Old Fools Journal: A Tool Bites the Dust

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I know better than to attach living qualities to inanimate objects but when it comes to my tools I find it difficult not to. They are living things and the life I feel in them is just as real as when I place my hand on my dogs head and feel it's life. I have many old tools some handed down from my parents and grandparents. I have tools from others that I never knew that have passed tools on to me but I know of them and I feel their life when I handle their tools. My grandfathers handsaw, my first wifes father's handsaw, the hammers with the well polished handles that are older than I am, my dad's mechanic tools, my mothers skillet, long guns that were passed from my grandfather to my dad then to me are examples. I hardly have a tool that doesn't have a history and I have many. I never touch these tools without remembering where they came from and who has handled or made them in the past. I don't have names for them just a quiet mental acknowledging of their origin. Which brings me to a dying old friend.

This old friend is a tool that would be considered more modern in that it is electric but when I tell you how it came to have life you will see why I have feelings for it. You see it is an air compressor but not just any air compressor. Its an air compressor called “Elmer” named after its creator Elmer. Elmer was 83 years old and retired from a multitude of trades but he was first and foremost a maker. Elmer had just acquired some new tools, a new automatic shutoff hacksaw and a newfangled argon gas wire feed arc welder. He needed something to build.

At this time we were living in Mexico (my bride and I) and we had stashed the old Greyhound bus I call Rose in Quartzsite, Arizona for us to have a place in the U.S. Rose is a retired Greyhound Bus converted to a motor home (house car) but that is another story I'll tell at another time. Elmer spent his winters in Quartzsite.

While there on our annual visit (1989 I think) to the United States Elmer and I were going over some of the stuff in my old pickup truck that we had picked up in California to take back to our house in Mexico. One of those item was a electric motor from the 1930's or 40's shown in the picture. It was given to me along with a bunch of other old stuff that was in the workshop of a house another old friend had just bought. It was said to have been stored in that shop for at least 35 years. We hooked it up and it ran fine. It is of a type that has two sets of brushes. It starts under load with one set then once up to speed retracts them. It has incredible start up torque. It's really weird to listen to it shift gears. Elmer saw that motor and decided that I needed an air compressor. He really wanted to build something that would use his new automatic hacksaw and welderPretty soon we were in his van running around the desert to various junk piles picking up parts. He found the compressor pictured here in an old friends dump. The old friend said that it had been laying in that dump at least 50 years and he had no idea when it was really discarded. Turns out it was the compressor from possibly an ammonia refrigeration system or worse a sulfur dioxide system (early refrigeration used some really bad stuff) and as far as I can tell maybe from the 1920's or even earlier. It is a small but substantial cast iron piece of machinery which is another way to say that it is beautiful.

At the next dump we found an old dump truck and remove the air brake tank. It was small enough to fit into the automatic hacksaw. It was too long but that is what the automatic hacksaw and the welder were for. Rummaging around in the parts piles and junk bins he came up with all the rest of the paraphernalia that is necessary to make an air compressor work. Soon I had an air compressor with parts some of which were older than me and not one copper penny had been spent. Elmer was a maker and there was no junk just parts that had not found their purpose yet.

It worked and it has worked for more than 20 years. The legs rusted off the tank and it developed a leak but no problem. For a long time I just let it leak and I propped it up with a two by four. Eventually I mixed and matched the only parts of my dad's Craftsman compressor that lasted. That was the tank and gages. In the time I have had this homemade contraption two craftsmen compressors were worn out so I have two tanks equaling 12 gallons.

Now It's just tired. It looks good, it looks strong but it is tired. I have taken it apart, cleaned, adjusted and said magical incantations but it just won't pump air. I miss the sound already. On start up the motor growled then faded to a growling hum and then it just made a “pah-ca-ty pah-ca-ty” sound. Old and rhythmic music to my ears.

A new pump is on the way but I have not forgotten the old one. It may take some time and I may have to do some creative parts matching but I'll bet that I can make it work again. If I can't I'll paint it bronze and make it into a garden ornament