Broken Regulator?

thespaniard180 wrote:

I just got my Harbor Freight Compressor and was experimenting with the PSI adjustment knob. Here's the compressor I bought: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=93657 Anyways, I was turning the knob in order to increase the pressure then I heard a "snap/pop" and the knob came off, and now I can't put the knob back on. I thought I broke something, but I've disassembled knob assembly and nothing seems to be missing, snapped, broken, etc. It looks like everything should just go back together no problem, but it doesn't seem to work. The regulator seems to work by compressing or decompressing a spring which is pressed against some "button" which, when pressed, allows air to pass through. Now, the knob isn't "held in place" in order to apply pressure on the spring. It's like trying to swing a baseball bat standing on a turntable...unless your feet are planted against something solid, if you swing your bat, you'll just spin your body. So unless this knob is planted against something solid, it can't apply pressure against the spring, and therefore allow the regulator to work. Besides the regulator, the compressor seems to work just fine. Does anybody have similar experiences with their regulators? I imagine this is a common issue, given how easily it occurred.

Take the compressor back to Habor Freight for an under warranty replacement. It sounds like a defective product.

Better yet, exchange it for their higher powered model. You may not need the Badger 155 AB clone, but it is a reasonable backup. Hope that your drive is not an extra long one to HF.

This may be the only decent AB compressor at HF when new. The others are junks.

Mail or in person. Don't keep the compressor you have had. Return it for a full refund and eat the shipping. Drive to a local HF to get the other compressor if you must have a HF. This one will not have the pulsation problem of the low power ones.

Getting a separate regulator/filter does not make sense economically. If you must, get a good one from AirBrush-Depot that has a diaphram type regulator. They have free shipping on the Ebay offer occasionally to make it less painful.