Air Compressor

[STC]

I needed an air compressor for everything from cutoff wheels to sand blasters to paint guns (when the time comes). Since I have two cars that will need identical work, I decided to just get the tools and do everything myself vs pay someone to do it and then pay them again to do it all again.

First thing first - air compressor, so I spent the day at Lowes, Home Depot, and even Walmart to find a air compressor that was decent yet affordable. Of course everything was crap unless you wanted to pay through the nose.

Frustrated, I went on Craigslist again, even though I had checked it the previous night. There was one that had been posted a month ago that was pretty old school, just a big heavy piece of equipment and it had a huge, 100 gallon, tank.

Figured it was gone, but called the guy anyway. Ends up, he still had it so I went over, checked it out, pressure checked everything, and bought it for the grand total of $30. He's even going to come over to the house and run a 240 volt outlet and mount the breaker box that came with the unit (he's an electrician by trade) free of charge.

Anyway, it's pretty cool. The tank is huge with all the safety relief valves, the compressor looks like something out of a factory and the motor plate says that it's 3 hp but is about 14"-16" in diameter and about 24" long. Huge...!

Anyway, good score.

 

[letterman7]

Sweet. I love hearing those CL scores. My two personal bests were a rolling toolbox (full of tools) with about a dozen assorted power tools for $200 and a nice Honda Shadow 600 for $800 that I later sold for $2500. I love investments like that!

 

[farfegnubbin]

You Bastard!!! You mean to tell me you only paid $800 for that Shadow 600 you just sold me for $2500!!

Just kidding.

(I didn't buy a bike from Rick.)

(And mental note: Not gonna. )

That sounds like a nice score, Sam. I love it when you can find stuff like that. My dad has a "free" metal lathe in his basement that some machine shop was essentially just throwing away because it wasn't computerized and/or wasn't up to their precision standard any more. Still, it was a $20,000 lathe with a lot of life left in it.

That nice big old compressor will probably last you better than a modern new little one.

 

[STC]

...a $20,000 lathe with a lot of life left in it.

for free is a nice score - a very nice score indeed.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with my compressor. Needs to be cleaned up a little and painted, but still feeling pretty good about it! Not quite as good as your dad feels about the lathe, however, I can imagine... haha

 

[farfegnubbin]

That lathe coudn't be used for any precision parts any more, but it's still good for a wide variety of simply fabrications. And it's capacity is HUGE. In a way, that's probably why it was free; it was free IF my dad was willing to haul it away. Still, it's a nice thing to have in a shop.

Funny story: my dad needed some very unusual, very thin brass washer for something in one of his antique planes. A day later, he had it fabricated. I asked him how on earth he "fabricated" a washer as this as crepe paper. Well, he had a sheet of brass foil stock which he locked in between two pieces of wood, then he used the lathe to turn down the whole thing, wood-brass-wood. Then he separated the wood pieces and voila, a little brass washer.

I was impressed by the cleverness, but I also god a huge laugh out of using a 1500 lbs industrial lathe (and an hour) to make a single washer. *laugh*

I told him I'd be curious to see how he makes tooth picks. *laugh*

 

[Unofun]

The t-top car

the t-top sterling in showcase was a craigslist find. it said just sterling kit car parts. I showed up and it turned out the it was the whole car complete with a new windshield. the guy said If you get it out of here by 5 o'clock it's yours for 100. had the tags and the plates the next day, and they acccepted the bill of sale as a 73 special consturction to boot. *rock on**proud*

ME LOVE CL!