ·
When I first arrived in Vietnam I was assigned to a C130 crew that made regular runs to outlying bases. I believe it was the air base at Hue that had a Corsair on a pedestal at the base entrance. I was really surprised when I saw it and the fairly good condition it was in. That was in early 1971. I returned to that same air base a few months later and the Corsair was gone. I assumed some aircraft restoration outfit got hold of it. Wish I would have copied down the serial number, I would love to learn where it is today.

A26 Invaders (Air Force designation B26) also operated in Vietnam. These were modified by an outfit by the name of On Mark for service in Vietnam.

Vince
 
#22 ·
F&J said:
I did read years ago that P-51s were used in the early Viet Nam years?
Yep, I think they were operated by the French very early in their Indochina campaign, but fell out of favor due to their vulnerability to ground fire which was much more accurate and intense than WWII.

Vince
 
#23 ·
That explains a lot, I was thinking the US had retired all the Corsairs and Mustangs after Korea. Todays aircraft is simply mind boggling but those old piston war horses were the true "Hot Rods" that represent an era and type of close and personal combat that will never be seen again.
 
#24 ·
The Pratt & Whitney lived on for a couple decades after WW2 in the Boeing DC airliners. The Constallation was probably the queen of the sky back in the early 60's. The B-29 and B-36 had variants. There are still DC-3 flying regularly and a lot of T-6 and T-28s.

A remarkable motor for the time. Were it built today with the CNC technology and metal tech we have it would be really something. It still would not be able to compete with the turbine. I was at the Oshgosh airshow last year and there was a Honda bus jet engine there for the new level of bus jets. It weighed less than 500 pounds 5000+ hr between majors and virtually no maintenance between. About $500k each. The plane goes 550 mph cruise. at 35,000 feet. The P&W at its height was probably around 500 hrs at best.
 
#25 ·
I still find it hard to imagin jumping into a 2000 hp flying hotrod, taking off and flying 4-6 hours looking for trouble and ready to dish it out, getting shot at, probably a few bullet holes in the plane, then coming home only to have to spot land on a couple hundred feet of aircraft carrier in rough seas. Then doing it again the next day.

Now about these @#$% air compressors....
We can build the best aircraft in the world but we can't even build a 2 hp air compressor that you don't have to wear ear protection around. What gives??? haha Not even hotrodders have been able to make the things livable.
 
#26 ·
Probably not the case with oil-less air compressors, those things are just inherently noisy, but I remember reading some time back that things like lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, power saws, etc are purposely made to be noisy or at least no effort is made to quite them. Why would this be? Because they would not sell very well if they ran quietly! More than one marketing study has shown that if these and some other items ran quietly, and it would be easy to make a lawn mower for instance that would be little louder than the whirring of the blade, consumers relate the quiet operation to low power. A vacuum cleaner that runs quietly would have little cleaning power in the minds of most consumers but one that is so loud you can't even think around it is bound to be powerful, Right? :rolleyes: The people running the manufacturing sector learned a long time ago that if you want sales to fall just make your product run quiet!
 
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