Compressor reed valves

More on the continuing saga of the inherited compressor........

Finally managed to track down an exploded view of the compressor and found
out that I am missing a couple of reed valves........now I know I can buy
them, but am wondering if I can just make a couple.

From what I understand they usually are comprised of spring steel, so
todays questions are:

Typical steel gauge?
Are they a flat unit or do they have curvature to their shape?

Any thoughts on this topic would be much appreciated....thanks. :-)

Just use some feeler gage pieces out of a feeler gage set. The type
that you check points on car or lawn mower of the early days of point
and condenser ign systems.. I have done this before and it works
perfect.

Cool....will have to remember this tip. I finally decided to go ahead
and cut some out of galvanised sheet steel I kicking around
here.....worked like a charm. I think though to be on the safe side I
will still order the manufacturers replacement parts.

Thanks for the tip....much appreciated! :-)

CAREFUL! Galv steel will not wear well and may actually delaminate during
that kind of use. It may well also break prematurely after a few hours of
use. The debris could wreak havoc on the piston rings and even the bypass,
etc..
I'd use it only for emergency until the right parts are available. The
hardness of spring steel is required for those reeds.