tamrock
Platinum Member
- #1
Thread Owner
Last Friday I went to Leadville Colorado to donate some stuff and we rebuilt two of their Gardner Denver S83 Jacklegs for the event. On of the fellas hooked the drill up with air and put three holes in to see how it ran. It sounded real sweet and ran as it should. They crank the psi up a little from the recommended max air pressure for the contest. Any more pressure will cause the air and rock drill oil and air mix to ignite inside the like a diesel engine and that's no good, so 115 psi is perfect for a competition. In an investigation at a mine many, many years ago an air compresses exploded and I believe it was a pretty catastrophic accident. An inspector was call in to evaluate what all happened in that event. The inspectors name was Rudolf Diesel and the rest is history from that one mining accident. In the last picture this fella brought a big ass steam whistle he got at a garage sale in town. He's never herd it blow. They hooked it up to the compressor and you'd swear the luxury steamship "The Queen Mary" was leaving the harbor out to sea. From the info the guy who had it found it was made in 1902. It had a patented design he said, that was a triple harmonic chamber for a melody of a low but loud sound. It requires 400 psi of steam pressure to be most effective in optimum attention. It was so cool to hear that thing and I wished it was I that found it at a garage sale. We could only guess it came from maybe the old smelter in String Town or something like a big plant as a time of day notifier. I never asked how much he paid for it, but I'm sure he'll get some offers on it as the antique engines guys come to Leadville to display their old hit & miss machines and what ever else they have as early 19th century machinery.
