Check out this air compressor I found

[pritch]

I am over seeing the demolition of an 80 some-odd year old building, and this compressor was part of the original heating control system. built by Johnson Controls. It still works, still makes pressure when you turn it over by hand (the motor would just buzz when I turned it on) I am going to restore it.



I was being lazy getting it out of the basement of the building, and going up the stairs on a hand truck, it fell off and rolled down the stairs, and broke off the two cylinder oilers. I think they can be fixed easy enough.







I think it's pretty cool!

[kingsolver72]

That's a cool compressor.we'll need pictures when you finish the restoration.
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[72lb4x4]

Are you sure its a compressor and not a vacuum pump? Compressor pumps have fins to dissipate heat.

I made the mistake of buying a swap meet compressor, that had a vacuum pump on it. I emailed Quincy and they replied that it was indeed a vacuum pump and I should definitely not use it as a compressor.

Anybody need a big old vacuum pump?

[hotrod 80]

that is a low pressure compressor for the Pnuematic controls . I want to say 3 to 15 psi for air bladder style actuators on the chill water & hot water control valves . That is an old one . Might still be able to get new oilers , but id try to repair the originals . Cool compressor .

[gmech]

Take that motor to a electric motor shop and they should be able to fix it. Did you get any of the old pressure gauges, valves etc? I'm an HVAC tech and I collect that kinda stuff. I'll take a good ole pnuematic control system over DDC anyday.

[hotrod 80]

If the motor is 115v it may have a centrefugal switch for the start capacitor . Alot of times the small springs rust out .

[pritch]

This is the motor. I don't think it was the original:



But it had these funky fuses or whatever on the dis-connect. They have replaceable elements, and instructions for replacing them inside the panel cover:







Someone added a pressure switch to it at some point, it looks fairly modern. You shoulda seen the air tanks it had had. I shoulda grabbed them, or at least took some pictures of them. They (there were 2) were 10 or maybe 12 inches diameter and like 4 feet tall, but they were made out of two pieces of rolled galvanized plate and riveted together, with the ends rieted onto these. They looked pretty wild, but I didn't have the correct tools to remove them at the time.