In article ,
Stormin Mormon wrote:

Today (Saturday Sept 14, 2013) a friend gave me an
air compressor. Says when he ran it six months or
so ago, ran fine. Sears oilless, 12 gal tank. Said to
deliver 3.3 SCFM (think that's right) at 90 PSI.

I got home, the air all blew out the safety pressure
device. Spent a bunch of time on the Sears web site. The
web site has a BIG pdf that takes most of the computer
screen, can only read the parts list on the tiny edge of
the screen. Sears wants $31 and change, for the safety
valve. Amazon $22 or so. Went to the auto parts, they
said to go to the farm and garden store 20 miles away.
Just for grins, went to Lowe's, about two miles away.
They had one for eight bucks.

Got home, install the safety device. Compressor still
hisses, and won't come up to pressure. Some looking,
find the drain valve under the tank is open, and a lot
of very black water on my floor. Mop the black, close
the valve.

Decided to run the compressor through a cycle. Ran for
a while, and then sounded like fire crackers popping
about once a second. Look at the gauge, find it's up
to 120 PSI. So, the electric cut out needs adjusting.

I turned off the power, and bled the air down to about
80. Turn it back on. The compressor growled, but didn't
start.

Oh, bother, the unloader is bad too.

I tried to take the cover off, to get at the unloader.
But one of the screws is rotted and stripped, and after
an hour I can't get it to come loose. I guess I'll load
the compressor in my van, and take it back tomorrow. I
can use a larger compressor, but this one is a loser.
And the guy who gave it to me cleaned out the unloader
on his other compressor. Maybe he can get this one
working.

I guess this just hasn't been my good week. Wheel fell
off the truck (for real) and missed the church picnic.
What next?

I absolutely hate those oilless compressors... in my opinion their only
claim to fame is separating people from their money, and the conversion
of otherwise useful energy to a loathsome din.

Let it go; don't look back... run, don't walk... and never forget the
old saying:

"It's far better to have a horrible ending, than to have horrors without
end"

--Unknown

Erik