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In this video I rebuild my Craftsman oil free air compressor for ~$47 USD. This is a ~12 year old compressor that could no longer get up to pressure and would have cost over $350 to replace. Well that was the cost over 12 years ago. I couldn’t find a 5 HP 30 gal model like this on the market anymore. The only 5HP models were over $1000 and more gallons.

You can also find another good Craftsman air compressor rebuild video of a smaller model here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUw7r0fJqIc

My compressor is a 5HP 30gal model 919-165300 and I was able to get the rebuild kit from http://www.searspartsdirect.com

You will need a long Torx T20 driver if you don’t want to hack up your cover like I did.

You can find your Craftsman model number affixed to the side of your compressor. You type this model number into the web page and select search by model number. Then pick your rebuild kit which should come with the piston, cylinder sleeve and new rubber rings. Not all these bits may be bad on your compressor but if you’re taking it apart why not replace all the ware parts for one kit price.

Unplug your compressor, drain all the air and take off the plastic cover. I had a dog of a time with my plastic cover but you can watch the video if you want to hear more. Then remove the fill pipe.

This is the top of the cylinder head. The large side is the intake and the smaller side is the compression exhaust side.

Below is the top of the valve plate assembly and it is what controls the in/out of the air flow as the piston compresses the air. The valves open and close as air is sucked in and then compressed out into the tank.

And this is the bottom of the valve plate.

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In this video I teardown and cleanup a 20 year old Swintec 401DP printing desk calculator.  It was still working and I needed a good desk calculator for my bench.

I cover how some of the electronics work as well as the mechanics and of course my efforts cleaning and greasing it up into perfect working order. Good for another 20 years I say.

I picked this one up at Goodwill for $3.00 with 10 rolls of paper. It might have worked but it was in horrible condition and filthy as you can imagine, it had a hard life. Still Goodwill is a great place to score old electronics.  Normally I don’t fix stuff I get from Goodwill I just tear it down for fun and for spare parts. The old parts are still the best for hacking.

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I was working on my 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee today. Just changing oil and replacing an upper radiator hose. I put my hand on my cruise control module and leaned a bit too hard on it – “SNAP”. I broke off the vacuum nipple at the base of the plastic molded housing. That’s the end of that! Well, my cruise hasn’t work for over 10 years so I wasn’t too sad.   I thought I might as well do an autopsy to see how it worked and if it didn’t work then what went wrong so long ago.

Here is the full module with vacuum diaphragm canister control and throttle cable.

Below are the control solenoids that dial in just the right vacuum to pull the diaphragm and throttle cable back to a selected cursing speed.

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