Maybe one will fit but you won’t be able to replace the front cover. Use your browser to search for “replacement manifolds for small air compressors” – you’ll find a bunch. To “fix it” will require acquiring a manifold to fit from another manufacturer. Nor, it seems, is it possible to still acquire a Bostitch replacement manifold for this compressor, one which would include the regulator. The Bostitch pancake compressor BTFP02012 has a variety of parts available in the online market, including replacement gauges for the regulator and tank. Unfortunately, for these low cost regulators, parts are typically not available… anywhere. The solution? Fix or replace the regulator.īut then, fixing the regulator means buying parts for it, even if one has the skills to do so. Is there air available in the tank? Is the tank pressure above the point where the air compressor normally starts? If so, then it’s the flow of compressed air through the regulator that is causing the problem on this Bostitch compressor. The check is to look at the tank gauge on the left. In the case of this Bostitch compressor, the rapid loss of available air when an air tool is being used strongly suggests that the regulator in this manifold has failed, and is unable to moderate the air to the outlets as it is designed to do. Low cost parts don’t last long, relatively speaking, and wear out faster under higher demand use. Correspondingly, the gauges and the regulator installed in the manifold are also low cost. Why? Because that’s the cheapest way to mass produce them. The air manifolds under the cowling are typically cast. Why the air dies out on a Bostitch 6 gallon air compressor The regulator cannot increase pressure, only lower it. This setting then controls the air pressure getting to the two outlets on the right, as long as the setting on the regulator is at or below the tank pressure. The gauge on the right is there to display the setting of the regulator.
The gauge on the left displays the tank pressure, and that gauge is plumbed from the line from the tank so it displays the actual tank pressure all the time. That manifold has an air line/pipe coming from the tank, connecting to the regulator on the left side, and then to the air outlets on the right, of which this style of air compressor has two. In the photo is the “control panel” from the 6 gallon Bostitch pancake style air compressor. Bostitch 6 gallon pancake compressor regulator control panel.