1. Home
  2. ⏣ General Metalworking
  3. What is it? Name that air tool

What is it? Name that air tool

members.aol.com/gto69ra4/Photos/heat1.jpg members.aol.com/gto69ra4/Photos/heat2.jpg members.aol.com/gto69ra4/Photos/heat3.jpg members.aol.com/gto69ra4/Photos/heat4.jpg

OK, here's one for the brain trust, or even you guys. :) My father (like I) collected all sorts of neat tools during his life. Here's something that neither of us could properly ID. It looks sorta shopmade, or just a very custom tool. Central core is asbestos-wrapped and has an electric heater (cord would exit the handle if it had a cord) in it. Air line goes from the valve into the back of the core. The nozzle is a cone that surrounds the inner brass part. The outer holes in the brass are fed by the air supply. The center hole is connected to a short 1/4" tube that goes up through the top of the housing.

So it looks like it's for spraying something under heat. Plastic or powder coating? Epoxy paint?

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4
Loading thread data ...

Looks like a propane pre heating gun John?

Most likely used in the day when lead was used as a body filler.

Refinish King

Reply to
Refinish King

How would the propane fit in? The plumbing is for air and the thing has a big electric heater in it.

GTOJohn)

Reply to
GTO69RA4

I thought the propane went in the air inlet:

Sorry!

Many tools were made to keep the metal slightly warm, so that the body man could melt off chunks of lead bar, then paddle it down.

Sorry again.

Reply to
Refinish King

Depending how hot it gets it could be used for a variety of things. We use similar tools at work for heating and reshaping plastic.......

Reply to
T T

There, now you can just click on them.

My first thought is a primitive plastic welder - you would feed a rod of the filler plastic through the hole in the top like a hot-melt glue stick, and the hot air fuses it all together.

-->--

Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

The body and handle look lilke die castings so it probably is not a shop-made one-off.

The head is an atomizing sprayhead, but the center liquid hole is quite large as sprayheads go.

My guess would be that it produced a coarse spray of some viscous stuff that was heated to make it less viscous. Maybe some sort of bituminous undercoating?

Reply to
Don Foreman

Thanks. I wish I knew where my father got this thing, that would make tracking down a purpose easier.

The outside body is your basic extruded aluminum tube about 3" in diameter. The core's held in place by six long setscrews going through the outer tube. I don't know how the handle was cast, but it shows signs of being sanded and buffed from a rather rough casting.

GTO(John)

Reply to
GTO69RA4

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.