Today I was perusing my local metal scrap pile, and at the edge was a cute little old DeVilbliss airbrush compressor, model ACD-501 on the name plate, I think, prolly dating from the 50s. That silvery paint and castings that were de riguer around then. 1.5 amp, 115 volt, 60 cycle AC.
The oddity is that instead of one air outlet, it had two, beside one another. Cool, I thought, this will be nice for two different airbrushes at once.
So I threw it in the back and took it home. I already have a perfectly good Binks airbrush compressor, but hey, it could die. Or I can give it to my buddy Barry-the-Fireman who is into that sort of thing.
And I just now plugged it in. Like most old stuff at the junkyard, it worked fine. The left side connection, with the hose already on it, well, it spat out air fine.
The right side connection, though- it doesn’t spit air at all. It pulls air.
Uh huh, a cute little vaccum pump and airbrush compressor. Combo model. I have no idea how much vaccum it’ll pull, but there are lots of ways to find that out.
I’d take a picture, but my digital camera chose this particular moment in time to crap out. But keep yer eyes peeled for 'em, they are out there.
Prolly just a leetle dust or corrosion in there someplace… or the batteries were not quite perfection. So, blowing dust out, changed batteries yet again and…
Shazam! It works…
So here it is. Note the left coupler has an airbrush hose attached, it’s the output, while the right does suction. Could be that it was originally intended for a filter or something, but…
Both are, apparently, standard pipe thread, so hose fittings of different sizes can be easily attached. Barbed fittings, suitable for a fairly stiff polyethylene hose, would prolly be the move.
Oh, and above left, note that the power cord has an inline switch, something I wish my newer airbrush compressor had. Instead, it’s just a plug.
Bottom view, note the configuration of the diaphragm-type air pump. Probably some sort of setup like a reed valve in there to control airflow.
Okay, guys, I got mine, now you can go looking for yours. While I wouldn’t want to use it to do a big vac bag project, it could certainly handle the ‘maintainance’ vaccum after first taking the bag down with something like a shop-vac. It would likely be very amenable to being run off a vaccum switch.
Good score Doc and good to see you posting again. I’ve learned heaps from you over the years.
They closed my local dump and turned it into a transfer station where they pack the rubbish into trucks and haul everything to Auckland. The worst part is they closed the dump store. You could get old fridge compressors there for $1.50, or a fishing rod, silverware, or that one wierd bolt or metal bit that just fit a project. Just making it harder to be an effective scrounger.
Howzit jong, As a former scrounger I think these transfer stations are just adding more recycables to land fills. I use to score some amazing stuff from dumps but that’s a thing of the past here in hawaii also. Aloha
