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Post by valhalla on Sept 7, 2023 23:36:44 GMT 1
I bought a Laser air hammer 6031 with its partner needle descaler attachment 6413 a few weeks ago; my beloved Draper descaler was finally giving up the ghost, with internal plastic air-valve bits just melting.
When I got the Laser kit, and assembled it with an inline oiler, I thought it sounded a bit slow and lethargic - maybe something was wrong with it?
I tried it out today on some Vivaro front disks - what a revelation it was! Much slower running than all my previous tools, and very thirsty on air-flow, but the sheer brutality of the descaling was unbelievably fast, No question, much quieter than previous tools - less buzzing, more impact - and very quick to just sledgehammer the rust off the brake disk. I reckon I saved 10mins per side on this job, which is usually a drawn-out affair with hands tingling for hours afterwards. None of that with this tool.
Biggest danger with this tool is the way it just smashes its way into the job - very quick to make a complete mess of a disk running-face, should your attention stray for a second or two.
Cost was approximately £113 + VAT from The Tool Academy for the pair. I would unreservedly commend this product, and suggest it might even save a few relationships with anyone in the vicinity of a vehicle restoration!
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Post by Karl on Sept 10, 2023 21:02:55 GMT 1
Do like the tool academy
Can you do us an tool update on say using the air hammer for freeing drive shafts etc
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Post by valhalla on Sept 10, 2023 22:11:25 GMT 1
Do like the tool academy Can you do us an tool update on say using the air hammer for freeing drive shafts etc I will need to get the hammer-attachments for the gun, but that has been on the cards for a few weeks now. They do a nice slide-hammer attachment for pulling hubs, etc, but it's quite expensive, and I don't know if I can justify the cost right now, however I definitely need a few of the straight-on chisels and drifts for this gun to replace my original Draper unit.
Given the way this thing seems to slug its way through the rust with the needle-descaler attachment, it ought to be good for drifting.
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Post by OldGit on Sept 10, 2023 22:51:35 GMT 1
If the attachment is the same one for pulling injectors, it's worth every penny. (6092)
Tool Academy gets a recommendation from me as well.
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Post by valhalla on Sept 10, 2023 23:02:07 GMT 1
If the attachment is the same one for pulling injectors, it's worth every penny. (6092)
Tool Academy gets a recommendation from me as well.
It's very similar, the only difference is that instead of the "firing-backwards" rod and crank mechanism going into an injector puller, it goes into a 2-arm puller. They do the kit with the universal "firing backwards" adaptor, or without it if you already have the injector puller. You are still looking at nearly £320 for the basic kit, which is a fair bit to swallow.
What I would really like, but I'm not sure if the Tool Academy do it, is the Laser attachment of this gun that goes around rusted nuts, and rattles two impact faces against opposite sides of the nut. They have a video that demonstrates this tool on a locking-nut for a steering arm, and I have to say, if it works like that, it would soon pay for itself. I'm going to keep my eye cast around for a deal..... 
I have bought the set of impact tools that are extra long to fit into the mandrel with this gun - these have various concave/flat/curved faces to drift against seized bolts, but a fourth tool in the kit has an impact 1/2" adapter drive and spanner-hex, so you can hit and turn a bolt-head simultaneously. I think this is going to be a very useful tool - I will review it once I have some experience of it with some seized Landrover fixings (which is pretty much everything I see these days!)
EDIT : This is the Laser 6132 nut-removal tool I was speaking-of;
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Post by givusaclue on Sept 11, 2023 12:54:33 GMT 1
I have bought the set of impact tools that are extra long to fit into the mandrel with this gun - these have various concave/flat/curved faces to drift against seized bolts, but a fourth tool in the kit has an impact 1/2" adapter drive and spanner-hex, so you can hit and turn a bolt-head simultaneously. I think this is going to be a very useful tool - I will review it once I have some experience of it with some seized Landrover fixings (which is pretty much everything I see these days!)
i can vouch for the 1/2 drive attachment, some plus gas puddled around the stem of a vivaro m9r injector clamp bolt work it gently back & forth whilst impacting with a long stroke gun is the best chance on those to get them out when they look like they've been housemates with the titanic |
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Post by studabear on Sept 11, 2023 13:19:08 GMT 1
That nut removal tool looks a great bit of kit.
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Post by valhalla on Sept 11, 2023 22:02:23 GMT 1
I tried the needle descaler direct onto a couple of Hyundai i3 exhaust/catalyst fixing nuts today - they were undisturbed from the factory 12years ago, so were just blobs of rust.
This new tool is fairly impressive at just rattling this sort of thing apart; I pre-brushed them with a hand wire-brush, realised that there was enough left to work-with, and hammered the things on 3-flats per nut (as much as I could reach). After that, they were clean enough to just heat with the induction-heater coil, then unwound cleanly along the studded thread. Considering how bad they looked, and the depth of these special nuts, I was fairly amazed that they turned at all.....
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Post by valhalla on Nov 1, 2023 22:34:13 GMT 1
Do like the tool academy Can you do us an tool update on say using the air hammer for freeing drive shafts etc I will need to get the hammer-attachments for the gun, but that has been on the cards for a few weeks now. They do a nice slide-hammer attachment for pulling hubs, etc, but it's quite expensive, and I don't know if I can justify the cost right now, however I definitely need a few of the straight-on chisels and drifts for this gun to replace my original Draper unit.
Given the way this thing seems to slug its way through the rust with the needle-descaler attachment, it ought to be good for drifting.
I got a few of the attachments not long after I posted the above, but didn't have much need for them whilst I malingered with my cold. 
The first "big opportunity" came knocking last week; Defender 90 TD5, track-control arm balljoints needed freeing to allow me to re-track the front wheels for toe-out. Eigit that previously owned this vehicle had painted over all the mud and rust, so these were even more of a challenge than usual. The clamps came free, easy enough, but after that......
I put the concave impact-bit into the gun, the one that is just concave in one direction, to fit around a shaft. To be frank, the whole setup was a bit too aggressive, and I found that I was smashing the female track-rod tube to a pulp around the threaded balljoint male, so I had to wrap the induction heater coil around the joint and get it good and hot as well.
I think that the special C-clamp impact bit that goes around the whole joint would have been more effective. I'm still getting quite a few of these jobs through these days, even though I have exchanged the track-rod system for the improved Heavy-Duty version on most of the "regular" Defenders around these parts, so I think I will invest in one of those attachments linked above, and reassess the whole lot then.
My gut feeling is that this tool is great if you can "contain" the impacts, i.e. you need to back the tool up with a lump-hammer on the other side of the job. It seems more than capable of peening mild-steel to a pulp, so good in small bursts.....
I have an idea for the sharp chisel bit on this gun : I'm going to make a template for the VIN code that ought to be dot-punched into the front dumb-iron of the new chassis for my Defender project. I think this gun might make short work of getting an indelible code onto the chassis, needed because that chassis is missing its unique build-number from Richards (the first time I have had this problem), and will make the whole job look better as well.
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Post by rhyds on Nov 2, 2023 13:41:16 GMT 1
I'm surprised how vicious these air hammers seem to be. You see the various US/Canadian youtubers going full send with them pretty often!
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Post by Joepublic on Nov 2, 2023 13:50:56 GMT 1
If the attachment is the same one for pulling injectors, it's worth every penny. (6092)
Tool Academy gets a recommendation from me as well.
It's very similar, the only difference is that instead of the "firing-backwards" rod and crank mechanism going into an injector puller, it goes into a 2-arm puller. They do the kit with the universal "firing backwards" adaptor, or without it if you already have the injector puller. You are still looking at nearly £320 for the basic kit, which is a fair bit to swallow. What I would really like, but I'm not sure if the Tool Academy do it, is the Laser attachment of this gun that goes around rusted nuts, and rattles two impact faces against opposite sides of the nut. They have a video that demonstrates this tool on a locking-nut for a steering arm, and I have to say, if it works like that, it would soon pay for itself. I'm going to keep my eye cast around for a deal..... I have bought the set of impact tools that are extra long to fit into the mandrel with this gun - these have various concave/flat/curved faces to drift against seized bolts, but a fourth tool in the kit has an impact 1/2" adapter drive and spanner-hex, so you can hit and turn a bolt-head simultaneously. I think this is going to be a very useful tool - I will review it once I have some experience of it with some seized Landrover fixings (which is pretty much everything I see these days!)
EDIT : This is the Laser 6132 nut-removal tool I was speaking-of; I wonder if bolting weight to the track rod the nut would be freed of that too? |
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Post by Karl on Nov 2, 2023 20:35:42 GMT 1
I'm surprised how vicious these air hammers seem to be. You see the various US/Canadian youtubers going full send with them pretty often! Do you mean Eric O and big nasty and Thor |
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Post by valhalla on Nov 2, 2023 22:10:06 GMT 1
I wonder if bolting weight to the track rod the nut would be freed of that too? I'm pretty sure that quite a few tricks can be used to alter the masses that are reacting against each other. It's just an extension of the same tricks we use most days to drift and move things more effectively - like drifting rivets out of panels, by backing-up the metal around the rivet with a lump-hammer.
The trouble with the Defender "standard" track-rod design is that the main rod is a hollow tube, and the joints just thread into that. It does (now) occur to me that I could have added mass to the tube nearby, as you suggest, but the same effect could be achieved by using that C-clamp adapter tool that Laser sell (as linked above), where the C-clamp adds mass - in effect - the the back of the thing being hit.
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Post by rhyds on Nov 3, 2023 12:08:11 GMT 1
I'm surprised how vicious these air hammers seem to be. You see the various US/Canadian youtubers going full send with them pretty often! Do you mean Eric O and big nasty and Thor I was thinking Watch Wes Work and the fun and games of working on stuff in the US rust belt, but it sounds the same! |
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Post by valhalla on Nov 21, 2023 22:20:33 GMT 1
Another major success with this tool today!
I'm on a Passat B5 front suspension overhaul, and (inevitably) the "hate bolt" needed to come out on the one side - this is the pinch-bolt that secures the two upper arm balljoints to the steering pillar. Whilst I had good access to everything (the strut assemblies were both out), I wound the securing nut up the threads of the pinch-bolt until the nut was flush to the end, then put the concave drift into the Laser air-hammer.
20 seconds and it was loose, another minute and it was all out. The nut was utterly mushroomed, the threads on the nut now knackered, but the bolt was still straight and true, so I was able to transfer to the head of the bolt - further into the wheelarch - and drift against that.
Previous work on this same car, 100k miles ago, took me nearly a half-day to get the lot apart. I had tried to turn the bolt this time, just to see how seized it was; it was beyond the torque I could apply with a ring-spanner in-situ, so I reckon "pretty seized".
This tool can create a "scene of destruction" within seconds, but given the way it can sledgehammer its way through these jobs, I'm a fan.......  |
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