Who makes the best needle gun?
I’m using the Ingersoll Rand ones and they seem to eat themselves up after a few months. I remember bosun McGroarty talking about using “clean diesel” to clean them up and soak parts, but these don’t seem to be able to last long enough to do that.
Are you using air line lubricators? Filters?
We have air dryers on the air system. We lubricate our needle guns with marvel air tool oil before each use. Not sure what a filter would be for an air hose? Air line lubricator?
No offense intended but what exactly stops working that causes them to become inoperable & unrepairable? When it was my job to do so I could bring some badly neglected needle guns back to life with a wire wheel, sand paper, Marvel Mystery Oil, elbow grease & patience. The internal parts are pretty strong & replacment parts can be reordered when they get worn down too much. It’s been a while since a deckhand or oiler came to me & said they couldn’t chip because the needle gun didn’t work but when they did I usually gave them a spill about sending the broken needle gun into the nearest elementary school & let a group of Cub Scouts repair it. I know some guys will use the old “needle gun broken” excuse to get out of the task of using it. I always thought repairing & maintaining the needle gun was the best part of using it.
They eat through the cutouts on the bell housing. Have to remake, redrill, recut to use them again.
Cleco tools aren’t cheap but they’re good and rebuildable.
Get an ultra high pressure washer to strip the paint off back to bare metal.
Never used one myself, but I know a guy that worked on an accommodation barge where there were various people sleeping 24 hours a day so they couldn’t use a needle guy as it would wake them up, their vessel was rusting to pieces so the company invested in a UHP washer as it is much quieter.
Cleco,with air line oil injector… And a repair/parts manual that is not too hard to understand if you don’t keep them lubed. Parts readily available.It ain’t rocket science.
I’ve had good luck with the Unitor ones, though I’m sure the aren’t cheap. All of the parts are available.
My memory is not that great sometimes, sharp at a few moments. Do not remember Unitor brand. Cleco seems to be the brand supply dept sent us. Constant battle keeping those needle guns going. Another battle was keeping the guys from attacking themselves with the wire wheel feathering the edges before priming and painting. Myself included.
Interesting that Wilhelmson makes all of this stuff themselves. Makes a lot of sense.
Texas Pneumatics. Parts are pretty cheap, and with enough parts you can rebuild them forever.
Have heard of them, never used that product. Sounds like something that would have been useful, my time was about 20 yrs ago.
I always thought a needle gun is like shot peening a rusty surface, it just traps rust pockets?
It takes off rusty scale really well, but surface rust you’ll need to use either wire wheel or something if you want to take it back to bare metal. I like to just take off as much rust as comes off easily, then treat with a rust converter. Then prime and paint.
Sounds about right how we approached it. Can’t remember what that blue shit rust converter was, but turned it black after chipping and wire wheel, and then we primed and painted.
Yep, probably Ospho or Corroseal or any other number of acid based rust converters.
Ospho is correct. Just couldn’t remember the brand. Thx
What air pressure are you using? Most pneumatic tools max at 90psi, if you are using 140 or 150 psi ships air the air tools won’t last
Correct.
