Air compressor not restarting

[Susquatch]

One would hope that the Sanborn engineer calculated or tested what happens if the capacitors are both at the high end of their specified tolerance while the thermal cutout is on the sensitive side of its tolerance and the ambient temperature is at the maximum specified?

Don't be so sure. Or if that engineer did, that a bean counter later decided that this new (untested) capacitor or thermal cutout has roughly the same specifications but costs 10c less can save us x $ a year.

Normally, I like everything you write. But those two paragraphs suggest that you are CRAZY.

There is no qualified engineer or bean counter at that outfit. Just a handy entrepreneur who cobbled together an air compressor that worked and then decided to go into business making and selling them. Or some other such equally cobbled together operation.

To be clear, I'm not knocking that business model. LOTS of companies start that way. Some stay that way and some get serious and hire the required talent as they grow. The latter group usually live or die based on how well the boss accepts the advice of the talent he hired. I can hear it now..... "What do you mean this motor isn't good enough? It worked when I installed it! We are not buying that motor you recommend! It will devour all my profits and I won't be able to make the mortgage payments on my yacht."

 

[slow-poke]

Crazy perhaps, I prefer meticulous?

Well you might be right, seems to me that every other profitable little company gets swallowed by some big company that does should have the infrastructure.

We (two guys and myself) started a business in our basement and grew it to be quite successful we were very picky about every hire and only hired the absolute best talent we could find and often had to stretch our budget to do so. Paid off in spades. We were a small high tech and fortunately because we had very high margins focused on performance and quality with little thought to cost of components. A Monty Carlo analysis for component tolerance stacking was a normal part of our design process. Perhaps that's why much of our old equipment still works today and why our customers became a powerful sales force.

All that being said later as a consultant I helped countless large established companies that had swallowed good smaller companies for their products and then ditched all the talent that invented those products. At that point they had no clue how to keep them in production the moment some component became obsolete. I was always amazed at how little talent these large companies had, often they would hire the cheapest engineers they could find and their managers had no clue how useless their cheap talent was. That short term maximize profits mentality is a recipe for disaster.

 

[Susquatch]

Crazy perhaps, I prefer meticulous?

I was referring to your crazy assumption that Sanborn had engineers and finance staff. I hope my sarcasm and humour came through. Ya, your meticulous attention to detail is just one of the many reasons why I like most things you write.

Well you might be right, seems to me that every other profitable little company gets swallowed by some big company that does should have the infrastructure.

I tried a little digging and discovered that Sanborn is pretty much exactly what we both described.

Sanborn was started by a handy fellow who made and sold compressors. The business was successful enough to be purchased by a much larger outfit who look to me like they just want to milk the cow till she goes dry.

Today, Sanborn has just two contacts, a plant manager named Butch, and a Quality Manager who does not seem to have any qualifications at all. I'd bet Butch is also the Sales and Finance guy. Again, nothing wrong with that, but its not likely a good structure for world class air compressors.

 

[Elektrishun]

I think what I find most disappointing is that the thermal overload is not an easily identifiable/replaceable part for David's original motor.

I am sure most of us wrestle with the pros and cons when trying to decide "fix or replace". But damn I wanted to see this movie end conclusively.

Now I am left with nothing but questions - where's the motor? Is it on a shelf or in a scrap bin? Will it end up in Member's Spotted Deals "good but used motor for extremely light duty applications"?

 

[David]

I think what I find most disappointing is that the thermal overload is not an easily identifiable/replaceable part for David's original motor.

I am sure most of us wrestle with the pros and cons when trying to decide "fix or replace". But damn I wanted to see this movie end conclusively.

Now I am left with nothing but questions - where's the motor? Is it on a shelf or in a scrap bin? Will it end up in Member's Spotted Deals "good but used motor for extremely light duty applications"?

I'm honestly disappointed as well. I hate that it was not an simple fix.
Motor is sitting on my bench. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.
A person could just bypass the thermal overload switch but I wasn't comfortable doing that.