Just like your car you need to keep your tools clean and maintained. Hand tools can be easy to keep up with as they just take a wipe down and maybe an occasional drop of oil here and there. Your air tools get used hard and performance can decrease with every use if they aren’t cleaned and kept up with. We decided to show you below our best practices for cleaning and maintaining your air tools.
Any air tool that has moving parts is going to need some sort of lubrication inside of it to keep it working like new. Most tools like impact guns, grinders, etc. get oil through the same passage as your air inlet into the tool. This doesn’t mean that you want to dump oil down your air tank to keep the air “oiled” as some pneumatic items we don’t want any oil or moisture present (a paint gun for instance). This means that it is best to add lubrication to the tool at the tool inlet. If you’re using a stationary tool you can add an inline oiler at the inlet that has a small reservoir that you can add drops of oil into the tool. Other times you will just need to add a few drops of air into the tool before hooking up your airline. Reciprocating tools like an air chisel, body saw, and others can greatly benefit from being lubricated before each use.
Cleaning your air tools can be a quick easy job if you maintain a regular schedule. We’ve found that an average DIY enthusiast or home hobbyist can clean their mechanical air tools once a year. Paint guns and some other tools may require cleaning much more often and we always suggest to follow the manufacturers recommendations. A good cleaner for air tools (mechanical or paint guns) is Eastwood Aerosol Injected Cleaner. This cleaner is gentle enough for air tools, but strong enough to clean out any residue or contaminants that might have made their way into the air passage of the tool. The special coned shape nozzle focuses the cleaner in a tight, high pressure blast that thoroughly cleans the tool. If you can disassemble the tool easily you can also take the tool apart and clean each internal part with Eastwood PRE Prep Cleaner and then reassemble before using the Aerosol Injection.
After cleaning and reassembling your tools you will need to add a few drops of oil to those that need it before using. We DO NOT suggest ruining your freshly cleaned tools without lubrication to avoid potential damage to the internals (think of starting your car without oil after draining it). Follow these simple steps and you’ll make your air tools last longer and perform better than ever.
See our full line of air tools here: https://www.eastwood.com/tools/pneumatic-tools.html