compressor maintenance

[jackfrost]

my air compressor is an old Sears "paint sprayer" model that was my dad's. I'm guessing it's early 70's vintage. I have no idea what sort of maintenance this thing needs and no product manual. I'm guessing it needs to be oiled? but I'm not sure how. it's starting to get louder the longer it runs

here's what it looks like:
http://bloomington.craigslist.org/tls/878624651.html

but mine is 150psi

[Jim Nilsen]

Call Sears about the cost of a rebuild kit for the heads and cylinders to make sure that the cost of getting a new one might or might not be a better deal, otherwise go to Sears and get the right oil, change it and run it to death do you part.

Always remember that if you get a new one that you can use the tank you have to add to the volume and run time.

Goodluck

[Mathius]

While we're on the subject of compressor maintenance, my buddy insists that it's not good to leave air in the tank, that you should always release the air when finished with the compressor.

Is there any truth to that?

Mathius

[GetMore]

I disagree with your buddy, but what is important is to drain the water out of the tank. Condensation will rust the tank, and doesn't do the compressor or air tools any favors.

[Jim Nilsen]

I have saved my ears ,my electric bill , wear and tear and a lot of time because I have a compressor that doesn't leak any air and when it does I find the leak and fix it. I have done many little task and never had to run the compressor because it has more than enough air to do them. When it gets below 90 psi I turn it on and fill it back up. I also keep my portable storage tank filled up so I don't have to wait 7 minutes to fill it up and my compressor tank wasting a lot of electricity. On the average it cost 4 cents per cubic foot at 90 psi for compressed air.

Like was said. Always keep your tank drained of water and it will last longer.

[Modo Innovations]

Like was said. Always keep your tank drained of water and it will last longer.

I have IR stand up compressor. The drain was hard to reach and always a mess to drain. I took out the drain, put in a 90 degree fitting, a ball valve and a clear hose out the side of my shop. The clear hose is to see when the water is gone. I open it slow and not very far, just enough to release the water. I drain it everyday before I start. This works great for me.

[GetMore]

FWIW, I have seen a setup designed specifically for draining condensation from tanks automatically. It was a solenoid with two air connections and a timer. You set how often you wanted to actuate and for how long.
It's good for a shop where nobody wants to be bothered draining the tank daily, but it doesn't take inot account changes in the amount of compressor usage and humidity, so it'd either drain more air than needed or not drain all the condensation.
Again, it's perfect for a shop that uses a lot of air, but probably not best for most of us here.

What Modo did is a great idea since it keeps you from having to deal with water on the floor and makes draining easy.
I have one suggestion that could improve upon his setup: Remote mount the valve.
Mount the valve in a place that is easy and convenient to reach (up on the wall) and run some copper or other appropriate tubing (black pipe, braided stainless, whatever floats your boat) to the valve, then some clear tubing from the valve to outside or a drain.