Tool TLC

We all depend on these hand-held power tools to keep our shops alive and production going. However, these important tools of the trade are likely to be the most-overlooked when performing regular shop maintenance tasks. In fact, many shops take the tools for granted … until they break down.
Consider, for instance, the grinder, which is quite possibly the most-abused tool in any shop. We pick them up and then cut, grind, top-polish, sand, and even core out some faucet holes with them. We overheat them. Then we just put ‘em down with no consideration for the health of the internal parts of the grinder.
Stop that! Take a few minutes to examine the cost of the grinders in your shop and the benefits they provide to your business as a whole. (It’s why I say they could be the most-important tool at our disposal.) Look at all we do with our beloved grinders.
We really don’t pay that much for one, but when you have a shop full of them and have to replace or repair several every few months, it can add-up to a sizeable expense. Here are a few things that you can do to slow down the wear and tear:
• Blow out the inside of the grinders regularly with compressed air. Dust is the enemy. It causes damage to brushes, arbors, and bearings.
• Allow the grinder to cool down when you get it really hot. Running a hot grinder doesn’t just burn our hands; it burns the windings in the motor too.
• Consider the size and amp rating of the grinders. You may want to get the next model up. For example, Makita’s 9564cv is fine for light grinding and cutting. But I would recommend the 9565cv, or even the 9566cv, for general shop work. The 9565 and 9566 can take the common abuses of coring holes and top-polishing much better than the lower rated 9564. Remember, the higher the amp rating, the stronger the motor. Your less likely to burn up a 9566, as compared to the 9564.
Finding a dependable repair shop/dealer is another thing that can help. If you have a decent repair shop, treat ‘em right. If you don’t have someone to work on tools regularly, it doesn’t hurt to look around.
Here in Florida, I depend on one tool dealer in Hollywood. It always has the best prices on popular grinders, and offers two-year warranties. I’ve sent more than a few grinders back to them for repair that should have been trashed, and they always try to fix them and get them back in a decent time frame.
Finding this type of dealer/repair shop can be priceless. This is especially true if they fix grinders under warranty.
 Let’s consider air polishers. As many of you already know, cheaper is not always better. I’d rather pay an average of about $285 once than to pay a lesser price for a much-lesser product – and end up having to buy at least two cheapies to one good polisher.
If you’re going to buy the better polisher, keep it maintained, because proper care is critical in the life of an air polisher (or any air tool, for that matter).
We all know that air tools require a few drops of oil daily. So what could it hurt to miss a couple days or a week? How about at least half of the expected lifetime of the tool?
Regular oiling on a daily basis is key in a longer lasting polisher. I recommend an in-line pressure regulator/ automatic oiler. Sure, you think you can convince everyone in the shop to take care of the job manually, but your employees aren’t going to remember to oil that new polisher daily – not even if they actually care.
So here are a few recommendations for maintenance:
• Get in-line oilers for all your air tools. The cost is less than $100 each, and it’s much cheaper than replacing polishers every few months.
• Keep the polishers clean. Dust is just as bad in air tools as it is with electric models.
• Replace bad hoses. Even a small air leak can drastically reduce the power of your polisher.
Another thing to keep in mind is to bind supply hoses to keep them from getting tangled. This is more of a personal pet peeve than a maintenance issue, although having tools go flying when someone trips on a hose will decrease a polisher’s useful life.
I also recommend the use of Oxy/Acetylene hose for the supply of air and water. The hose comes bonded as one and keeps things nice and neat (not to mention the fact that you have less to possibly trip over on the shop floor). 
And then there’s the hand\-held saw. Typically we use these small tools to cut grooves for sink rods, and sometimes for cutting bowl holes. And, we take them for granted.
Something to remember, though, is that these small saws aren’t like our trusty wood-cutting circular saws. They’re much smaller in size, which means the motors can’t take the abuse we would like to give them.
The best recommendations I can make on these is to keep ‘em clean, and try not to push them so hard on the job. If they sound like they’re bogging down, then back off a little. Let the saw do the work at its own pace.
All the good ideas about tool TLC don’t mean anything unless cleaning, oiling, etc., is done on a regular, standard schedule. If you don’t have that ingrained into everyone at the shop, it’s time to make a maintenance plan.
Assign certain tasks to individual employees, and give them each a chart to record the maintenance they perform on each piece of equipment. And ask them to turn these in regularly. It’ll help keep them on their toes.
Until next month – Donny Taylor.
Donny Taylor is a fabricator in Florida and a member of the Stone Fabricators Alliance. To ask him a question, log on to www.stoneadvice.com, or send an email to donnystoned@hotmail.com.