American Bristol 4S12NE3

[TimmyMac1]

I just bought this Compressor Unit with less than 60 hours on the Pump. It is mated to the LE5000 Monitor. I need Owners manuals for both. The Compressor is a 8.5 CFM 7.5 HP arrangement running the pump at half speed(600 RPM) rather than 1200 which would give 16CFM with a 15 HP Motor
I own an Airgun Shop in Gardena Ca called Mac1 Airgun. I manufacture Airguns for Bench Rest & other competitions. I'm not a diver but I arrange Hydroes on a lot of SCUBA gear for people. I need to bone up on all aspects of the machine and operation of same so I do everything by the book.
I'm a third generation Airgunsmith running a business my Grandfather Les McMurray Started in 1932. Airgunners use a wide variety of Painball, SCBA SCUBA and Industrial Air & Nitrogen gear.
Any Help would be much appreciated.
mac1airgun@gmailDOTcom
Mac1 Owner Manual
Mac1 Ultimate Airgun Shopping

TimmyMac1

---------- Post added April 10th, 2014 at 07:26 AM ----------

I just bought this Compressor Unit with less than 60 hours on the Pump. It is mated to the LE5000 Monitor. I need Owners manuals for both. The Compressor is a 8.5 CFM 7.5 HP arrangement....Any Help would be much appreciated.
mac1airgun@gmailDOTcom
Mac1 Owner Manual
Mac1 Ultimate Airgun Shopping

TimmyMac1

I have been digging and it appears the Block was done by NACC North American Compressor Co. Serial Number is 1A039701 on the block and it is definitely NOT a Hamworthy Block. There is a Hamworthy block 4s12 if my info is correct. That came from a England CompressorSmith Colinbruce.

American Breathing Air Station Air 1
4 stage 6000 PSI
Pulleys seem to be running the compressor at half motor speed or less. 1200 RPM motor. 500-600 RPM Pump? 14" pulley on the pump fan and 6.5?" on the Motor.
Someone else has to have one of these. Any hint would be awesome. TIA

TimmyMac1

 

[TimmyMac1]

Jim, Colin, Shawn & Kelly,
I've done the research and finally figured out what I have. it is a 4s12NE3 which is American Breathing Air Version of an NA12. There was a British 4S 12 but it is not the same machine and uses the Hamworthy Block. The Block is Marked NACC with serial Number 1A039701 which designates it as the first Unit produced in March of 1997. The Unit was called the American Breathing Air Station Air 1 and was made specifically to be an emergency responce on Ship Unit. It was on the Arco Spirit Single Hull Tanker(now scrapped) which needed an SCBA charging arrangement for an at sea rig or ship repair or recovery operation in the gulf. The machine was used for three months in 1999 and then was mothballed and stored for fifteen years. The Pump has 59 hours on it and the filters 29 hours. I bought it sight unseen fairly cheap considering what comparable machines go for.

American Breathing Air of Los Angeles was purchased by Scott Breathing air and the machine I have is the basic breathing air system that Scott uses now(with a modern controller). The Block and Pump parts are done in Tulsa OK by NACC(North American Compressor Corp).

I was fortunate to get the Hand written owners manual for the LE5000 controller as it was written by American Bristol AKA American Breathing Air (from Shawn at Cal Air Specialties) for operating the antique controller I have. shawn@compairspec.com
I was also able to obtain a complete service manual from NACC thanks to Kelly Thomas. kthomas@nacompressor.com
I was able to get a Scott Liberty Manual that shows the NACC block they are using.

Colin Bruce (a UK compressorsmith) was the guy who told me I was not looking at a Hamworthy Block which began the search for North American Compressor Corp. When I saw NA it was obviously a North American Manufacturer.

MEI made the Lightning Electronics LE5000 Monitor and Dave Turner (dturner@meiinternational.com) was nice enough to reprogram the monitor for me. It was password protected so I was locked out. When it arrives back at the end of the week I'll reinstall and call the local Breathing air Pro (Joe Lester of JPL Compressor) to help me do the set-up. jlester@jplcompressor.com

The Model is a NA12 which is the CFM designation for this model running at full speed. My understanding is the standard unit is under-driven as well but not as much, so the 8.5CFM is a function of an alternate pulley arrangement to have less stress and longer possible duty cycle. The NA Comp Company is using the same basic compressors to compress natural gas with sprk free technology and the parts they use are interchangeable with my machine. He said spares and support will be no problem going forward. He mentioned they had just been acquired and things looked rosy for them in the Natural Gas Compressor market.

If you look at the Scott breathing Air Compressors they clearly use NACC blocks, pistons and ancillary cooling and plumbing hardware. Scott has been a useless source in my quest for information.

I want to thank those that helped me and send the info I gleaned so it can be added to your knowledge base. I want to be able to use this piece of American Breathing Air History for years to come and the information all you helped me gather was a lot of fun gathering and shows what a cool industry the Breathing air people represent. Other than Scott everyone was as helpful as they could be. Many went way beyond the call and I really appreciate it.

Thanks and I hope the information I gathered can be useful in the future. I can't imagine trying to figure this out without the internet.

Thanks for Everything

TimmyMac1

 

[frogman62]

Timmy,
Good research, glad we could all help.
Jim

 

[TimmyMac1]

More to the Story,
I had JPL compressor come out to look the unit over and help me set it up. I did not have the service code to get into the MEI controller and I told JPL that up front. They came out to get it going and told me it lacked the proper Pressure relief and that running it would be chancy. They fitted a high pressure (4500)valve onto my oil drain and that was all they did besides tell me to change the oil, filter and get the correct pressure relief. As it turned out the Pressure relief was a single use (blow off) item rather than a resetable factory item. They charged around $500 for the visit and did not run the machine. They came out a week later and could not get into the MEI Monitor as they had NO SERVICE CODE INFO. They ran it in overide mode till it timed off. I contacted Joe Lester via email to find out what they planned to do about my machine and they told me they would get back to me. That was a mointh and a half ago. I sent an email to JPL asking for the set-up parameters and they did not repsond.
Compressed Air Specialties has been awesome (thanks to Shawn & Tracy)and has helped me by giving me the SErvice password as well as lots of other useful info I needed. I wish I would have brought my machine to them in the first place. I wish I had never met JPL. They have not done what they promised me they could do and the second charge is now in dispute with the CC company. Fool me once shame on me but twice is a chargeback. I feel like I got ripped off and the best they had was we will get back to you. Joe (pretender) Lester is a compressor Company to be avoided as far as I'm concerned.

TimmyMac1

 

[iain/hsm]

They fitted a high pressure (4500)valve onto my oil drain and that was all they did SNIP TimmyMac1

1. Your NA-12 model oil pump produces around 4 barg (60 psig) of cooling oil pressure from a 3.78 litre oil sump (4 quarts) capacity
So why you have a 4500 psig relief valve for that beats me. Either you have it in the wrong position, or the wrong pressure setting or its on the gas discharge side.

The NA-12 is a nice well designed block 4 stage each 88mm & 45 & 25 & 13mm diameter pistons on a 50mm stroke,

In my book it may have been be cheaper to rip out all this electronic password nonsense control and go DOL just connect up in relay your low oil pressure and high discharge pressure switch. Iain Middlebrook

 

[TimmyMac1]

1. Your NA-12 model oil pump produces around 4 barg (60 psig) of cooling oil pressure from a 3.78 litre oil sump (4 quarts) capacity
So why you have a 4500 psig relief valve for that beats me. Either you have it in the wrong position, or the wrong pressure setting or its on the gas discharge side....In my book it may have been be cheaper to rip out all this electronic password nonsense control and go DOL just connect up in relay your low oil pressure and high discharge pressure switch. Iain Middlebrook

I had Compressed Air Specialties take a look at the unit and they said the thing was a great machine with no issues other than the Max Amp Relay was not adequate. The Password I needed was COMMON service guy knowledge. Just JPL had no knowledge or urgency to share it. It is hard to say what they were trying to do but it looks like wallet exercising was the goal.
At 230 3 phase the Unit used about double the Amps and the Max it was allowed by the controls was 20 AMP. That was plenty for a 460 3 phase arrangement but was less than what a 230/3 phase was going to need. So JPL should have seen that as they knew the machine had been wire switched at the motor but the rest of the controls needed to tolerate the higher Amp Draw. One REelay changed out was the fix and 1.5 hours was the Labor. The Machine works flawlessly now.
The fact a Pro came out twioce and never realized a Compatibility issue was the machines problems shows the lack of skills and experience that JPL displayed.
It costs me less than $400 to have Compressed Air Specialties fix my machine and they changed out some fittings they said were not safe as well as fit the higher Max Amp Relay. Robert, Shawn, Tracy and Coleen were as nice as could be and got my baby humming. I will never tyrust anyone else with m,y machine and I'm glad I can run it as it was manufactured to run.
The 4500 PSI Air valve that JPL put on my oil drain was the extent of their expertise. Furry dice on a Ferrari would be more appropriate. I'll find a use for it. I need to as it costs me nearly $600.

In SoCal the King of Breathing Air is Compressed Air Specialties. I learned the hard way and I hope others don't have to.

 

[iain/hsm]

In many respects you did OK. Look on the bright side it could have been worse.
You could have have ended up scratching for spares for one of Chuck Lamaro's 40 year old American Bristol 4S12's

As it turned out the NA12 was a great deal, is a much better compressor, current build, nice design, spares no problem.
I think you did OK in the end and a great supplier with CAS on your doorstep. Just sorry we couldn't have helped you better sooner.
All the very best Iain