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How much oil in Harbor Freight pneumatic riveter?

spaceflightmeow

Active Member
I got the 3/16" Harbor Freight pop riveter. I installed the 1/8" nosepiece and test pulled a couple of 1/8" rivets (just in the gun, not installed in a hole). It took two pulls to cut the stem off the rivet both times, so I think it needs oil per the directions.

How much hydraulic oil do I add? Fill up just the the tube in the center? (red arrow) Go a little more and cover the black ring? (blue arrow) Fill the whole base up? (would be more than 1 cup of oil so I highly doubt it)



This question seems to be asked all over the internet but I can't find a clear answer.

Thanks.
 
I read the manual one more time. It says "fill only to the top of the frame", which means to the red line in my picture. Will go try that...
 
It's the red line. Had the same question when I first got mine.

Other tips:
- Tape a paper towel/rag over the air exhaust (sprays fine mist of oil).
- Keep a close eye on the adjustment and tightness of the two halves of the "jaw cartridge". It can back off in use which damages the jaws.
 
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I learned the hard way.... Only to the top of the piston cylinder

I put way way too much oil in mine when I fist got it. Went back and read the instructions, a 2nd and 3rd time and realized it's just to the top of piston cylinder to push all the air out of the cylinder. Finally, I put just a little more in mine, almost to the hex nut. Your problem is there is some air in there and it's compressing each time you pull the trigger so the piston has to travel farther to obtain the same force. It runs out of distance or length before doing its job. Take the air out and it works like a champ.
I think the instructions also say, "prime". It's shipped with some oil in it, but you have to add maybe 1/2 oz to seal it completely without air.
Don't worry if you put a little more oil than called for, it will seep out as you use the tool, ask me how I know!:eek:
 
It's also important to keep the pulling jaws adjusted per the instructions. The tool that came with it doubles as the measuring stick. In addition, if you change sizes, i.e. 1/8 to 3/16, always remove the nose piece before changing the opening. Otherwise, you can run the risk of stripping out the threads. I went through two of these on my Murphy Super Rebel (over 40,000 rivets) before learning some of these nuances.

Jerry Folkerts
 
Ooooops!

I built an RV-12 with the same HF gun. Pulled it out of the box, connected to air and pulled however many thousands of rivets. Never added any oil. Only adjusted the 'jaws/pull' once or twice. She never missed a beat :)
 
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