homemade aircompressor

also found this thread. Its tractor driven though. I want to use an electric motor to drive mine for noise reasons.

This guys just lightens off the intake valves so that they open when the piston comes down (vacumn) and push the air from the spark plug holes. He does say though that it doesent push out huge volumes as the valves bounce around at high rpms.

Driving it from the gearbox is differnt though. he gets the options of gears to run at the right speed, although correct selection pullys is possibly a better option since you dont want to change the setup once its done.

Just wondering on the compressor deal.

Since its not running for long normally. I guess 1 min at a time with longer breaks in between depending on the size of the reciever tank.

Would I need to worry about runing any coolant/water?
I obviously need oil to lube the bottom end up.
If I use a custom head (ie block of metal with valves), there is no need to lift oil to the top of the engine as there is no rocker gear to worry about.
No push rods.

Could I pull the oil pump and water pump off. Fling the raditaor and rely on oil cooling the bottom en enough? Maybe run a small oil cooler off to one side? if required?

Found this link. I knew that I wasnt that original.
Datsun A series compressor

Quote:

If I pull off all the rocker gear, then there is nothing to control the existing valves, they will just stay shut. If you pull the valves out, then I might as well just get a lump of steel made up with the one way valves fitted.


If I use the existing head system with a modified cam, then I have an intake/exhast ready to go. Just need to plumb the exhaust manifild to the reciever tank somehow.
Wonder how much the custom cam would cost to have made up. I would think hardening of some sort would be the go if i do down that path.

Any Perth boys know of a place that wouldnt laught at me and take my quesitons seriously?

im still playing with the idea of a gokart and i have got some ideas on the drive line aswell ,i could use an A12 ,rigid mounted to the chassis and mounted sideways ,with a bellhousing mounted to the motor so the cluth can still be used ,then use a bearing /mount thiat i would then weld to the frame and run a splined rod through it ad weld a sprocket onto it and then slot the splined end into the clutch ,then just run a chain to the bavck wheels

or i could use the motor gearbox and standard diff ,but have the diff mounted straight up to the back of the gear box via the tail shaft yoke and diff yoke ,so there wouldnt be a tailshaft ,just the yokes
and as for steering , i could use a 1000 front end haha ,or i could buy the whole front end from my mates gokart shop

hhmm it could work ,and maybe turbo it !

Could probably machine a cam from a steel round. Since the RPM is low the inertial force of the valves would be low you might get away with tired valve springs and plain steel cam. Other wise simply hardening it with a rich oxy might do the trick. COuld probably be done on a 4 axis cnc mill. If you got excited you could have it hard chromed. Just ideas.

Otherwise what about one way valves in the valve holes? If you're taking all the rocker gear off you could even drill right through.

How bout a go cart?

yeah i did think about doing that Sikyne. Its fine if you dont mind the noise. I want to run the compressor from a electric motor to reduce noise, and they still means that you only get the air every 4th stroke from the two cyclinders. Seems a little pointless really to do that since there are other options.

Looks like the block of steel with one way valves fitted into each cyclinder is the way forward. Run an electric motor off the front pully to drive it, and run the lines to a reciever tank with an auto cutout switch.

An A10 at 1000rpm in two stroke mode should give out 1000litres of air/minute which is approx 35cfm! (an a12 would give 42cfm, a14 - 49cfm )More than enough to run any air hungry tool including my 3/4" rattle gun.


Still the compressor is the easy one to do.

Its the firewood processor that is the challange!

For a compressor, just pull two plugs out and run it as a two cyl engine with the other two running to a reciever tank. The inlet manifold would have to be cut from two cyl`s aswell. You might have to run a very heavy flywheel but you`d get a lot more than 17 cfm.

Does anyone know if you can get a cam to make a 4 stroke into a two stroke for the A-series?

On the old farm, dad ran a VW engine tha run on two cyclinders and run the other two as a compressor. Sounds terrible, but cheap, simple petrol compresssor.

At the end of the day, a 17cfm compressor either electric or petrol are cheap enough, and I have a perfectly good 17cfm electric compressor already, which is why its a long term project.

Its the firewood processor that i am intrested in. A small commercial unit starts at around $10,000 so buying one is out of the question, but they really are awesome.

Was thinking of either a drop saw design or a push bench design. Ive seen both in action, and I think that the drop saw design is probally safer. and eaiser to design.

If i direct drive an engine to a drive shaft, which is then connected with belts to the cutting disk, it would be pretty straight forward.
australian firewood processor design

Ill upload some sketches to get some feedback.

I sooo wanna see this 120y Lawnmower SX-510...Funny as I was going to suggest that but thought it was a bit far-fetchetd! :)