I think my air compressor has seen better days and may be headed south on me.
It is a portable Craftsman that I bought while still living at mom and dads house so that makes it at least 29 years old.Oil type compressor
2 Hp 220 volts 125 psi
Tank size 20 gallons
Delivery 7.4 scfm @ 90 psi or 210 slm @ 6.3 Kg CM
Displacement 10.7 std cu ft per min Over the past year or so it seems to have trouble building pressure when the tank gets between 100 and 125 psi. If you add a little bit of oil on the air intake flutter valves it gets better.
Yesterday I started it up to fill some tires up and walked out of shed. I returned in 10 to 15 mins (was not really timing myself) to find it still running; 100 psi in the tank; and the compressor starting to smoke from heat. I shut it down and let it cool off. Added a little oil to air intake and it works OK again. No not like a new one but builds to 125 psi and shuts off. I am thinking my piston compression rings are bad because when you add oil it gets better. Since the elec motor works great I was going to rebuild it. Problem is I look at the Sears Parts web site and the rings are no longer available. You can buy the piston but not the rings. Go figure that one out. So I guess I need a whole new compressor. The tank is 30 years old so maybe that is best anyway before it starts rusting through. Looked at the big box hardware store but compressors of this tank size and Hp do not have the cfm I have. Actually about half the cfm I have. I even went to shop and relooked at my compressor thinking I got the #'s wrong. So what should I be looking for in a new compressor??? or should I just get a compressor off a big truck and mount it on my tank????? ??? I really do not want to go with a lower cfm then find out I do not like it.
Is my compressor cfm way over board and more than I need for painting; air tools ect??? Any advise; thoughts; criticism; welcome.
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