Hello everybody, I posted this on another forum recently and was very well received. Hope it helps and encourage somebody to build one of those.

Ingredients:

-Tank for compressed air (Mine as seen in the pictures came from a cheap air compressor bought at Menards for about $45. After a few months the engine died and that was the main reason to try to make a new compressor).
-Refrigerator compressor (I got mine at local used appliances store. They gave it to me for free, since most old refrigerators go to recycling they did not care).
- 1 feet compressed air tubing (Bought at ACE for about $3)

So here's the tank with the orange pressure tubing in place.


Next, a ground wire was added to protect the system..


Here we can see the compressor that has 4 pipes open and one closed. I just have to turn it on and "feel" which one was the suction outlet port and which one was the "air outlet".


A very rustic base made from plywood installed on top of the tank to fit the compressor:



Finally, the system all connected and ready to go...




Any questions please feel free to ask. I know it looks complicated but once you have the materials the build is extremely easy and the results are mazing....hours and hours of painting with no noise at all.....

Mirko

HI,
First off,very good recycling. Couple of questions, the filter is the air inlet I'm assuming? And if so are there any issues with a small inlet as far as filling the tank? Do you have any moisture/water problems? And lastly how long does it take to fill the tank?
thanks,
jake

Any air compressor is going to have some moisture in it. it's just because there's moisture in the air.

cool,thats helped me alot,i'm looking for a tank to use and that given me some ideas.

cheers paul

I really like this. I have a similar compressor but it is very loud. There seems to be a lot of fridges lately that I could scavenge from, a conversion may be due. Out of curiousity, what did you do for a cut off switch? Were you able to reuse the one that came with the compressor?

Yep, the air filter (really a gasoline filter) goes on the inlet or "suction" port....

No problems fillin the tank, it takes about 1 minute to get to 20 psi and climbs to 100psi in about 8 minutes. Be sure to have a release valve otherwise your tank can explode... which would be less than desirable...

Theres a minimal amount of moisture due to condensation, as the air coming from the compressor is slightly warm....two solutions for this problem, get at tank with a draining valve so you can drain it regularly (every 2-3 months) or include an air moisture trap (that you can get at home dpot, ace, etc ) in the circuit going to the tank.....

Hope this helps..

Mirko

Cool, you can buy a cheap air compressor with a 2 gallon tank at walmart for $39 !!!

I bought one at Ace for $4-5.......usually refrigerators don't have an on and off switch, you just plug them to the wal and the engine runs and runs and runs, with ocassional relief stops....

hi,
Thanks for the reply.I think you understood my questions and the reasoning behind them.Your clarification was quite helpful in that modelers can be very clever finding ways to solve problems that are intelligent and inexpensive.
thanks again
jake