Sometimes I feel like Fred G Sanford from Sanford and Sons. Somehow I end up with everyone unwanted stuff or "Junk". "Its the big one Elizabeth, I'm coming to join you!"
I was given an air compressor that was in pretty rough shape. It was given to a friend of mine and he did not want it so he gave it to me. I have a tendency to accept almost anything that is offered to me. I gave it a good cleaning, wired it up and tried it out. Everything worked fine so I changed the dirty oil in it and started using it.
It did however have one remaining issue. It had a leak that I could not find, that meant it would not hold air. So every time I wanted to use it I have to wait 10-15 minutes for it to fill up. After 6 months of dealing with this I finally decided to fix it.
It took me much longer than it should to find the leak. I checked all the fittings several times with no luck. I was really scratching my head when I noticed that I did not check the threaded fitting on the top of the tank.
I sprayed some soapy water on it and sure enough it started bubbling and foaming. Definitly a leak there!
After pulling it out and inspecting it, the fitting appeared to be some type of back flow valve. I decided to put some Permitex Ultra Copper on it and see if I could get it to seal up. This part of the compressor gets really hot so I thought that the Ultra Copper would be a good fit. Plus I already had some and this was a free compressor so I was sticking with the Sanford and Son Theme.
I ran the tank up to 150psi and left it for a week. It held at 150 psi. So I am calling this fixed. Not bad for someones unwanted Junk!
