Compressor troubles (long)
 

A while back I fired up my compressor for the first ime in six months: I was
away for the winter.
All seemed normal for a few minutes and then - CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG!
Sounded like the compressor had turned into an overworked blacksmith's shop.
Between the WTF and the scramble toward the breaker box the breaker popped
leaving the shop in a rather stunned silence.
Ok, time to polish up the magnetic switch. Flush out the dead spiders and
the moss and the leaf mold and file the contacts; contacts that should have
been in the trash barrel long ago but pension economics dictate otherwise.
..
That 'little chore out of the way I hit the breaker - same show.

Ok, time to check out the caps.
Damn - they all check out OK.

Now I get 'creative'.

I get a neighbour over to close the breaker (it is inside the shop and the
compressor is outside) while I watch the action at the magnetic switch.
"Close the breaker , count to ten and open it" says I.
While waiting for my sight to return I make a mental note to never do that
again!
I do remember seeing a blazing spider being ejected from the switch
enclosure before being blinded by the spectaculat light show.
Big sigh: Something is terribly wrong and it is probably going to be very
expensive!

So - yesterday I drop into my local friendly neighbourhood motor
re-builders.

"Boss around?" I ask of the rather young lad wrestling with a nest of wires
coming out of a compressor motor on a stand in their shop.
"Nope, Can I help you?"

Now you gotta understand that I have little faith in the 'new generation'
knowing anything 'real'.

I proceed to explain the symptoms - not expecting anything more than -
'bring it in and we will have a look at it'.
In fact this was the first thing he said.
I replied that "The damn thing is on an island. It is very heavy (5HP. 240V
motor - hand gestures indicating dimensions)
and the last thing I want to do is break all that rust and bring it to
town."

"Ah" says he. "In that case your best bet is to get at the starter winding
switch and file the contacts clean."
He then proceeds to climb out from under his job and give me a (rather
unnecessary) familiarization lesson in the switches involved.
"Clean up the contacts." he says. "I just had a machine in here with the
exact problem you have and that was the cause."

So, with the usual optomistic approach I went at it today.
Dead easy to get at the contacts (indicated OK with a ohm meter - go figure)
and lo and behold they were in terrible shape.
Ten minutes with some 400 grit emery, twenty minutes to put the whole thing
back together and - hit the breaker!
HOT DAMN!! It works!

So, for anyone who comes up with a similar problem, check out those start
switch contacts.

AND - The moral?
Have faith. There are the odd few youngsters out there with the dedication
and the smarts to carry on the tradition of actually fixing things!

Yours very sincerely.
Ken.

--
Volunteer your idle computer time for cancer research
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In article ,
"Ken Davey" wrote:

AND - The moral?
Have faith. There are the odd few youngsters out there with the dedication
and the smarts to carry on the tradition of actually fixing things!

I think you are morally obligated to drop off a six-pack at that motor
repair shop.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

In article , Ken Davey says...

Ten minutes with some 400 grit emery, twenty minutes to put the whole thing
back together and - hit the breaker!
HOT DAMN!! It works!

The temptation to figure that whatever goes wrong is always
a) the most expensive and b) the most difficult item to
replace, is not *always* correct!

Jim


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"Ken Davey" wrote in message
...
| A while back I fired up my compressor for the first ime in six months: I
was
| away for the winter.
| All seemed normal for a few minutes and then - CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG!

SNIP

| So, with the usual optomistic approach I went at it today.
| Dead easy to get at the contacts (indicated OK with a ohm meter - go
figure)
| and lo and behold they were in terrible shape.
| Ten minutes with some 400 grit emery, twenty minutes to put the whole
thing
| back together and - hit the breaker!
| HOT DAMN!! It works!
|
| So, for anyone who comes up with a similar problem, check out those start
| switch contacts.
|
| AND - The moral?
| Have faith. There are the odd few youngsters out there with the dedication
| and the smarts to carry on the tradition of actually fixing things!
|
| Yours very sincerely.
| Ken.

Congratulations on a job well learned. I would now suggest that you
keep an eye out for a set of contacts for the starter, once filed on they
wear out even faster.
The other thing that comes to mind is that possibly the starter isn't
either the right size or you have other issues. Contacts start to go south
because the pressure on them isn't enough, the mechanism is binding, causing
excessive arcing while in motion (the soot causes binding, repeating the
cycle to failure,) and so on. Might even be too small to start with.
Contact sets are dirt cheap. Bring them to your local electrical supplier
and they'll set you up.
And while you're at it, if you have overloads on it, it's likely time to
swap those out as well. They don't all take a beating too well, and to have
one cooked just a bit while the others are fine will cause you grief later.

On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 23:28:24 -0700, "Ken Davey"
wrote:


AND - The moral?
Have faith. There are the odd few youngsters out there with the dedication
and the smarts to carry on the tradition of actually fixing things!

Yours very sincerely.
Ken.

You know how on a long trip you seem to hook up with another vehicle.
You pass them; they pass you. Both of you stop at the same place to
gas up or eat? They disappear and then there they are again?

On a trip from Texas to Wyoming last year, I hooked up with a young
guy who came to be thought of as "Weirdo". This guy was dressed in
shorts with a sleeveless t-shirt and sandals. A few tatttoes and more
piercings than a drunk in a cactus garden. Lip, eyebrows, nose. A
haircut that could have only been done with a dull knife. He was
driving a yellow convertible with the top up. Only there was no top;
just the bows. Made him easy to spot.


Somewhere between Raton and Denver, I topped a hill in the left lane
and there on the right shoulder sat 2 little blue-haired ladies with a
flat tire. Traffic wouldn't allow me to get over and no one in stopped
that I could see. I went on to the next exit and turned around.
Traveling the opposite direction, I either missed them or couldn't see
them. Took another exit and headed back north.

There they were with Weirdo's convertible parked in front of them. He
was pulling the spare out of the trunk when I pulled up. I asked if I
could help. "No, this nice young man is going to rescue us."
(Translation: he looks just like my grandson)

We said our howdies and acknowledged how we seemed to be traveling
together. I waited with my 4 ways on until he changed the left rear
tire. Then we all went on our way.

So, if you're out there Joe, you've restored my confidence in the
younger generation.

Ken Davey wrote:

snip
AND - The moral?
Have faith. There are the odd few youngsters out there with the dedication
and the smarts to carry on the tradition of actually fixing things!

Yours very sincerely.
Ken.

One thing about that shop to think about. Young man working away -
boss out of the office. Boss trusts young man alone in the Bosses Shop.

Boss trained (more than likely) a young man needing a job.

I did some mentoring of small shops who were in the process of doing just that.
There are few of us willing to do as we do. Train the willing as work
will be had.

If only the Jr. Colleges would listen and give both the boss and young man
some classes they both need it would become better.

Martin

--
Martin Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

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