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Roger
10-31-2003 15:19:55
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Re: Re: another compressor question for Roger in reply to John Garner, 10-29-2003 20:59:15
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Every one of those compressors are what I would consider "top level". I have only seen one Saylor Beall reciprocating compressor, I believe it was the 9000 or something. Very nice, very heavy duty, and very expensive. My boss ordered a catalog from them once, as he was interested in becoming a dealer, but the price points made no sense. The running clearances were extremely tight, which to me indicated they were very accurately built. One neat characteristic of Saylor Beall pumps, however, was that, in 1997 at least, every one of their pumps were available in either splash-lube or pressure lube. I have never seen this with any other manufacturer. Beware! Sanborn sells a Taiwanese or Chinese knockoff of the Saylor Beall. It looks exactly like them, but they are of low quality. They have soft cranks, poor valves and take out wristpins like nobody's business. On they surface, however, they look tough as nails. The giveaway is that the use metric fasteners.
Champions are also very nice machines, and probably the only aluminum pump I would wholeheartedly recommend. They use aluminum for the right reasons, low weight and excellent heat disipation, not for the wrong reason, it's easy to cast into cheap throwaway designs. I have been able to hold my hand on the cylinder block of a Champion that was running flat out. The only thing I don't like about them is that they don't use bearing inserts, but this is common in many different compressor designs from many companies. It has not been a problem in my experience, but it is just a personal preference of mine.It does allow you to take rods that have seized and resize the big ends, however, which can prove to be extremely cost effective if the pump has been run low on oil.Gardner Denver seemed to like them enough to buy the company. I think Champion build all the small GD pumps now. Speaking of which, Gardner Denver cast-iron pumps, in my opinion, are the equal of Quincy. If you read between the lines on the Quincy site, it seems Quincy was founded by 3 ex GD employees in 1920. It doesn't say that, but as GD's headquarters is also in Quincy,ill., I don't think it is too much of a stretch to assume this. GD cast-iron pumps look ancient, which probably means they are ancient, in terms of design anyway. That shouldn't be a turn off for antique tractor types though!
Curtis are also extremely rugged designs. They have been around since the mid 1800's, so they must know a thing or two. Some models have fiddly flyweight arrangements in the flywheel to provide centrifugal unloading. These were bad designs, even though the underlying pumps were quite good. The only beef I have with Curtis is that they vibrate a bit too much, and are a bit noisy. They are also extremely heavy, which is not much of an issue till you try to install a block on a 2 cylinder, 15hp pump. It's a workout. Otherwise, they last and last. Curtis also has a line of "value" compressors called "ChallangeAir" I think. These are cheap Chinese Fu Sheng pumps. They are, um, not too bad. We used to sell them at the last place I worked. They were a quick and easy way to get customers up and running when their original pumps died. Nowhere equal to the original Curtis designs, but very cheap to overhaul and repair.
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