air tool question

Put a few drops in the air inlet and run the tool. If your duty cycle is high, concider an automatic oiler. I use trany fluid in my air tools, a lot of people will be outraged! Watch!

Why did you buy this stuff if you don't know what it's for or how to use it?

Would you like to buy some encyclopedias?

Just kidding!

I drip "air tool oil", maybe 7 drops, into the tool's air inlet before use. I've never worn out an air tool doing this. I have never heard of cleaner. What does it smell like? Many small air motors are vane-type motors which have vanes which must move, and sometimes they get clogged. Maybe this cleaner is to free up the vanes?

Grant Erw> We have no experience with air tools. We bought 'air tool cleaner' for

This is an OUTRAGE. You stole my secret. ATF is one of the best all around shop lubricants you can get. High detergent, non-gumming, inexpensively available in almost any grocery store, in convenient one quart containers.

Jim

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I perform industrial maintenance as a job. Several official air tool techs tell me that's what they use during official warranty rebuilds...

The Princess Auto catalog has a number of hints re air tools in it. One point they make is that more air tools are wrecked by over oiling than under oiling. I have had maybe a dozen air tools for several years now. These range from a couple el-cheapos to some really high quality ones that I scored surplus for cheap. I have followed their advice and have yet to have a problem with any of my air tools. I bought an 8oz bottle of air tool oil from them when I got my first air tools. I'm still using it.

Ted

Sorry to disappoint, I use ATF as well.

Ned Simmons

Not that I've ever run the risk of over oiling my air tools... but how would one damage air tools by over oiling?

Peter

That is a good question. I can see several ways it could but it would be speculation.

I've worked places that had lousy air piping, work along and suddenly the air tool would become a hydra tool. That's why I'm such an advocate of putting a separator on a stand or back of the tool box.

ATF? Hmmmm, Going to get myself some Dextron. I wouldn't do this with Type F. Dextron being a slipper fluid and Type F being a gripper fluid.

Most oils, I think, have some amount of paraffin in them, and this will gum up the tool if too much is used. The airflow takes the lighter solvents out of the oil and leaves the heavier components. I seldom oiled any of my air tools, and when I did it was just a drop or two. One of the twits I once worked with filled my 3/8" impact wrench full of grease just to bug me. Took a LONG time for the air to force it out of the exhaust ports, and I ran a lot of solvent through it to get it clean. Somebody else fixed the twit by filling his hearing protectors with grease.

Dan

If it's synthetic air tool oil, it's pretty much one chemical compound, no "paraffin" to clog up things. I don't think wax in lubricating oil has been a problem for decades, there's dewaxer units in the refining process to eliminate that for lubricating oil stocks.

The only way I could see over-oiling causing a problem is if you happened to get too much in a piston-powered unit and it hydraulically locked the tool up. With a vane-type tool, the stuff should just blow on through. Shouldn't be a problem if you use an inline oiler. I've got mine located on the tool whip so the main air hoses stay free of oil.

Stan