Kudos to an unknown putterholic pioneer

If you’ve never experienced the site Freecycle.org I highly recommend you give it a try. For one thing it got me some of my used motor oil for furnace fuel. Sometimes though some really interesting finds can be had even when you aren’t looking for them.  Case in point was yesterday. A lady a few blocks away was cleaning out the garage of what I gathered was a deceased relative. She had had a yard sale last week and was now looking to just get rid of what was still a sizeable inventory. I think she posted at least a couple dozen posts on the local freecycle board. I sent out a reply on a couple of them and went there just expecting to get a ladder and a couple of floodlights. Well, there was still quite a bit of unclaimed stuff at the place when I got there and the owner encouraged everyone there to take what they wanted. I took a look around and there was some neat old stuff that many would just consider junk. Most of it I left because I had zero use for them. One thing in particular though caught my eye and I knew I had to have it just for the parts alone! Let me show you what I’m talking about:

You are looking at a home made air compressor!  I just think it is so cool that someone was able to put this together to satisfy their need for compressed air. The drive motor is a 1/3 HP unit made by the Packard Electric Division of GM. So far I have yet to figure out its manufacture date. The compression unit is made from a small engine. There are no identifying marks for me to ID the make or model. The exhaust port has been sealed off with a plug and a small pipe inserted where the spark plug should be. The rubber hose, though in rough shape, still holds air.  Given the whole unit’s overall condition, I would say that it has got to be pretty old.

Does it work? See for yourself:

 

Now, what exactly am I going to do with this piece of ingenuity? When I first saw it, I thought it was going to be parted out for use in other things. But after I fired it up and saw how quiet the thing is compared to my store bought compressors, I may use this as the compressed air source for my Babington burner furnace. I’m going to have to replace that rubber hose and run some tests to determine if it can supply enough pressure and air volume. It will be great if this old find can make its way into my own creation.