Be careful oiling your air hammers

[areyouanywhere]

Hello all,

Many air hammers are sensitive to being over oiled. If too much oil is used the valve will stick and the tool just blows air. Probably half the time I get an air hammer in for repair it was over oiled.

Some designs are more sensitive to this than others, but if your air hammer is not working it is worth a try cleaning the valve out with rubbing alcohol. Taking them apart is usually very easy and if anything is broken it will be obvious as there are very few parts inside. You want to be able to shake the valve and hear the disk moving inside freely.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone.

 

[firworks]

Hello all,

Many air hammers are sensitive to being over oiled. If too much oil is used the valve will stick and the tool just blows air. Probably half the time I get an air hammer in for repair it was over oiled.

Some designs are more sensitive to this than others, but if your air hammer is not working it is worth a try cleaning the valve out with rubbing alcohol. Taking them apart is usually very easy and if anything is broken it will be obvious as there are very few parts inside. You want to be able to shake the valve and hear the disk moving inside freely.

Hopefully this is helpful to someone.

Huh... that pretty much sums up what my air impact does a lot of the time. Similar design internally that the same could be true of them? I oil mine every time I use it but I just put one drop in the inlet before I connect the air, then I free wheel it for a second and a little bit of oil spittle comes out and that's it.

Last few times I've tried to use it though from time to time it will just blow air and if I turn the drive end manually just a little bit it catches and works for a while.

 

[areyouanywhere]

Impacts do not have any issues with being over oiled, they use a different mechanism. Could be a number of things like the vanes or a bearing. You would have to take it apart and inspect it.

 

[stikman56]

Huh... that pretty much sums up what my air impact does a lot of the time. Similar design internally that the same could be true of them? I oil mine every time I use it but I just put one drop in the inlet before I connect the air, then I free wheel it for a second and a little bit of oil spittle comes out and that's it.

Last few times I've tried to use it though from time to time it will just blow air and if I turn the drive end manually just a little bit it catches and works for a while.

Most likely the vanes are sticking in their grooves OR the rotor has ground into the end plate if it's an aluminum plate and embedded a tiny speck of aluminum into the rotor,it only takes a speck to cause this. Have found it many times, especially with IR impacts.

 

[Mohawk Dave]

so what the heck??? Oil it, but don't oil too much. ???

How much is enough? I give it a good squirt of Marvel Air Tool Oil every time I use it. (Not often, then a bunch at once).

(Almost) All my air tools are old used top of the line stuff, that I run, sometimes a lot of, Tri Flo through when I first get it...until the Tri Flo is coming out the exhaust clean.

Haven't had any problems, just the opposite in fact.

Shed some light on oiling regiments, please.

 

[jptbay]

And the other side of the coin....

If you have an air riveter, don't forget to fill the thing with oil.

Me being an idiot, skipped reading the manual and threw the thing in the back of a cabinet after a ton of cursing. At least I never tossed it out. Works great after I learned about how to use it properly.

 

[countryroad82]

Or you could be like me and rarely oil your air tools. Due to being in the paint and body trade I am in constant fear of cross contamination. When I take the notion to oil my air tools I free spin the ones I can (air long board sanders should be on a surface before they ever are fired up, ask me why I know this) until the point there isn't a chance for oil to blow on my work. My theory to it is I would rather rebuild/replace an air tool in a few years verses than have to make multiple redoes, which can quickly amount to way more than the tools are new. I will however say I have had pretty decent luck in the last 17 years as I've not had to replace many tools due to them being ran dry as often as one would think, maybe I oil them more often than I give myself credit.

 

[dlcwent]

Nice info about the air hammer. That came at a good time for me as mine just stopped working.
CR, couldn't agree with you more. I don't oil my D/A or flatboard. Oil and paint don't mix. And I try to never do mechanical and body work at the same time.

 

[Provincial]

The type of oil used is very critical. On older air tools, including rivet hammers, ATF or Marvel Mystery Oil (which many think is ATF with perfume added) seems to work well. Too heavy an oil causes sticking. Low quality oil hardens and causes sticking. Long intervals between use leads to sticking.

My personal opinion is that there is much more latitude if you use good oil.

 

[stihlntime]

I agree on the viscosity of the oil, tried some new super synthetic oil a local firm is peddling and stuck the vanes in three different impacts, had to take them apart and clean everything up w kerosene and reassemble.

 

[bcradio]

Good to know on this. Thank you

 

[ScottsGT]

When I was in the paint and body business, we had a old timer that would take his tools out in the yard away from the shop and run lacquer thinner through it a few drops at a time to flush out the old oil and build up and put new Marvel oil in it. He did this on a monthly bases. We oiled once a week.
Some of his air tools were older than I was at the time.
As mentioned above, cross contamination is a serious issue in that environment.

 

[areyouanywhere]

The IR 10P oil is rather thick and definitely leads to these issues. I think the marvel oil is a lot thinner from what I remember so it should not be as big of an issue.

I usually put a drop or 2 of the IR oil in like once a month, but that might be me being a little too conservative. A drop every use would probably be ok, most of the ones I see it looks like a big squirt of the IR oil or similar thick stuff was used.

So that explains why so many sanders I see are bone dry inside lol... makes sense.

 

[K-Dog]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[454ragtop]

This is pretty interesting. I have good dry air, and my air tools generally last forever, the only failures I think I've had is air hammers, a few of them. Had a couple CP's, one the trigger fell out of, another just stopped working. Picked up an NOS American made one at a swap meet, think I used it a half a dozen times, started to get sticky, oiled it, then it too stopped working. Last fall I picked up a real nice Mac Tools one at a swap meet, figured I maybe needed better quality than what I had been using. This one so far has been awesome. Thanks for the oiling tip.
Just picked up a large IR industrial grinder, 9", big torquey *******. Got it dirt cheap cause the bearings are starting to get a little noisy. Ever put bearings in one, any tricks?
Thanks, Jim

 

[Rusty32]

The few times I actually oiled my hammer, which I would use 4+ hours a day. I would just do a quick shot of pb blaster down the barrel. Otherwise sticking would occur like you said.

 

[1930]

I add approx 3-4 drops of oil daily to any air tool I pick up to use that day, been doing it that way for a very long time and have air tools that have been with me from the beginning.

 

[Packard V8]

Thanks for the tip. Just now, I repaired an old Sanborn air hammer which had been discarded because "Doesn't work." I picked it up in a thrift store for $3 and had it humming in a thrice.

Having been inside it now, I can see the stuck piston could have been loosened by a squirt of solvent down the barrel and a tap with a punch. Disassembly would not have been necessary.

While I was in there, I chucked the piston in the lathe and trued the 45-degree seat which had become scored and polished the outside with 400 emery cloth.

Works like a new one now.

jack vines

 

[404]

Thanks for the tip. Just now, I repaired an old Sanborn air hammer which had been discarded because "Doesn't work." I picked it up in a thrift store for $3 and had it humming in a thrice.

Having been inside it now, I can see the stuck piston could have been loosened by a squirt of solvent down the barrel and a tap with a punch. Disassembly would not have been necessary.

While I was in there, I chucked the piston in the lathe and trued the 45-degree seat which had become scored and polished the outside with 400 emery cloth.

Works like a new one now.

jack vines

Feels great bringing a old quality tool back from the "just sleeping, pining for the Fjords" condition.

 

[areyouanywhere]

This is pretty interesting. I have good dry air, and my air tools generally last forever, the only failures I think I've had is air hammers, a few of them. Had a couple CP's, one the trigger fell out of, another just stopped working. Picked up an NOS American made one at a swap meet, think I used it a half a dozen times, started to get sticky, oiled it, then it too stopped working. Last fall I picked up a real nice Mac Tools one at a swap meet, figured I maybe needed better quality than what I had been using. This one so far has been awesome. Thanks for the oiling tip.
Just picked up a large IR industrial grinder, 9", big torquey *******. Got it dirt cheap cause the bearings are starting to get a little noisy. Ever put bearings in one, any tricks?
Thanks, Jim

I don't work on much industrial IR, but when dealing with bearings I use a small bearing spliter OTC 1123, and then a manual press to remove them from shafts. Reinstalling them I use a socket and the press again. Should be pretty straight forward.

If you are doing the motor bearings getting them out of the end plates can be a pain sometimes, other times they fall right out. I use either an OTC 4581 blind hole bearing puller or just a punch and hammer to get out the stuck ones, you just need to be careful if using a punch not to damage the end plates.

Not sure the exact tool you got but the bearing in the head should be easy. There is probably just a nut you need to take off then the shaft with the bearing and gear should pull out, if not the head probably has to be loosened or removed first. The nut might be right hand thread and may need a special spanner socket or similar. A punch and hammer can work and a little heat will help if needed.

Also pulling up the parts breakdown before starting is always a good idea. Those are just generic things based on grinders I have done, yours could be different. They are on IR's website somewhere but the site can be a little hard to navigate. Hopefully the gears are ok because especially on the expensive industrial tools those gears can be pricey, if they are even still available.

Hope that is helpful, let me know if you get stuck I will try to help.