a strange payment

[strelnik]

Recently, I did some extra work for a friend and moved his mother out of a house which was foreclosed on.
Just the gas alone cost me a considerable amount of money, but even with the effort, I thought it was for a good cause.

Well, the people said that there had been some stuff left in there from when they moved in, a few years ago.

Since it was tools of some kind, they wanted me to have it.
So I took the three or four boxes of stuff which were wrapped up ant taped so they wouldn't fall apart and loaded them in my van.

Got sick for two weeks with a lung infection, probably because I inhaled all that darn dust!

Anyway, I opened them up and found a large quantity of air tools.

What do I mean by large quantity?

30 Sioux air drills

25 Snap-On impact wrenches

15 air chisels of various brands

15-20 pneumatic etchers

12 or so air ratchets, Snap-On, Sioux and CP

and some miscellaneous stuff

Now I need to go through and check these out.

I will probably sell them cheap after I go over them, just to get some spare cash to build my garage.

Anyone know where I can find a good on air tool repair?

The Internet isn't real help-ful here. They want to sell me tools. If I sent them to a dealer to fix, I'd have to mortgage my house.

Your advice, please, especially if you have experience repairing these tools.

Thanks!

[lbgradwell]

Can't help, but cool story! I wonder what the back story is?

[johnsironsanctuary]

Both Northern tool and Grizzly have pdf manuals that are downloads. They handle several brands of air tools.

http://www.northerntool.com/catalog/
http://www.grizzly.com/manuals.aspx

[strelnik]

Yes they do, some more than others but neither teaches about what typically goes wrong, what you never have to change, what you always have to change etc etc etc

[OilyRascal]

I have some experience wearing air tools out, but none fixing them.  I've had a couple "depot" repaired (flat $25 here), and every time I have it has been reported back that either a seal or o-ring was bad.  So from that experience, I'd say one consumable on them that might be checked are the o-rings and seals.

Whatever that's worth.

[john k]

When I was selling tools I repaired what I could.  Get some air pressure up and test each one.  The impacts and air drills are usually repairable, a broken hammer, seals, and wore down vanes, and they are fairly easy to disassemble.   Air ratchets not so much, everything seems to wear on them.  Etchers I'm not familiar with at all.  Air chisels, well, see what works and what doesn't.  Get them categorized and go from there.  If they been sitting a long time, may be tough to get kits for some, and might be able to cannibalize stuff to get em working.   

[johnsironsanctuary]

Oil them long before testing! Let them sit for a day or two to soak the orings loose from where they have sat and stuck for a long time. No better  way to destroy o rings than to air the tool dry. You could also add a little mineral spirits to the oil to help break the stuck seals free.

[john k]

Right, on the oiling, most of the air motors run in caged roller bearings, and no doubt the lube is long gone inside there.  I use Atf, some use the Air tool oil, others use some light oil like 10w,   do not use wd40 or penetrating oil, they just don't have enough lube in them.   Actually, other than an instance like this, its as important to lube air tools before putting away, as when getting them out to use.  All that air going thru them can leave moisture behind.  One thing you will probably run into is stuck throttle valves, tool runs wide open all the time, not a big deal, just gummy O-rings on the throttle shaft, behind the trigger. 

[rusty]

Yup, lots of oil. The biggest issue I have had with used air tools is rust. The valves get jammed up, the vanes get scored....

[strelnik]

Thanks to everyone for their advice, I'll start soon on these after catching up on other work