I fix things because it’s part of who I am.  Taking something apart and putting back together is like working on a puzzle.  It’s soothing, easy work for me. Granted, I’m not always successful, but it’s a win if I was going to buy a new thing anyways.

For my job at the cabinet shop, I often get asked to fix equipment. Last week our air compressor broke. A compressor is made of three parts; pump, motor, and air tank. Our pump had a faulty filter and sucked in a bunch of sawdust. Valves that hold the air in got stuck open so the pump and motor had to work non-stop to keep the tank up to pressure. Overheating and smoke happened and we decided the fastest and cheapest solution was to replace the pump.

I got to keep the pump, so naturally I took it apart.  I know these work a lot like a car engine with a crank shaft, pistons and valves, but I’ve never actually seen the inside of one. 

After draining the oil, I remove the pulley and the cylinder head. 

You can see the brown sawdust on the left, intake, side of the cylinder and black, burned sawdust on the right side. It’s probable circulated through the oil and come back up through the piston rings getting hotter and hotter all the way.

The screws to remove the cylinders are accessed from the lower pump. Here you can see the crank shaft and the tie rod ends holding the pistons in place. Thankfully, all of this is pretty tight. I don’t think I have to fix anything here because if I did, I would probable just recycle the whole thing rather than take it to a machine shop for new bearings and resurfacing.

It seems complicated but there are not too many parts here.  The valve body, pictured below, was totally gummed up with saw dust.  I flipped over all of the reeds and cleaned everything. I might be able to reuse the gaskets, but I’d rather not risk a big leak after going to all this trouble.  Unfortunately, they cost about $130 from the manufacturer, so I ordered plain sheets of flexable graphite off ebay.  I’ll use these as a template to cut new ones.

Come back for part two next week when the sheets of graphite are delivered.