House Fire and tool restoration

[sierradays]

Anyone restored tools out of a house fire.

I had a misfortune of having a house fire. Wont get into details this point.

All of power tools just had smoke damage and not in the fire. Ive tried a number of them and they work just fine. The last two that I have yet to try is a cabinet saw and compressor.

The other part of the question is machine surfaces. They are rusting at this point and I like to get the metal back to where it should be, any suggestions?

If anyone has insurance stories that would help those could be PM to my email.

thanks,

Phoenix

 

[Jeff Ivers]

If by machine surfaces, you are referring to areas like the table on a table saw, I like to use a 6" diameter 3M paint/varnish remover in a pneumatic angle die grinder followed by a couple of good coats of high quality wax.

 

[Cobra5150]

With the smoke damage I would say the internals of those are going to fail in short order. Replace them if possible.

 

[JamieK]

Check with member " fflintstone ". Unfortunately, he's had some experience along these lines and may can answer some questions concerning the insurance.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94115&highlight=FIRE

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Smoke residue is acidic and you'll find any electronics, motor windings, contacts, etc, will start failing soon. If you tear them down and clean them fully, you might be able to save some, but most will be on borrowed time and have a short life span ahead.

So figure anything with a motor is going to need full new motor. Since the cost of a replacement motor for anything hand held will be higher than the tool replacement, you can see you'll be buying new sometime soon. Your house insurance should cover this as well though.

 

[rlitman]

I agree that smoke damage is actually really bad, but some motors should be sealed well enough to not care. If your cabinet saw or compressor has a "TEFC" motor, I would think that the smoke wouldn't have reached anything that it could damage.

It will indeed cause major rusting though. You need to wash off any residue you can.

 

[gunguy]

Welcome to the Board. Heck of a first post...My experience, like others have said, the electrics and electronics will probably fail in short order.

Depending on how badly rusted, I've had some luck using fine wet/dry sandpaper and light machine oil.

Good luck cleaning up and dealing with the insurance co.

Jim

 

[BFBOB]

I once tried to rescue an electronic device from smoke damage with oven cleaner after gentler methods didn't work. Bad idea. It took the smoke residue off just fine, but it also took off every trace of paint or ink ... like the markings on the components, terminal strips, etc.

 

[Barnuba]

Assuming you had a covered loss (most fires are covered unless intentionally set) and have the appropriate contents coverage on your policy, then your insurance company has a duty to take the following steps to make you whole again:

1. clean/restore the items to pre-loss condition (there are electronics vendors that insurance companies use to conduct this work)

2. If they cannot clean/restore the items to you satisfaction then they owe to replace the items

If your items need to be replaced:
More than likely, based on the amount of the damage, depreciation will be applied to your claim. For example, if you have a replacement cost policy they may pay you 50% of the tool cost up front and then the remaining 50% once the tool has been replaced.

Share your concerns with your Claim Professional so they can take care of you. Sorry for your loss.

 

[sierradays]

Hi Everyone, Just wanted to say thanks for the responses. At this its a wrestling match with the insurance company.

 

[rsanter]

One trick is anything that the insurance tells you they will not replace because it's 'fine' or undamaged, just tell ,them to write a warranty on so if it's a problem later they will take care of it no questions asked

Bob