Recently I got out my Ingersoll Rand model 117 air hammer to use and found out its action had gotten all gummed up. It’s been probably a year since I last used it even then probably didn’t use it a ton. I always drip air tool oil into a tool before use because my air lines run driers and particulate filters for my plastics work. Thus, I have to manually apply the oil before I use a tool.
When I went to use 117 the piston would not actuate and when I shook the tool, it didn’t sound like it normally did. My first thought was to check the air pressure and it was at 90 PSI and the regulator was wide open so my next guess was lubrication. Adding more air tool oil didn’t make any difference. I then remembered a tip a guy told me years ago with gummy air tools – spray a ton of PB Blaster down the quick connect fitting and let it sit with the quick connect fitting up in the air trapping the penetrating oil in the tool for 5 minutes and try again.
So, I did that, reconnected the air line and it worked! The tool worked like a champ and it blew PB Blaster everywhere! I did it one more time just to make sure stuff was clear and ran the tool for a maybe 30 seconds to blow the PB Blaster out, wiped it down with a rag and then put in four drops of air tool oil. Problem solved.
This was a huge win because I was in the middle of working on AK and wanted to use this tool plus I didn’t have time to take it all apart, I’m writing this post a few weeks later after completing the AK build and the IR 117 is still working like a champ.
By the way, PB Blaster can be found at tons of automotive stores. The packing looks gimmicky but it is actually one of the best penetraing oils that is out there along with Kroil. If I didn’t have access to either of those, I would have made up some Ed’s Red or at least used some form of transmission fluid. Tranny fluid works great but take a while to penetrate gunk.
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