Air compressor litigation

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I got a letter in the mail this morning about a class action lawsuit involving consumer grade air compressors mfg'd by Campbell Hausfield, and DeVilbiss. These were made under a lot of brand names.The lawsuit concerns them fudging on their horsepower ratings. Everyone knows that they do that, but some lawyer capitalized on it. The lawyers get almost six million bucks, the rest of use are elegible for about fifty bucks in air tools. Here's the webb sight, check it outhttp://aircompressorsettlement.com/claim.php3
Reply:Interesting to see SnapOn, Matco, IngersoleRand & Speedair listed among the whores who sold their name for a few extra bucks.So the lawyer gets 6 mil in cash, and you get some obsolete crap tools & a roll of teflon tape, that seems fair, after all that lawyer has to pay expensive office rent, and have a fleet of hot skank secretarys to suck the information out of the witnesses, and yacht fuel is not as cheap as it used to be.  Hey, John Edwards, former Democrap Presidential candidate is a class action lawyer, I wonder how much he got out of this deal.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:The lawyers are destroying our country and getting rich doing it.
Reply:Nevertheless, I just had to check.  I have a little bitty C H that I keep in the garage just for blowing up air tanks & guess what - its a model WL which is one of the qualifyers listed.  That's one of those cheapies with the flat piston in a teflon cylinder things & I bought it not working real cheap, ordered a new piston for 17 bucks, I think it was.  Its had light use for about 5 years or so.  I filed the claim & we'll see what happens.
Reply:I am surprised the lawyers let you have 50.00 in air tools.Of course you have not seen the air tools yet.There's a method to the madness, disregard the method and the madness begins!!
Reply:speaking of torts, have you guys seen this: http://www.weldingandparkinsonsdisease.com/  They are running TV ads for it around here..
Reply:There is a lot of money to be made in the Calss Action arena, for Lawyere, like the former presidential candidate John Edwards.You just have to keep remembering that 99% of the lawyers in this country give the honest lawyers a bad name.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:Originally posted by big rig guy Of course you have not seen the air tools yet.
Reply:I knew these manufacturers were lying about their HP ratings for some years.  Actually, the only thing that counts with a compressor is  the SCFM or standard cubic feet per minute rating.  HP, amps, etc are all pretty much worthless parameters for judging compressor performance.  Typically, SCFM is rated at 40 and 90 psi.  Thess numbers were chosen because 40 psi is typical for spray guns and 90 psi is typical for air tools, such as die grinders, etc. One of my small compressors is a 1HP rated oil lubricated Sears antique - well, maybe not quite an antique, but certainly at least a collectible.  It's rated at 7.3 SCFM at 40 psi and 5.7 SCFM at 90 psi.  Today's  oiled compressors providing comparable SCFM are advertised as having 3 - 5 HP!  (the air must have gotten thicker over the years?) Another clue was that this baby draws 19 amps at startup.
Reply:well crap, wouldn't you know it. I bought my compressor on 2/7/04 ... 7 days too late ... the story of my life.and I don't want any cheap air tools I want a motor with those spec's I paid for !
Reply:It's not like Campbell Hausfield is going to loose any money over it. They will just up their prices to pay for it.Everyone knows lawyers are the only people that actually get paid any type of money in classaction lawsuits.axehind
Reply:Franz, I think you typed that quote wrong>"You just have to keep remembering that 99% of the lawyers in this country give the honest lawyers a bad name".I think you meant to type>You just have to keep remembering that 99% of the lawyers in this country give the one honest lawyer a bad name". You had honest lawyers plural, and if by chance you locate that 1 guy, I need to know his name. DavidDavid
Reply:I personally know 2 honest lawyers, and they both carry guns.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:Originally posted by OlPilot One of my small compressors is a 1HP rated oil lubricated Sears antique - well, maybe not quite an antique, but certainly at least a collectible.  It's rated at 7.3 SCFM at 40 psi and 5.7 SCFM at 90 psi.  Today's  oiled compressors providing comparable SCFM are advertised as having 3 - 5 HP!  (the air must have gotten thicker over the years?) Another clue was that this baby draws 19 amps at startup.
Reply:Naw, that one is actually a Quincy I believe.  Damn good little machine once you glue the fittings into the tank.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:Well the petcock bung (now that's a scandalous way to start a sentance!) is leaking, and it has JB Weld around it.  I haven't fixed it because it leaks just slow enough to act as a pretty good water drain.  BUT, if I fix it, what do I weld it with, just the regular 70s .030 wire in my MIG?
Reply:Rusted;I hope that the leak is on the threads, and not the bung it self.If the metal is deteriorated, you have a dangerous situation. Typically air tanks rust out where there is water setting. If you have one leak, you shouldn't weld it. Because the entire bottom of the tank is usually rusted thin. An air tank blowing up is not a pretty sight, not to mention sometimes fatal. If air is just leaking around the threads of the fitting. remove the fitting, probably be a good idea to reolace it. install a new fitting use pipe dope instead of teflon tape. Might be a good idea to install one of those nifty ten buck HF auto drains.
Reply:Rusted, my old 1 HP looks somewhat similar your picture, but I think it's a bit newer.  I bought it new in '79 in Houston and it was made for Sears by Devilbiss.  Still going strong!I agree to a great extent with fla jim.  Check where that leak is coming from.  But don't be too alarmed.  Statistically, most rusted out tanks don't result in an explosive failure.  The pinholes tend to  progress to the point where the tank just won't hold air.  An explosive failure is not impossible, just improbable.  Weld and fatigue failures in tanks are a different story, however.  You have a missile on your hands there.  It used to be that in some states, you couldn't buy a compressor if the tank hadn't been assembled by a weldor certified to ASME code.  With the flood of imports, that may have gone by the wayside.Speaking of import compressors, last  year I decided to put staple down hardwood floors on my second story.  I didn't want air hose running from my shop through the house upstairs, so I looked for a small pancake compressor.  The Porter Cables, etc. were all oilless - noisy devils and questionable long term reliability.  Couldn't find a domestic oiled one.  I finally found an oil model pancake on sale at Harbor Freight for $90.  They don't come with a regulator valve, so I added one and welded on a  bracket  to support it.  This compressor weighs about 50 lbs, so it's easily portable.  It's been a little jewel so far.  Worked like a champ - just the thing for flooring staplers, brad nailers, air brush and detail gun work,etc.  My son's using it now.
Reply:Rusted Jim and I are on the same page with regard to the tank.I saw one of those tanks fail catastrophicly to the point it split lengthwise and wrapped itself around the compressor and motor.The force of the tank was sufficient to bend the compressor shaft.Interestingly, the top portion of the tank was still shiney clean steel, but the bottom was rotted from rust because the owner didn't drain the tank.I have one similar to yours, and generously(STUPID) loaned it to a "friend" who needed to rebuild his compressor.  When I went to pick mine up, the tank was half full of water, because he never felt any need to drain it, after all, it wasn't his.Soap your tank around the petcock, and if it is leaking anyplace other than threads, replace the tank.  Thise things were made to absolute minimums to begin with, and have no repair capability.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:Ok then thanks for the replies!It's funny, this was given to me by my father in law.  A man who gives no meaning to 'meticilous about maintenance.'  I mean really, I've threaded the ins and outs of the Navy 3M system, and this man makes NavSea look like careless slackards.The bung has JB Weld around it.  I'll just have to pry that off and see, and if it doesn't come off I'll replace the tank.
Reply:I agree with Franz's advice against trying any repair if the tank is rusted.  If the inside is rusted, it'll look like the surface of the moon with pits, peaks and valleys.  That  means various thicknesses of sound metal will be remaining in the corroded area.  There is no good repair, short of forming and welding in an entire lower section, and that's impractical. The hoop tension stress in the barrel section of a tank are given by the formula pr/t where p is the pressure, r is the radius and t is the thickness of the tank wall.  Given that r is a constant for any given tank design, we can forget that parameter. Now consider that as rust progresses and eats away sound metal, t gets much smaller in the areas under attack.  With p constant,  the value of pr/t, or the hoop tension stress will increase.  One of two things will eventually happen.  Either pinholes will relieve the pressure safely, which most usually occurs, or the hoop tension stresses will exceed the capability of the remaining metal.  Ka-Boom!Whenever I buy a new compressor, I first fog the inside of the tank with a water-displacing rust inhibiting aircraft  aerosol compound such as LPS-3, Boeing Boshield 3-23, CRC, etc.  Haven't had one rust out yet!
Reply:Rusted, the easiest way to get an idea of tank condition might be to just tip it up and tap around the bottom with a chipping hammer.  You'll definitely notice a different sound if rust has been munching inside the tank.Appreciation Gains You Recognition-
Reply:Originally posted by rusted
Reply:Originally posted by morpheus my Dad had a compressor just like that one for about as long as I've been alive. About 2 months ago it locked up ... it was completely dry of oil ... whoops ... it had been leaking a little out for a long time from the looks of it.I gotta say I don't like your orange pvc hose though. I used to have one and somehow the inner hose failed and pressurized the outer sheath. it wasn't a pretty site seeing all that hose swelled up to about 1.5" in diameter. I have nothing but good hoses now.