Repairing a Compressor With No Pressure

About a year ago I spotted a small compressor by the roadside, so I stopped and spoke to the guy in his garage and he said he'd had it from new and it worked but wouldn't build any pressure so it was scrap and yes I could have it, so it came home and it indeed did work but the pressure didn't register on the gauge or build up in the tank.

To be honest I know little about compressors(even though I built one using an air conditioning motor) and it sat in my garage for nearly a year before I started to look into it, did some research on line and there are a number of reasons why it wont build pressure and one of them is a small valve in the pressure switch so I stripped it down and the valve didn't seem to be functioning properly so ordered a new one from Aliexpress and needless to say when I fitted it it didn't cure the problem but I did find a leak in the external adjustable side so removed that part hoping that was the issue but it wasn't

so the next step was to take the head off(four bolts and a pipe connection) and once I took it off even I could see the problem, one of the 3 reed valves had its head snapped off (these act as one way valves). So my dilemma was this was a free compressor that to be frank I didn't need as I had already built a quiet one using a motor out of a air conditioner type unit and this was was LOUD but in any case I looked into a replacement part and in the UK I had real difficulty finding one and the nearest equivalent appeared to be for a Husky compressor which was relatively expensive and I wasn't sure it would fit so started to consider scrapping it but a idea occurred to me

And that was that there were 3 reed valves and although one had snapped off, did it need all 3 to function ? so with nothing to lose I got the nearest size metric tap and threaded the hole to 8mm ,found a short 8mm grub screw(hardened pin with a Allen screw head) and using Loctite, screwed it in till it was flush with the other side and left it to set. I then used a grinder to remove the bit of the pin sticking out and refitted the head .

While I half expected it to fail with a crunch much to my surprise, it worked ! does it take longer to fill the tank, probably but I have nothing previously to compare it too, will it be a long term solution ? I think if it was to have a lot of use that I wouldn't like to trust it long term but if you cant get the reeds and are going to scrap it anyway then what have you to lose ? I looked on line and I couldn't find anything else about this type of repair so hopefully it will help other people. The compressor has now gone to a new home to continue its life so I only have the pictures/video taken.