What to do with rusty snap on air tools

[gumbudah]

Heyyall, I've got a conundrum. My father in law passed a while back. he had a mechanics shop. It wasn't in very good shape, the roof leaked in a couple spots. His health was declining for a while, and the last year or so he didn't work at his shop, none of us pressed him to get his affairs in order so for quite a while some of his tools sat in his snap on taco cart right below one of the leaks. Water filled the drawers of the taco cart. It was winter when we cleaned it out, so most drawers were filled with ice and the tools in them were rusty. A few of the worst are two snap on 1/2" impact wrenches, a 3/8 snap on air ratchet, 1/4" blue point impact wrench, 1/4" snap on impact ratchet, and 3/8" matco air ratchet. None of them work right now. They're all froze up with rust some how or another. I don't run a shop although I tinker a lot, I can't decide what to do with them.

My thoughts:
1. Go through myself and try to fix them. I've made some half hearted attempts, but not successful. Are snap on parts easy to acquire?
2. Send them in to snap on and have them fix. Think they'd even be willing to receive them to fix? any idea on costs?
3. ebay them as non-working/parts only.
4. donate them to someone on GJ that thinks they can get them working.
5. Local craigslist them.
6. Garbage can.

 

[Skin]

They're probably pretty well destroyed especially if the steel components inside are pitted (hammers/rotors/gears). If they aren't current models they probably aren't worth repairing for resale in which case you'd probably be better off selling them on ebay as non-working. If they don't sell bin them.

Repair parts from Snap-On can be outrageously priced and flat rate repair almost certainly wouldn't be worth it unless, again, they're newer models. If you want to fix them yourself you're better off using a generic supplier like powertoolrepairohio.

 

[mbshop]

I would go through them. If there is to much pitting were the vanes ride then sell them as parts guns. But I have been surprised before how terrible looking stuff has turned out in great shape.

 

[gdocktor3]

I had two air ratchets rust together like that. I let them sit in some marvel mystery oil and motor oil for a few days, then went at them with brushes and cleaned them up inside out. I got one working, the other didn't because I can't find parts for it. With that said, they cleaned up nicely for the most part and sure beat throwing them away.

 

[woody 73]

I vote for taking them apart and cleaning them up, what could you lose besides some of your time...

 

[Bobcat753]

I'd mix up a good size bucket with 50/50 acetone and ATF and let the sit for a couple days. Then take them out, disassemble and see how they look. Or try brake fluid, that stuff will remove anything that isn't solid metal.

 

[gumbudah]

Not able to let things sit. I just started pulling one of the 1/2" impacts apart, it is an IM3100. got the back cover off, got the motor/gears out, the surface the veins ride on doesn't look bad. the trigger was frozen in position. I tapped on it with a soft block, got it to go in, but now it's stuck in that position. hit it with WD40, letting it sit for the night. Need to figure out how to get the trigger loosened up. Calling it a small win for the night.

I also tried to get one of the impacts apart, it's a snap on FAR7200. There's a big nut on the outside, got ahold of that, I think I now need to turn the handle section, but can't find a way to grip it without damaging the rubber grip...???

 

[mikvil]

You Can Use Evaporust. It will clean it completely rust free inside of 1 hour, And maybe less. Non-hazardous and rinse with water, good as new. About $12 at your local auto parts or hardware store. Save the used evaporate; it can be reused over and over...

 

[gumbudah]

Had another stroke of luck. I let the IM3100 soak in Evaporust tonight. Was able to get the trigger pin out tonight. The rotor was rusted to the front bearing plate, got that broke loose and spinning (bearing is shot tho). Managed to put it all back together. After a little coaxing, it works! not super strong, but at least it spins. Also pulled some lugnuts off a 4 wheeler, so that's a pretty good start. Think it still needs some parts (bearing, trigger, throttle valve and seat as it leaks air when idle, maybe a few others) that'll probably total more than what a used one goes for on ebay... But hey, it's a win! Thanks to cheesehead2 for helping out with some advice as well!

 

[Tech92420]

Water + air tools= no bueno. Just throw them away. If you got one to work see if you can trade it for a better with one the tool trucks. Some times if you give them broken tools when there's a promotion for new tools they'll give you 100 bucks towards something new.