Anyone know about compressors?

[rik]

I've borrowed a compressor so i can use an Orbital Sander on my car. According to the specs it should run the sander ok, but after 10 seconds use it drains the tank and i have to wait for it to refill.

 

The compressor is 8.1cfm - max 8 bar

Orbital Sander consumption 6 cfm - 6.2 bar

 

There is a fault with it that i know of, but don't know whats causing it. The motor never cuts out even when it reaches maximum pressure! It sounds like a dump valve as it blows off down to 80 psi, and then fills back up to 120 psi and then repeats.....

 

Any body know about these thing?????

[Mike M]

Sounds like the pressure switch isn't working or is stuck which should cut the motor and now the relief valve is lifting. I've never worked on one tho so i don't know if the switch is adjustable or anything.

[merckx]

I just bought one yesterday.

 

On mine there's a plastic cover ( where the on/off switch and reset switch are located).

 

If you remove the cover there's an adjustment valve underneath , this is used to adjust the max pressure that it will reach before the motor cuts out.

 

I would experiment with adjusting this, but I would switch it off manually if it gets too high.

 

On the one I got it was anti-clockwise to lower the cut out pressure.

[rik]

Nice one. There's a plastic cover on this one too, so i'll have a look under that and see if there's some sort of pressure switch.

 

Maybe it's stuck which means its leaking while i'm using the sander and emptying the tank. This could also be why the motor never cuts out.