Wiring & Test running my Big Compressor

hey guys welcome to the shop this week we're going to be working on getting all of the electronics sorted for the large air compressor that i got outside i've had that system for going on a year now and i have not hooked it up yet because there is a lot involved i'll show you the components and stuff that i have what we're going to be working with and i'll explain some of them to the best of my ability as we go along it should be an interesting project i know i look forward to it so let me show you what i got and we'll get started so the primary goal here is not to let the smoke out now this electrical enclosure is an old used stainless steel square d enclosure really nice with a disconnect that currently has old motor controls in it that we don't want to use now when we got the compressor we did get the old components that come out of the original electrical enclosure for that compressor but we did not get the enclosure so what we want to do is pull out all of the old components out of this box and replace them with the ones that we will want to use so inside this box we have disconnect fuse block motor starter a transformer and a fuse block i've already loosened up the majority of these components so all we need to do is lift out this panel and start pulling out the components that we that we don't want so this old box has had a little bit of water damage because it's older than i am but i think everything is perfectly fine we'll take a look at it in better detail so let's do a quick overview of this panel we have a big on off switch here disconnect so power comes in flows through the switch through the wires and through the fuses into the motor starter which is just another switch electronically controlled so power comes in this side and it comes out this side but it can only come out this side if you turn it on by powering a 120 volt coil that's in here so let's do a quick little demo it will show you just how this switch works because i think it's pretty interesting so we're going to hook on the inlet with our voltmeter we're going to check our meter first so we have a circuit on the inlet and on the outlet but right now there is no beeping because this circuit is not complete if i can get this on here probably should have worked this out before turn the camera on get on there so this is 120 volts inside here is a solenoid that is actuated by 120 volts so when we close this we don't get anything we should but we don't because this thing has probably been underwater it's a pretty neat little screwdriver it was sent to me by a viewer of the channel who had been battling cancer for a very long time i appreciate that that's that's nice great for quickly tightening up the lugs and stuff made by klein i really like that he also sent me a really nice lead kit for my fluke 115 which i appreciate so here's the control transformer that i'm going to be using this is a much nicer unit than the old one that was in that box this is what i'm going to be using to step down my voltage from 240 in my case to 120. so i've decided using the schematic here which legs here to pull from and i'm going to be pulling from 2 h2 and h4 that gives me a resistance of 40.8 so in order to calculate how much draw or how many amps that's going to take we'll use ohm's law so we'll take our input voltage which is 230 we'll divide that by the resistance which is 40.8 so in order to get 120 volts out it will require 5.63 amps supposedly in this case all right so i hear it humming it is not immediately smoking so that's good now let's check our voltage on the outlet side oh on the money 120 volts 121 so nothing wrong with that that is the connections that we will use [Applause] so i swapped out the switch on the front of this box from an old three position and auto switch to just a simple two position on off and i'm gonna be leaving this fixture this light on the front of it it's 120 volt incandescent fixture got some bulbs ordered this one's bad but nice little glass frosted bulb or dome i guess so look pretty neat it'll be an indicator to tell me when i have the compressor on that way i can just look out back you know before i go in and if this light's on i'll know the compressor's on you know the compressor will take care of the cycling itself due to the electronics that's on it but you know this will tell me that i either have or don't have power supplied to the compressor itself so it can't actuate the starter so i'm just about ready to start pulling wire in here i just got to run from my coil to the switch and from the switch that has to activate this light here this light will just come on anytime that the switch is on and the 120 volt circuit in in this box is live these are some really nice modular switches you assisted off total resistance spring loaded towards the on position so it wants to favor to the off really nice as well you can locate the actual switch in any position you want and you can remove this paw there if you want to 180 degrees or 90 degrees from wherever it was before i had to do that because originally this was mounted in that location and which would interfere with the hinge of the door because the switch did not come out of this box but although these are universal made for any setup which is really nice they've thought out these electrical components really well to make them extremely universal kind of just plug and play really [Music] else [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you spend so much of your life so um [Music] one day [Music] so all new fuses i got two sets just in case and all my wires in here are nicely nicely ran easily traceable of course i don't have any power into this yet and no loose ends nice and tight on the connections should be should be good to go every once in a while i'll work on you know usually a controls panel i don't usually deal with this kind of stuff but the wires will just be an absolute rat's nest and it makes things so hard when it comes time to trace stuff down you can zip half things together keep them in groups it just makes everything so much nicer this is by far we're far from the best that i've seen but it looks good nice and acceptable that does it pass your inspection chair looks good yeah i think it'll be fine we'll find out i guess so this is a dual voltage motor so i'm making sure that i do indeed have it wired for low voltage and i do so we've got nine leads here i believe this is a four-pole motor 132 pounds gives the bearing numbers front and back which is really nice not all tags do that in case you want to keep some bearings on the shelf so that chance that you're going to have a bearing failure because really that's about the only thing that fails on electric motor if all else is good one moving part top ten most important inventions of all inventions of all time as the electric motor really sparked the industrial revolution bad and steam so this is a seven and a half horsepower motor when run on 480 or a five and a half when run on 220 it gives all kinds of information on this tag now some of it's coded and you got to look into it to figure it out but there's great videos out there that explain it it'll tell you how far the center of the motor shaft is off the base it'll tell you how much the shaft sticks out to the front of the motor and on and on and on obviously all the power requirements as well look into that if you're interested there's tons of videos out there that explain it in great detail it's interesting info since this motor does run backwards all we have to do is reverse two of these leads and it will spin the other way so there's a few things on youtube that it just does not pay to show and that is electrical connections especially wire nuts or soldering it will get all been out of shape there is a lots of ways to do it and some people love one way and some love another the important thing is that they work reliably and don't cause any problems so i believe i'm ready for a test run on this thing now i do know that my heaters and my starter relay are undersized i've mentioned that before i contacted the engineer at siemens he recommended e57s and here i have e56s because this was run on 480 and unfortunately they're no longer available from the manufacturer uh they're just not available maybe from a secondary source i can get them but he recommended that i go due to the pace of tech now the pace of technology is quick this is older unit and they've changed away from the mechanical relays heaters and such to just the standalone all-in-one thermal switches so this this motor starter being module will allow me to pull down that lower section pull it off and just replace that all together with a switch that does exactly the same thing that's all in one so we'll see all details that you may not even care about but it is all important to make sure that this system is safe and is everything is sized the way that it should be you know i want it to be as good as it can be so i need to bump this thing make sure that the motor rotates in the right direction first uh i was going to pull the belt cover off and uh you know let the motor run the freewheel but i don't think that's necessary i think if everything works the way that it should i should be able to bump this just quickly verify motor rotation if it does i got a 50 50 chance so verify that it rotates in the proper direction if it does we'll let this thing run and see what happens if not we'll swap two leads on the motor and go from there so let's uh turn on the phase converter and try this thing out kind of exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time [Music] so power is traveling into the top of the box i guess we're pretty much ready i need to close this relay which is really it's not in a great position to do that but i need the box open because i want to check some things turn your face away in case of an arc flash so far so good check the output of my trans uh my transformer make sure that we have a 120 volts out so actually 125 volts now bench tested this box so i'm not surprised at all but good to test everything installed as well let's check the controls on the front so pressure switch is off on the compressor so it should not kick on but we should get an indicator which we do so that's good um wow now i guess it's time to bump this thing and see if it's rotating in the proper direction so arrow on the motor says it should run counterclockwise you watch it i'll bump the switch so i'm going to zoom in on the big pulley you can see a portion of it there it should rotate counterclockwise quickly bump it wow yeah proper direction so let's let's turn it on it sounds good not all that loud actually not knocking or anything like that first time i've heard it i was told it worked though so no surprise really we need to change oil in it it's exciting [Music] we'll let it build up pressure um hopefully these heaters i'm surprised they've actually ran this long but we'll see [Music] we've got a heater getting hot there see it's starting to glow red if it trips that relay it'll shut down the whole circuit and i think that it's going to it should actually now that either tripped or it hit its max pressure which is really close so i shut down the phase converter i'm gonna open that circuit and i'll be able to tell which one tripped although it doesn't matter that is a problem that has to be fixed luckily it's not that big a deal so all circuits are dead to the top of that switch we're safe and it was actually the uh the pressure switch that tripped but it doesn't matter because if you were using this thing and it had to run for a longer period of time you can tell because that heater got so hot that's what happens when they're undersized that was doing its job sounds like it's leaking inside the air filter okay that's the is that the unload system what would cause that to leak continuously so the unload system on this if you didn't know it's these lines here they they're like the compression release on a motorcycle because it would be really hard for this motor to start this thing and get it up to speed with it acting building full pressure right off the off the bat you have some centrifugal weights in here that basically release the compression from this thing until it gets up to a certain speed and they close a valve that then allows this to build full pressure just like i said makes it easier for this motor to get everything running but because that's leaking continuously it has to be a check valve because there's that not that much pressure inside of one of these cylinders mosquitoes are eating me up and it's probably right here that feeds from the tank it has a check valve that from this into the tank and i bet you that that is bleeding air back into the system this valve is open like it should be the compression release because it's not turning and that's allowing air to leak back through the cooler through the system into the cylinder heads and it's acting like it wants to let the compression off which never well it happens but it's just an open path to uh to outside so that'll have to come off hopefully that's it if that's it look good that in the heaters obviously so this compressor has an automatic drain so you can plug this into 120 volts and depending on your preset time you can have this thing drain the liquid off of the tank i've never there there's not going to be any water in this thing i wouldn't think but you got a little manual drain here i'm just excited that the thing works to be honest and we can work out all the bugs on it this is awesome but i got to bleed all the pressure off this thing before i can pull that check valve out a little bit rusting so i'm almost certain that this is a check valve here and it is what's leaking so i'll have to pull that out and uh hopefully just clean it we'll see it could be bad but who knows oh yeah with all the moisture and stuff that travels through these airlines i'm surprised that it doesn't uh you know that these don't leak more often let's uh let's go take it apart so there's a look at our tank check valve so compressed air comes in through here goes through this valve comes out these holes and then supposedly it's supposed to close and air pressure from the tank is not supposed to be able to escape back out it appears that it's stuck open and uh probably just dirty so we got a snap ring in the back we'll have to pull that out you know pull it apart and clean it hopefully just got oh i see a part stuck in it right there so maybe that is the problem let me get you a closer shot so i don't know how well you can see that but you can see an edge of what looks like something right there maybe it looks like a looks like a piece of copper or something i mean who knows but i don't think that's oh there it goes it's supposed to be in there let's pull it apart see what that ale is something's in there get out there you got a new pair of needle nose uh there is a snap ring in there that's not supposed to be able to come out that way unless we pull out that snap ring okay hmm i don't know what that is i don't like the look of it looks like a piece of a reed valve or something i don't know anyway we'll clean these parts up maybe it just gets something just got dropped down in here who knows hopefully that's not a sign of bigger problems so there's what was stuck in that check valve appears to be a piece of stainless i'm not sure whatever it is it's not supposed to be in there so i'm just giving this thing a quick brush off on the outside remove all the rust and stuff i'll uh clean the seat up just lightly clean this it's just a little teflon just a little teflon check it doesn't seem to be excessively worn on the face or anything so i'll just clean that off good and put it back together it should be good just kind of concerned about where that piece come from the piece that was blocking it so our check valve is clean and reinstalled i'm almost certain that that's going to fix the problem that we were seeing with that continuous air bleed out of the intake here because nothing should be under pressure from here up once this thing shuts off obviously the tank is but this should all completely unload after you know after it stops running now unless that seat gets dead it got damaged because of that piece of metal in there this valve seat where it seals it didn't look it didn't appear to be but who knows if it continues to leak out of here we'll have to replace that check valve um i'm really interested to see how long my time it with my phone from atmospheric pressure this was open you know right when we pulled that check valve out no pressure at all in this tank so how long is it going to take to go from nothing to complete full pressure which is 175 psi with this compressor which is a it's a beast this thing's awesome it's rated uh cfm is 27.3 at 40 psig 27.1 at 90 psi and at max pressure 175 psi i'm assuming that's what max means 26.6 so it's almost a straight curve so this thing should build pressure just almost as fast at nothing as it does at you know high pressure which is pretty impressive because my little compressor's inside man they start getting a little load on them and they slow way down and this is showing at least we know how ratings go but we'll see you know i want to time this thing see how much or how long it takes to feel completely up it's a big tank so let's do it i'm excited hopefully we have no leaks but we'll check it after it's full of pressure [Music] so [Music] four minutes and 14 seconds and for the first part of this test i had the drain valve open still that's pretty good from zero to 175 psi on a tank that size it's impressive in my opinion anyway from what i'm used to so i turned the phase converter off so i can hear a little better pulled the air filter off because before it was venting through that check valve into the unload system and coming out of the air filter and it was a very noticeable hiss i don't hear anything now that doesn't mean it's not seeping so if it is we'll replace that check valve i've got some soapy water mixed up here we'll spray on this line just to make sure that we're not venting to the atmosphere i don't like an air system that leaks because if you think about it i mean imagine over a lifetime if every air compressor and every time you fill your tank up it leaks how much energy you just you know pissed off to the atmosphere you pay to compress that air it is stored energy and you know if you can stop it from just evaporating into nothing you should do that it's not much effort to fix leaks in fact i hear what i think is a leak down here that we'll have to fix because i haven't checked anything on this right so let's get our soapy water check this system out make it airtight it's awesome nice to come out a week later and your system be still full so check that out it is a mud dauber's nest which is just a wasp that makes its little nests out of mud and they're everywhere right now and they're pretty harmless they don't sting unless you smash them or something but they can be hard on equipment and stuff you can see they've turned my air compressor body into a subdivision of mud daubers now what they've done here is pretty neat is they've saved a ton of effort by using a already existing tube and just capping the end to make their nest instead of going through all the trouble to make an extended nest like they did here they're all over the underneath this enclosure but yeah i'm gonna have to clean those out i don't want that stuff getting sucked into the compressor yes this is just some dawn dishwashing liquid and water so this here is a prv or a pressure relief valve if these leak replace them with the same one that come out of the system don't cap them off they're a much needed safety system because stuff does fail and you don't want to over pressurize the tank or the system and these are what they what keep that from happening there's a couple on this system hey little bubba what's going on what are you doing little guy hmm what are you doing bubba huh what are you doing yeah i know exciting out here isn't it so there's another pressure relief valve right there get off me bugs mosquitoes are absolutely horrible so i sprayed a little water right where little soapy water right where this intake tube goes into the intake manifold here and i did get a small leak a bubble that just grows so it's not a huge leak but it is bypassing at that uh check valve so i'll either recondition the seat and face of the plunger or just buy a new one which is probably the probably the best bet so we'll see that'll have to be replaced but it's extremely small lake the pressure system here no leaks there i need to check the back i also got to get an oil change for this i need to figure out to contact the manufacturer see what type of oil they recommend for this thing and change that as well now this was at a sears service center which is just a big automotive repair place that's where it originated from and i'm sure they had a service plan on these because it's obvious this thing's had the oil changed in it before because of all the markings from tools and stuff on the drain valve and the fill the fuel valve here or fuel fill spot whatever you want to call that thing screw nut plug i need to check down here because i think there's a leak other than that so far so good so i'm really excited with the progress that i made on this thing this week although it's far from done we're still in the testing stages all we've really accomplished is putting those electronics up getting this thing running and getting the leaks sorted on the actual compressor itself there's still a ton to do and there's still some problems with this system one is i need a way all my other machines have push button to where if they're running and the power shuts off they don't kick on automatically when the power comes back on i'm going to do the same to this also i need a way to make sure that this thing can't kick on and run unless my rotary phase converter is running because this compressor at this moment does not know so maybe a current sensing transducer on the inlet of this thing that would uh you know make or break the control circuit on this thing i'm not for sure what would you do if this was yours and [Music] you know you wanted to solve that problem also probably put a breaker on the wall here make me feel a little bit better even though that is fused also need to work out the [Music] overloads on the bottom of the starter which i motor starter relay which i think that i've already got that sorted but you get the idea the main problem is making sure that this can't kick on unless this is running because i know me pretty well i will forget leave this compressor on and then turn off the rotary phase converter because this thing kicks on automatically it'll call for air it'll try to run on the single phase power and it'll cook it i don't want that so i need to solve that and uh to me and other things right that's just the beginning of my problems so we'll work out the air system inside hopefully next week put a drop down at the lathe put a drop down because i've got the loop that runs all the way around the upper part of the shop put a drop down in between the knt mill and the uh and the bandsaw and get all that system straight along with a lot of other things so that's it this week thanks for watching thanks to my viewers patrons and subscribers anybody who's helped me out on this project and helped me get here definitely appreciate it so that's it thanks for watching and i'll see you next time [Music] as the light leaves your eyes hold on to your dream oh i know you wanna scream [Music] since the day you're born you're just a flower on your own waiting for the sun [Music]

Channel: Steve Summers

Views: 30,372

Rating: 4.9657283 out of 5

Keywords: Machining, lathe, shaper, welding, awesome, funny, metal, threading, tools, repair, fix, diy, compressor, auto, family, dogs, pets, comedy, beauty, air, pressure, powerful

Id: 1ahdimg_Ldo

Length: 37min 56sec (2276 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021