SpudFiles

Have any of the folks round here ever had bad experiences with online auctions?
This is my tale of buyer beware woes.

I signed up a few months ago to hunt for parts.
I got some good stuff I will admit.
Then I decided to bid on 3 things from the same seller.
Figured the retail cost on 8 valves.
would make it a sweet deal right , Wrong.
The guy waits like 2 weeks to ship my stuff after I paid.
Plus I had to prod via email for him to even send it.

Finally get my stuff in the mail.
Only to realize that I've been overcharged for shipping.
5 of the 8 valves are not as advertised.
I was supposed to get 1. 1/2"QEV 2. 1/4" QEVs and 5. 1/4" SS 2K WOG ball valves.
Instead I get 3. 3/8" QEVs 1. 3/8' Ball Valve @1k WOG and 1. 3/8" ball valve @2k WOG.
Its not a total loss though I have 3. 1/4"SS ball valves @ 2k WOG.

The guy offered to refund but I also,
had someone screwing with my bank at the same time.
Had to close my account.
Witch made a refund problematic, and by now not likely.
The upside is I'm not out an arm and a leg.
If nothing else I can sell what I don't want.
With the other hardware I need to get rid of.
My stock pile would cause most spudders techies or mechies trouble walking.

Why on earth would i want 2K WOG rated valves you ask?
so that i can rock out @ 500 psi with a high safety margin why else.
lets just say that i discovered the evil of fridge pumps over a decade ago.

I have wanted to make something proper ever since. still alive

I am glad to finally sign up after lurking for a while.
Big hello to all the folks around here.
much respect to the departed chewy.
He made impressively sweet cannons.
I always liked his wasp design.
Figured this would be the place to post this.
Hope I don't get punked by the mods.

While thinking of safety is a good thing there is such a thing as going over the top, right across no-mans land and planting a flag in the enemy trench

A 2kpsi operating pressure ball valve is not even likely to fail at 4500psi due to its own safety margins, the average full metal ball valve in a hardware shop will cope with 500psi easily.

Still, as long as you're feeling safe, no matter

Oh dear... You've picked a user name that our current top poster used to go by on an old set of forums, so cue carnage and chaos!
But we shall survive!

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, hope you can make something that's worth it out of what you actually received.

And I can think of more reasons than that for wanting a 2000 psi rating - one launcher around here destroyed two valves rated to over 7000 psi.
(What's really worrying is I told the guy how he could get the pressure 60% higher again...)

EDIT: Oh dear, Hotwired is at his metaphors again.

Sorry to hear about your woes... Your sentence structure there felt something like a 5 year old on a sugar high.

Chewy "departed" over 3 years ago...many here now aren't even aware of who he was...mostly only the hold overs from the Spudtech days...so your respect to chewy on your first post seems a little forced. Did you know him personally in some way?

Do you have any cannons to share with us?

Why do you think you would get "punked" by a mod?

I was ripped off when trying to buy Smallvile Season 1 once. I never buy now, I only sell.

Do you have any cannons to share with us?

Why do you think you would get "punked" by a mod?

2 very good questions! Being a moderator here at Spudfiles, I have to ask.

What exactly do you mean by "punked"?

We prefer topics like this to be posted at Spudfiles sister site -- http://www.theopia.com. It's just as easy to join there as it is here, "It's all good"!

Welcome to Spudfiles......

oh man! that would have pissed me of

welcome fullmetaljacket Part TWO

starman wrote:Chewy "departed" over 3 years ago...many here now aren't even aware of who he was...mostly only the hold overs from the Spudtech days...so your respect to chewy on your first post seems a little forced. Did you know him personally in some way?

But I would give the "new FMJ" many brownie points for having actually read through the forums and looked at some of chewy's designs. That's a big step up on many forum noobies.

Plus, it sounds like he knows what he's doing. Always nice to get a new person with some experience.

jrrdw wrote:
We prefer topics like this to be posted at Spudfiles sister site -- http://www.theopia.com. It's just as easy to join there as it is here, "It's all good"!

Welcome to Spudfiles......

I would be fine with a topic like this at Spudfiles, but i'll move it to the General Discussion since it is actually related to Spudding.

Welcome to spudfiles.
Thanks for reading the archives.
Not many noobs do that.
I hate ePay too.
No negative feedback.
Idiotic.
This will be weird.
Fullmetaljacket and FULLMETALJACKET.
Jackssmirkingrevenge was the other Fullmetaljacket.
No idea how we'll cope.
This sentence structure.
Is very difficult to type.
And even more painful to read.

Your sentence structure there felt something like a 5 year old on a sugar high.

true..... I thought 'oh.. a poem?'



any chance to see a pic of your fridge pump ? or at least hear something about it/them?

POLAND_SPUD wrote:true..... I thought 'oh.. a poem?'

Wrong valve here
Ebay seller gets minus
A spud haiku

to starman forced really ouch, not my intent to offend.
liked his work from back when air power.net was still up.
cant remember how long ago that was.
I was not fortunate enough to know the man personally. I am ok with knowing the works of and respecting those who came before.

sorry to hear that there was another fmj. sorry Jackssmirkingrevenge i had no idea. Is it possible to change ones member name? paragraph structure was never a skill of mine. i will work on that. i did ace creative writing poetry ha.


i do have cannons to share, will post asap. i know pics and info or face firing squad. by punked i mean flamed banned or other wise destroyed. i have seen it happen countless times. usually it is reserved for those who deserve it. glad this is not one of those forums.

about fridge pumps:
i currently have 6 fridge pumps 5 heavy one small. i have collected them over the years from dead freezers. the 1st one i modded was big 12"lx10"wx12"h. that thing popped air hoses like nothing. after realizing this i abandoned 200psi max hose and clamps. i now use compression to npt fittings. i used a 1/8"npt grease gun hose rated @3kpsi, an O2 gage rated the same. a regular 1/4" quick coupler and 1/4" ball valve rated 600psi as an unloader. and 1/8", 1/4" tees nipples and adapters to mesh it all.

its darn impossible to uncouple above 300 psi without an unloader. no pressure relief valve or auto shut off at all. i figured turn it on watch gauge turn off at desired pressure. way bad idea, did i mention that pump was big. so i turn it on and within seconds the pressure shot up 650-700 psi. not sure exactly how high it went my gauge only reads in 150psi increments. i turned it off quick and scared. the chamber i made was 1" npt galvanized water pipe about 18" total.

so there i was thinking i almost lost use of my hands and face.
i wanted to open the 1/4" unloader to relieve the pressure. i opened the 1" main valve on the chamber instead. its a very odd and frightening sensation/experience to hear something that loud. all i herd/felt was a low hiss before the pressure wave hit me. then my eardrums popped hard and i could not hear anything. i do remember feeling like i got slapped in the face arms chest as the air rushed past me.

i was shell shocked and deaf as a post for a few hours. i stumbled out of my room to see my mom yelling at me from the end of the hall way. can you say "ha what i cant hear you". she had to yell in my face "what the blank was that". she described it as the loudest ka-boom! she has ever heard.

now i have relief valves max rated 1500psi that are adjustable down to ~200psi. after that experience its my belief that relief valves are a must with fridge pumps. without them you run the risk of getting seriously or fatally wounded. the smaller ones are safer to me because of their inherent slowness. never leave one unattended even my small one can pump up to ~350-375psi. i still have 10 fingers 10 toes and good looks:)

edit: that happened while ducked under a work table. with the chamber 12 to 18" in front of my face. also i was told that 10 minutes went by before i walked out. weird because it felt like 1 or 2. stunned to say the least.

"planting a flag in the enemy trench"
thanks for the comments.

hey thx for writting this... now I see that you really know what you are doing

ts darn impossible to uncouple above 300 psi without an unloader.

lol finally someone who realize that

my fridge compressor is small and to tell you the truth I am really happy that it has small output... well you know why... I have enough time to turn it off..... I have one spare but I never needed one but I do plan to use them toghether and maybe add 1 or 2 more

never leave one unattended

I preffer to use a short lenght of pressure hose rated to lower pressures (~24 bar) just to have something to work as a safety in case something goes wrong... unfortunatelly I couldn't find a pressure relief valve which opens at more than 16 bar... but yeah I figured it out that it's a must if you want to add a tank and have it running continously...

have you ever tried to build something like that ? I've did some experiments with cooling but as I said it will be dangerous to have them runnung continously without a pressure relief valve

thanks poland_spud

i have given some thought to building a shop compressor. i never quite figured out how to wire up 2,4 or 6 of them. i don't think it would make standard 120 volt 60hz single phase wiring happy. it can probably be done but i bet it would pop 20amp breakers often. i have already burned out one of those. i would hate to be the cause of an electrical fire.

imagine with current limiting and a auto shut off / unloader valve 2 could work. with a 50amp breaker possibly 3 or 4. 5 or 6 unlikely with out 230 volts and a 50 amp breaker. wired 2 parallel on standard 120v 20 amp. wired series parallel 4 to 6 on 230v 50 amp. keep in mind i am no electrician.

the problem i ran into was that. they tend to want to not start under pressure. i thought about getting individual unloaders. but that would get expensive quick. i also toyed with the idea of making a cryogenic cascade. that is way beyond my current level of understanding.