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promac610

I finished your compressor head the other day and shipped it out today.

Here I'm making a new spring retainer with more girth so it can be threaded to 1/4x20 for the new larger stemmed valve.
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Cutting the valve shaft to be threaded and then to length.
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I put a small set screw in the retainer to keep it from backing off.
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Note, you'll want to dribble a little oil on the valve stem every so often to keep the guide/stem from wearing like it did before. Also the flip over valve will lift the valve slightly to easy the starting of the pump. Hope it works for you!
 
The grin on me face right now is priceless... I'm looking forward to getting that old thing back together and seeing if I can adapt an old pulley that I found to it... then it would be time to test it. :rock:

Thanks again! This should be a cool old compressor when done.
 
Well folks, I got that old Curtis compressor back together...

Before I did that, I lapped the valve with 800 grit, and then 3000 grit compound to make the sealing surface smoother and create a better seal. Nice band around both the valve seat and the valve now, showing good contact.

Going to have to find a sheet of copper to make a head gasket, and then a crank pulley will have to be found, adapted, or made.

A pic or two of it back together might appear here tomorrow.

srcarr, paypal will be arrive sometime tonight, and will include the shipping reimbursement, the labor payment, and a little beer money on top of those. Thanks again for setting the head up for me. :cheers:
 
Got this in an email and thought it fits into this thread perfectly...

I've got some of these - how about you?







DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.



WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light . Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, 'Oh sh1t!'



SKIL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.



PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.



BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.



HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle... It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.



VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.



OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.



TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.



HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes , trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.



BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.



TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.



PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.



STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.



PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.



HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.



HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit. It is especially valuable at being able to find the EXACT location of the thumb or index finger of the other hand.



UTILITY KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.



SON-OF-A-B1TCH TOOL: (A personal favorite!) Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling 'Son of a B1TCH!' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.



Hope you found this informative.



THINK SAFETY


I'll add my own tip... measure ten times, cut six times. :D
 
Well folks, I got that old Curtis compressor back together...

Before I did that, I lapped the valve with 800 grit, and then 3000 grit compound to make the sealing surface smoother and create a better seal. Nice band around both the valve seat and the valve now, showing good contact.

Going to have to find a sheet of copper to make a head gasket, and then a crank pulley will have to be found, adapted, or made.

A pic or two of it back together might appear here tomorrow.

srcarr, paypal will be arrive sometime tonight, and will include the shipping reimbursement, the labor payment, and a little beer money on top of those. Thanks again for setting the head up for me. :cheers:

For a crank pulley, you're probably going to want something that has a counterweight to the piston to avoid vibration (unless the crank is so weighted). I have a small old compressor head here somewhere with a pulley like that. My big one is a 3-cylinder which is self balancing, so no need for a counterweight. Yours didn't have a pulley/flywheel at all?
 
Antique 16" Monarch Metal Lathe

Hey guys, haven't been around in a while. But I've been busy nonetheless! I got a new toy yesterday, check 'er out! -

MonarchLathe01.jpg


Monarch.jpg


It's a very early (as in 100 years old) Monarch metal lathe, and yes, it is as big as it looks. 16" swing and over 6' between centers; the bed is exactly 10' long, plus the gearing off the head end. It's a mammoth! Everything works as far as I can tell, but it's in great need of some good ol' TLC and attention. I found it on Craigslist in Quesnel, an hour north of where I live. It was advertised as a "1918 South Bend", though after only a bit of research it was clear it wasn't a South Bend. Took a bit of digging to determine that it was indeed an early (pre- Model A) Monarch. The seller even delivered it right to my shop on a trailer yesterday for free because I didn't haggle with him over the price - he was waiting for me when I got home from work and already had it rigged up on the beam, all I had to do was help him steady it while his wife drove out from under it, and then ease it down with the come-along. Saved me from having to borrow a truck and trailer and making a 3-hour round trip; that's worth a couple hundred bucks right there. Can't complain! He said he only ever used it for facing things; I believe it, because the power feed gears in the apron were so far out of whack they wouldn't work if he wanted them to. Just a few loose set screws; 10 minutes and a bit of oil and I had them working fine. All the gears are in great shape though, as are the headstock and back gears and all the change gears that came with it. The bed and ways are good, still can see machine marks on the V ways. There's some backlash in the screws for the cross-slide and tailstock, but the main leadscrew is nice and tight. Nothing I can't work with and fix eventually. It's a hell of a lot more lathe than I was really looking for, but they don't come up for sale around here all that often, and it's a beautiful old piece of quality heavy iron; can't go wrong with that. And I always love a good tool restoration project. I do plan on stripping it down and totally de-rusting, cleaning, and re-painting it sometime. No idea when I'll get around to that though.

I presently have nowhere to set it up properly to use it; ultimately it will end up in the far left corner of my shop in the background of the above photo, but right now that's a dirt floor and would be impossible to level the lathe properly on. I'm quickly working at setting up to pour an 8" slab in the back third of the shop to set up on. Dunno if any of you remember me milling a huge 24' 8x12" Fir beam and putting it up in the shop a couple years ago to build a second level in the back third for storage, but I never got around to finishing that project yet. What you see in the above pic is some harebrained half-attempt at a storage area from previous owners of the place; not even posted on the outside corner and only 2x4 joists. Needless to say it isn't very sturdy. I have to go buy some 2x8s tomorrow for joists (I'd mill 'em, but no time and I still have snow around here) and some plywood to get the top level finished, then I'm going to wall in that back section under the beam for a small workshop area once the concrete slab is poured; the whole shop is 24x40' and uninsulated, so it's a summer-only shop right now. A 12x24 room at the back will be cheap to insulate and easy to heat in the winter, and would let me get my metalworking/welding (and maybe even chainsaw!) etc. stuff out of the basement house for good. Eventually I'll move on to insulating and concreting the rest as time and money permit, but this will be a good start.

Gotta hit the hay, but here's a few more pics:

MonarchLathe04.jpg


MonarchLathe03.jpg


MonarchLathe05.jpg


MonarchLathe02.jpg


MonarchLathe07.jpg


MonarchLathe06.jpg
 
Pro Mac

Hey, you must have been watching me use tools.Seems I have used all the mentioned tools in the manner described, LOL. Thanks for sharing.
Lawrence
 
Brad's new machine looks like the kind of thing that killed kids in sweatshops way back in the day.

Heh, from what I understand there were plenty of experienced adults killed and maimed by similar machines too... though new ones are just as capable of taking a guy out; a bit more guarding over the drive components now, but if you choose to get careless around the chuck, the result is the same.
 
Heh, from what I understand there were plenty of experienced adults killed and maimed by similar machines too... though new ones are just as capable of taking a guy out; a bit more guarding over the drive components now, but if you choose to get careless around the chuck, the result is the same.

I like it. I'd be proud to have that iron in my shop.
 
For a crank pulley, you're probably going to want something that has a counterweight to the piston to avoid vibration (unless the crank is so weighted). I have a small old compressor head here somewhere with a pulley like that. My big one is a 3-cylinder which is self balancing, so no need for a counterweight. Yours didn't have a pulley/flywheel at all?

Captain Morgan,

No pulley on it when I got it. I have a pulley around here that could be jerry rigged and fitted to this compressor... and to balance it, I could just clamp on weights to the 'arms' on the pulley where necessary to reduce the vibration. It won't be turning more than 800 or so rpm.

Ah... didn't think of that... it does not have a counter weighted crank. So as you said a counter weighted flywheel will be necessary.

I better check and see if the original pulley is laying around somewhere at the shop I rescued the compressor from. I'll have to go back and see at some point. It might just be laying underneath the bench that the compressor was sitting on top of.


Nice lathe there... I gotta find me one of those... but first I'm saving up for a milling machine that I found around here. Guy wants about 3000, it's a Bridgeport with a 120 volt Baldor single phase motor on it... perfect.
 
I performed the "smash your thumb with a big ####ing hammer and spit out several expletives while pacing back and forth" while smashing a bolt today. Big blood blister and a split nail. What a bunch of fun. I about chucked the hammer at the workbench.
 
I performed the "smash your thumb with a big ####ing hammer and spit out several expletives while pacing back and forth" while smashing a bolt today. Big blood blister and a split nail. What a bunch of fun. I about chucked the hammer at the workbench.

Heh, been there a couple times myself... Today I skinned my right middle finger's second knuckle because I forgot the old mechanic's rule of "mind where your fingers will go if the wrench lets go". The wrench did let go, sending my fist crashing into the corner of 1/2" plate steel. Oh goodie!
 
stihl 020 av

i have a 020av it runs with a prime where the carb elbow connector it has the idle adjust is broke and it is a rear handle saw looking for some 024 parts and 044 parts or a project have to many small stihls allready thanks lee
 
i have a 020av it runs with a prime where the carb elbow connector it has the idle adjust is broke and it is a rear handle saw looking for some 024 parts and 044 parts or a project have to many small stihls allready thanks lee

Lee,

I think you accidentally posted in the wrong forum thread. Might want to try the trading post or start a specific thread on what you are looking for.

Philbert
 
Not as big as Brmorgan's . . .

Picked up a 1-ton arbor press off of local Craig's List today to do bearings and misc other stuff.

Philbert

attachment.php

Looks like a nice one. I been meaning to get one myself for about two years.
 
Not as big as Brmorgan's . . .

Picked up a 1-ton arbor press off of local Craig's List today to do bearings and misc other stuff.

Philbert

attachment.php

Nice. I'm going to build myself a press like that one of these days; I have a couple lengths of 12DP gear rack, just need to find a good spur shaft to use for the lever. The rest of the parts shouldn't be too hard to cobble together out of old and redundant machine parts from the mill. I also have most of what I'd need to make a hydraulic press, but that's a slightly larger fabricating job. In due time...
 
Some tools

My Dads buddy to Florida, so hes clearing out his garage of 25years of stuff. I picked up this 14" Delta band saw. Made in the USA, cast iron and weighs a ton! It was his FILs and was not used much, date on manual says June of '87. Now to slow it down to cut metal...Also got a monster 5 ton floor jack and a nice Sears 2 1/4 ton jack.
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DSCF0478.jpg
 
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