Leshiy leak at secondary bleed screw

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I have new balls on the way.
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Made my day! :D

The ball should be what's creating the seal, not the set screw. I'd definitely keep my focus there.
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I agree. I figure if the ball stays centered while resting on the screw then the screw is doing its job. 

Glad I made your day. I thought about editing that comment before I posted but I figured just leave it. We can all use an extra grin during these bizarre times. 
 
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I have new balls on the way.
Click to expand...

Made my day! :D

The ball should be what's creating the seal, not the set screw. I'd definitely keep my focus there.
Click to expand...

I agree. I figure if the ball stays centered while resting on the screw then the screw is doing its job. 

Glad I made your day. I thought about editing that comment before I posted but I figured just leave it. We can all use an extra grin during these bizarre times.
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For sure. And we could all probably use some new balls every now and then. 😁
 
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Update. I got 3mm balls by way of Cmatera.

First thing I did was check to see if the balls he sent were the same size as the one that came with the Leshiy. They were, as I suspected.

Next I went ahead and put in a new ball to see if there would be a difference. Still had a significant drop in pressure in about an hour. Wasn't going to get that lucky.

Long story short, I've done a few sessions of tapping a new ball into the seat area using a short section of brass rod and a lightweight hammer.

It has clearly improved the situation. I now have it leaking the same or possibly even more slowly than before I removed all the Teflon tape and other crud.

My tank was only able to get the pressure up to 160 bar or so with all of the de-gasses and re-fills I've been doing to trouble shoot this. I decided to hand pump to 240 bar and it dropped 15 bar in 18 hours. 

That is probably better than when I this leak first occurred. I can't say for sure since I wasn't filling that high when this first happened. It is much slower than when I first cleaned out the crud and Teflon tape. Then I was losing more than 15 bar in 30 minutes.

Wanting to do better than a 15 bar loss in 18 hours I had a dentist friend who is shut down due to Coronavirus look down into the seat area with a pair of magnified/illuminated loupes. Still some Teflon in the bottom of the threaded area and some small particles on the seat area. A flossing brush was used to clean this up and compressed air was used to blast any plastic bristles that may have been left behind.

I just filled the air tube up to 150 bar about an hour ago.

Still getting bubbles.

Any advice? Get more aggressive with the tapping? Live with 15 bar leak per day?
 
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One sharp rap with a fairly light Hammer should have done it.

You could live with it with the smaller to that isn't a lot of air give you that kind of pressure change.

How I would it attempt to fix it is ,using valve lapping compound maybe a thousand grit and solder one of those ball bearings to the Brass Rod you have ,you must have the ball well centered on the rod.

Use a back-and-forth motion between your palms of both hands and maybe three or five runs through your palms that would be it.

Google valve lapping Automotive valve lapping if you need an idea.,kelly
 
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I'll see if I can come up with a jig the keep a ball centered on the brass rod while I solder it. 

I really don't want to tap on that brass rod anymore. 

By the way, each tapping session consisted of two barely there light taps to get the timing down & then one sharp strike. I'm guessing that third tap on my first "session" was way too light as the leak was still significant.

I'm happy with the improvement but would prefer it hold air as well as it used to for trips to our cabin. 


 
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I'll see if I can come up with a jig the keep a ball centered on the brass rod while I solder it. 

I really don't want to tap on that brass rod anymore. 

By the way, each tapping session consisted of two barely there light taps to get the timing down & then one sharp strike. I'm guessing that third tap on my first "session" was way too light as the leak was still significant.

I'm happy with the improvement but would prefer it hold air as well as it used to for trips to our cabin. 

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You could use a drill bit to concave the end of the rod'or get a hoolow ros which would self center the bearing,when you do the lapping very light pressure let the compound do the work.

I f you,go at it easy you should be able to fix the leak ,Ive done this in similar automotive situations with check valves,kelly
 
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If you get this seat too wide it will not seal any more... Do this I think it is a 3 mm ball get a 3 mm I'd piece of tubing brass from hobby shop and cut a disk out of,025" thick nylon 6 sheet from McMaster Carr and drop in hole flat add ball and grub screw don't tighten up more than needed to seal....viola no leak 100% gurentee. Make a few and put in your box of stuff. . your welcome
 
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If you get this seat too wide it will not seal any more... Do this I think it is a 3 mm ball get a 3 mm I'd piece of tubing brass from hobby shop and cut a disk out of,025" thick nylon 6 sheet from McMaster Carr and drop in hole flat add ball and grub screw don't tighten up more than needed to seal....viola no leak 100% gurentee. Make a few and put in your box of stuff. . your welcome





On other projects, I have used .020 PTFE, and UHMW tape and punched out disks using a hole puncher.
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I cut a small sliver of thick o-ring and sandwiched it between the ball and screw and it seems to have eliminated the 15 bar per 18 hour leak. But not knowing how well that will work long term I don't mind having alternative choices, like the two above.

Cmatera, what is the purpose of the UHMW? To act as a gasket? Temporary backer while you punch the disc? Or something else?
 
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what you will have will probably hold honestly till you use the degas screw again, the disk I mention is just to form a fresh conformable seal seat for the ball and fills in any irregularities in the ball seat. If you get sealing seat too wide in HPA applications you loose the seal very often I just mention nylon 6 but hdpe or most other hmw material is fine...remember the leshiy has 2 bleed screws so you can use the other one to de-gas if you need to from now on :)
 
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I cut a small sliver of thick o-ring and sandwiched it between the ball and screw and it seems to have eliminated the 15 bar per 18 hour leak. But not knowing how well that will work long term I don't mind having alternative choices, like the two above.

Cmatera, what is the purpose of the UHMW? To act as a gasket? Temporary backer while you punch the disc? Or something else?
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I cut a bit thicker slice and got rid of the ball altogether. Been holding up for the last 2 years, zero pressure loss...
 
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