Oiling air tools

We use Dynabrades (5" round , with stickypad paper) in the cabinet shop . I put a couple of drops in mine every coupla weeks . And believe me , we use the livin' shit outta these little muthas . Too much oil and you'll know it from the mess . We use plain ol' pneumatic tool oil , same type we use for staplers and nail guns . If I can't find mine , I use 3in1 ...

Not likely. The tools don't really require a LOT of oil. My SOP is a couple drops in the inlet every time I hook up the tool for the first time of the day. Use a good thin oil and you won't have many problems.

One of the places I used to deliver to was CP in Utica. One day I showed up and on the dock were LOT'S of drums of Marvel Mystery Oil. Asked one of the guys about it. He told me to walk over to a certain spot and see what it was for. I went over there and SURPRISE the drums were connected to a pumping unit that was filling about 5 different brands of "air tool oil" bottles. Sears, CP, Snap-On were the BIG names there!!! No extra additives, just the MMO. One of the crew there told me that it worked real well, didn't gum up the vanes and didn't collect a lot of dirt. Works for me.

Holy shit.... I bought a CASE of MMO a couple years ago! I keep it hidden.... :)

I would just add a few drops at the start of the day - it has worked fine for generations. If you add an oiler, turn it way down - every one I see comes set from the factory to add way too much.

And get special hoses ONLY for use with oiled air, preferably a different color than your other hoses, and mark and tag it clearly. Could even use a different style of quick connector, like the ARO.

Because if you ever try to use that oiled hose to spray paint with, you'll have a fish-eyed disaster on your hands. Same thing with a plasma cutter.

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Air tool oil is formulated with additives to plate and to stand up to typically wet/moist air, so you don't need a constant feed, although a feeder is fine. A refrigerated dryer is the thing to have if you have a big tooling investment.

CLIP

FRL from my understanding means "filter, regulator, lubricator" so we'll give you that one. :)

CLIP

Pneumatic tool oil only IMHO. Everything else is a substitute and the cost is reasonable enough for a very small supply that will last a long time.

"Feed rate" is basically as low as you can set the FRL without it being turned off. We ship our pneumatic controls with the adjustment knob turned

100% off and then 1/4 turn back on. That's probably a drop a day maximum.

CLIP

If they are built like the air motors I work with, they have small plastic vanes and a non-concentric cavity inside to build up speed and all that... The vanes wear out eventually, thus the need for lubrication. Probably just diminished the life a bit but if it was "wet" with oil before use, it is probably not as bad as it sounds. After all, you go and try to make the oil disappear by rubbing a piece of plastic on oiled metal and tell me how long it takes. :)

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

01.908.542.0244 Automatic / Pneumatic Drills: Spindle Drills: Tapping: Site: V8013-R