Pneumatic tool oiling

[David Ragan]

My Bosch pin nailer died after 3-4 years of light use.

I did not use much oil in it.

Now, I have a Makita. Really nice tool.

How many oil drops do you use per session, lets say 20-40 pin nails in an hour, once a month?

I was thinking the reason why the Bosch died was cause there was not enough oil used, and the seals gave out (it wouldn't cycle).

Is the worst thing that can happen is that any excess runs out onto your project?

[Alden Miller]

I usually put one or two drops of oil in all of my air tools prior to each use.

-Alden

[Matt Day]

I usually put one or two drops of oil in all of my air tools prior to each use.

-Alden

+1

10 characters

[Dan Rude]

If you don't want to be bothered by oiling it each time buy 1 of these http://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-4733-In-Line-Oiler/dp/B008MTRDEM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419620643&sr=8-1&keywords=inline+air+tool+oiler. Dan

[David Ragan]

Thats cool. I have one somewhere

[Charles Wiggins]

http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-MM85R1-Air-Tool-Oil/dp/B0009JKGKQ

[Jim Becker]

Just be sure you understand that having an oiler in your pneumatic air system will potentially render it unusable for spraying finishes. If you need your system to do double duty, oil the tool, not the air source.

[Dan Rude]

The one I pointed out earlier is on the tool. I learned this one from a buddy who is a retired flooring contractor. He had one on his stapler, filled it up about once a week. Dan

[Bruce Page]

I usually put one or two drops of oil in all of my air tools prior to each use.

-Alden

I do the same.

[Mike Henderson]

A little off subject, but I think you can buy rebuild kits for most pneumatic tools.

I put a few drops of oil in the air line every so often - probably not every time I use the tool, but maybe every other time.

Mike

[David Ragan]

+1

10 characters

sorry to be dense, what does that mean?

[Bruce Page]

sorry to be dense, what does that mean?

The forum software requires you to type a minimum of 10 letters in a message.

[Mark Bolton]

To each his own but for hobby use oiling the tool at each use is WAY too much oil. The oiling recommendations on tools pertain to serious use. Putting a few drops in everytime you shoot a few nails on a single project would be like the tool being oiled every few minutes in a production environment. Any tool rebuilder will tell you too much oil is almost worse than too little. The flooring nailer application speaks to this clearly. Your talking thouands and thousands of shots.

[Bruce Page]

I've been doing it that way for 30+ years and never had a failure.

[John Coloccia]

FWIW, I used an inline oiler for years, but I had a second, separate regulator for spray finishes. I've always done a drop or two before use. It's practically impossible to oil too much. It just blows out the exhaust. I think you'd practically have to completely fill the tool with oil before you really started causing problems.

[Keith Weber]

You already bought the Makita, but had you not, I'd have recommended the Senco oil-less nailers. My Bostitch framing nailer is an oiler, and I usually give it a couple drops each use unless I figured that it's been oiled enough recently with light use. My 15- and 18-ga. nailers, though, are Senco oil-less. You don't have to worry about oiling them, I've put many thousands of nails through them without any issues, and I like the idea of not having a nailer spit oil on my trim.

Keeping your air dry is as important as keeping your tools oiled. Water vapor running through your tools can kill them pretty fast. Lots of ways to dry the air, but long lines with drip legs and a water filter are the cheapest.

[Larry Edgerton]

Most Senco nailers do not require oil, my oiling method.

[Mark Bolton]

Maybe with light use things are different but even with modest oiling the oil, combined with moisture in the air stream, dirt, and so on, can form a thick sludgy like consistency which may not affect alot of tools but it will wreak havoc on trigger assemblies and cartridges. I just put a couple cartridges in two roof nailers and the first question the bostich tech's asked was if I was over-oiling. Its not rocket science. If I guy lube's with a couple drops of oil in the morning before he shoots down 30 square of shingles in a day and then a hobby user lubes dozens of times over the course of shooting the same amount of nails thats an excessive amount of oil. The same would be true for oiling three times per clip of finish nails because the user only shoots 15-20 nails at a go. There are times I will go through a 4M box or more of finish nails a day. Oiling multiple times per clip of nails would have me buying air tool oil by the quart.

Theres really no point in even addressing the tool blowing excess oil out the exhaust. In a woodworking environment, if that result is acceptable to the user, there isnt much to go over. Oil on my work isnt my goal.

[Charles Wiggins]

sorry to be dense, what does that mean?

David,

The "+1" means that the poster agrees with the post they are responding to.
The "10 characters" is thrown in because the poster had nothing else to add, but as Bruce said, the forum software will not let you post with less than 10 characters.

[Jim Andrew]

Time flies by so fast, I'm trying to remember buying my first nail gun, and guess it to be about 35 years ago, I bought a new Senco sn4. It was recommended to put 2 drops oil per day, and I used it all day. It was a framing gun, and it would not work without being serviced through one house. I struggled with those old framing guns until I got my first Hitachi gun. That thing you just dropped 2 drops a day, and it did numerous houses without service. I bought a Senco 1/4" crown stapler, it has a plastic cylinder, uses no oil. When I used it a lot, split the cylinder, and had it repaired, cost about 1/2 of new price. Still have it, think the model is sks.