1927 Ingersoll-Rand Portable Compressor
Once on the Brink of Becoming Salvage Yard Fodder, this Waukesha-Powered Compressor is Back at Work
August/September 2002
Brian C. Ferrence
Brian Ferrence poses with his 1927 Ingersoll-Rand compressor
shortly after purchase in the summer of 2000 and upon getting the
unit home. Power comes from an inline Waukesha four-cylinder
engine, which remarkably needed only minor work to get fully
operational.
In the summer of 2000, while visiting Harry's Old
Engine page on the Internet and checking out the classifieds,
I came across an ad for an old portable Ingersoll-Rand air
compressor. It was listed as a 1927 Model, and the pictures made it
look every bit that old. The compressor caught my eye because I had
been toying with the idea of buying a used, portable compressor to
provide air for sand blasting and blowing steam whistles. The
little shop compressor I had couldn't supply the air volume to
do these things, and I'll admit that the prospect of using an
antique unit had a certain appeal.
Unfortunately, the compressor was located in northern
Connecticut, a six-hour drive from my home in eastern Pennsylvania.
Even so, I gave the owner a call and asked about the condition of
the compressor. It sounded like it was worth checking out, but I
was still unwilling to drive that far for just a look. It turned
out, however, that my daughter, a student at Boston University,
would be heading back to Boston for the fall semester in a few
weeks, so I told the owner I would call before taking my daughter
back to college, and if the compressor was still available I would
stop to take a look.
About a week before my trip to Boston I called again, and the
owner still had the compressor. He gave me directions to his home,
which was only a few miles off my route, and we arranged a time to
meet. He promised to see if he could get the unit running before I
arrived.
The finished unit, mounted on a new frame with uprated spindles
and wheels so it can be safely towed on the road. Brian used one
set of the original leaf springs. Note the manifold of steam
whistles, just visible to the right.
And indeed he did, for when I arrived he started the engine,
running it briefly while I checked out the compressor. It
didn't run very well - the choke had to be mostly closed for it
to run, it seemed to be firing on only two cylinders and it
couldn't power the compressor. But it ran!
During my visit, Frank (I never got his last name) told me the
compressor had belonged to a contractor in the area who used it for
a number of years in the course of his business. But when the
contractor retired, so did his machinery, and the compressor was
parked in a field with some other equipment where it deteriorated
for a few decades until Frank came across it.
At the time, he and a friend were restoring an old fire truck
and had some heavy-duty sand blasting to do. When Frank got the
compressor it was seized, and removing the head he found the
problem was with the valves. He freed the valves from their bores,
lapped them to get a good seal and got the machine running well
enough to power the sand blaster.
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