Hi Folks, does anyone have any info/manual on this old compressor by BEN Patents Ltd? I picked it up for £20 to restore as a project but I’m having a hard job finding any info on it at all? The guy I got it off said it did start a few years ago but had been sitting in his garden under piles of wood since then so I was expecting much out of it. You can imagine my surprise when the motor turned after plugging it in, so I quickly super-glued the shot belt together to test if the rest of it worked, and it did! (there is a small leak somewhere though). This thing is a beast though! Talk about heavy! The bell shaped air intake weighs a kilo on it own so you can imagine how heavy the rest of it is!
Anyway, I haven’t a clue what all the taps etc on it are for nor anything else! It’s my 1st ever compressor and I’m 52! So any help at all will be gratefully received….thanks ? says, Chris Savill.
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Welcome to “Compressorville”, Chris!
At least it has wheels… I have not seen one of these, but if you can get some pix of whatever tags are on it, I may be able to help get you going in the right direction. No promises, but I’ll try. Is there some sort of tank on it somewhere? Doug from s.d.ca.
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Hi Doug and thank you for the reply. I have taken some photo’s of the only two tags I can find on it so any info you can find would be a great help.
You asked about a tank? well it does have a tank, two of them in fact ? though they are a bit small in size and are housed underneath the trolley platform. Was there any reason for this question or something I should know? Any and all help is gratefully received.
Many thanks again
Chris
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1936 Acquired by Broom and Wade – and they by CompAir, perhaps with intervening buy-outs. Maybe you already looked at this, but if not have a look at this link.
Your machine could be either the paint sprayer (December 1934, upper right) or the “Pnu-Flator” (March 1939) either one considerably modified to keep it running, I imagine. Or something else…
Air tank: I asked because there are a couple or three ways to control the pump:
there’s start-stop,
load/unload
disable valves (hold them open).
Yours is probably start-stop. The tank keeps the air flowing while the motor is stopped and starting up.
HTH, let us know if you come up with anything more, please.
