A young fella at work brought in a compressor head that he picked up out of the junk. He wants advice and help on fixing.
Good/excellent condition vertical 60 gallon tank. Old and heavy.
The castings, paint, and shape would appear to predate 1950. V twin 2 stage. Big cylinder 2 1/2 Little cylinder 1 3/8 Reeds are shaped a bit like a lava lamp. Back check/unloader is a fist sized bronze casting with a brass thin shell sleeve inside pushing a rubber "washer" like end, no spring.
2 journals on the crank. Each journal has two bronze looking rods on a bronze pivot block. Heavy copper lines with cooling fins. No brand or ID except for one in the crankcase casting. Fine lettering around the perimeter which says Made in the United States of America. There may have been 3 letters in the center of that area, though they have been obliterated or were mis-cast. The exterior paint is mighty uniform, and would appear to be factory (I know there are no guarantees) - it is a dark green, darker than SpeedAire or John Deere, but not all the way to Hunter Green.We tore it down some to see the rings, etc. The cylinders are in excellent shape, the pistons look great, the rings seem OK to me.
Tore down the reed plates. The piston side has two lava lamp shaped reeds{one flat against the port, one arched to pressure the ends, not the center} above each piston (one large, one small) held in location with an aluminum plate with holes and the two reeds trapped in a recess. One of the large ones is eaten through. All should probably be replaced as I can feel the "ditch" where they have been hammering against the port.
Had him take a cylinder and a reed plate down to a local compressor repair shop. "Boy, that sure is a heavy duty compressor, but I've never seen anything like it." Same at another one. I've not gone out to the Quincy source, yet.
Any ideas about brand? Any ideas about parts source? Any ideas about a satisfactory reed material? The big ones are 2" long and 1" wide where they are fat in the center. Kinda rules out using feeler gauges I know about.