Oiling Harbor Freight Pneumatic Riveter

[hk1232]

Looking for advise with how to oil the cheap Pneumatic rivet pullers like this one from Harbor Freight:
https://www.harborfreight.com/3-16-inch-air-hydraulic-riveter-93458.html

I've attached the page of the manual that describes this. Step 3 says to fill to the top of the housing which they don't have labeled.

I filled a small amount of the bottom of the cylinder with air tool oil and two things happened --

1. Spitting an oil mist with the exhaust air on each use
2. After a few months of sitting I've picked this back up and now the cylinder plunger now gets stuck and only moves half a stroke.

Spent a lot of time disassembling, cleaning, etc. and the cylinder plunger still automatically repositions halfway through the cylinder after use.

What is the "housing"? How much are you adding? I assume this oil mist means I'm doing it wrong!

 

[Rv3Dave]

Don’t add any oil, I had exactly the same experience with the first one I bought.
Second one I did not add any oil and it has worked for years. One more suggestion, use the minimum air pressure required to break the mandrel, on mine that 60 psi

 

[Ironflight]

I’ll probably get grief from the folks who really know these pullers, but I have two HF units, both about six or seven years old, and have built a Subsonex and a Xenos (huge wings, a gazillion rivets….) with them, and have never added a drop of oil. I’ve had a few rivet shank hang ups in the jaws, but that’s just because the jaws are cheap….not related to the mechanism.

I figure that if they die because I didn’t add oil, they’ve more than done their duty already!

Paul

 

[edhunter]

I've got a HF pneumatic rivet gun from 2005. I built a Factory Five Cobra replica with it. Since then I've pulled thousands of rivets on various other projects. Never oiled that I recall. Been a good tool. Yes it has served as a hammer on occasion too.

 

[scard]

I have one from the beginning of the century as well. It has pulled a whopping couple hundred rivets and still works fine, no oil.

 

[Aviacs]

After a few months of sitting I've picked this back up and now the cylinder plunger now gets stuck and only moves half a stroke.

Spent a lot of time disassembling, cleaning, etc. and the cylinder plunger still automatically repositions halfway through the cylinder after use.

Mine did that after pulling about 1,000 #10-24 & 1/4"-20 riv-nuts and a "whole bunch" of steel rivits to built my oven. Like yours, it worked perfectly - until i let it set for a couple weeks.

It is probably the O-ring.
I spent most of 2 days among other errands running around town trying to find a replacement. Should have stopped at my bolt jobber first, he had a box of big NOS O-rings in the back and i picked 3 likely suspects of variable OD and thickness diameters.

FWIW, when my first trips for replacement were unsuccessful, i tried soaking the original in both ATF, and in Dot 3 brake fluid as well as some other fluids including marvel mystery oil to see if it would swell back out to OD. It never did.

I think you have to replace it. But there was no spec on the loose ones i got, so can't say, other than take your old O-ring, and get one that is "somewhat larger" in dia, and about the same thickness dia.

I still oil mine, light spindle oil, and maybe some light way oil as well, can't remember. I thought these worked on a hydraulic principle? But maybe it is all mechanical up in the plunger part? Either way, as others have mentioned, you do not have to fill the air chamber with much at all. (Edited: Kyle's post below reminded me, i did not have any hydraulic oil on hand, so used aircompressor oil which is essentially the same)

There is also another O ring in the trigger section, IIRC. I replaced that as well, but it was probably not necessary. At least small ones are easier to find.

good luck!

smt

 

[Kyle Boatright]

I filled mine partially with hydraulic oil. It was pretty much flawless riveting down the floors on the -10 and attaching the cabin top. Probably 500 rivets or so. It does spit oil, so I taped a cloth over the exhaust to catch the mist, and just change the cloth (actually a doubled over paper towel) periodically.

 

[DRMA]

Maybe I had bad luck, but after returning 2 of these to HF that wouldn't work right, I bought a mid-priced one from another source, and it has performed perfectly.

Once again reinforced the lesson I never seem to learn - You get what you pay for, and with a cheap tool the purchase pleasure of the low cost is seldom worth the pain each time I use the inferior tool.

If it were me, I would return it to HF for credit and purchase a higher quality brand/tool.

Just my experience/opinion, for what it's worth. (Again, you get what you pay for, and you are paying nothing for my advice. grin)

 

[Brantel]

I purchased the HF unit when starting the build of the 12. The directions say it has to be filled with oil before use but I found that it already had oil in it.

I dumped it out and refilled per the directions and it spit oil out the exhaust really bad. I dumped it again, and refilled to a much lower level and it has worked like a dream since with no spitting.

The moral of the story is, don’t mess with it! Just take it out of the box and use it.

Hundreds of RV12’s and many other kit designs have been built with the HF puller.

 

[Aviacs]

Per the OP's original problem-
I agree, they don't need much oil, & any oil should go up into the plunger part, very little in the big piston air chamber.

Nonetheless, my suspicion is that like mine reported above, the cheap piston O-ring shrank. The quality inside these seems fine, other than that. Nosepiece, trigger, and plated parts are on the tinny side & plating flakes off, but the parts seem to hold up.

There is one other thing to check - these are somewhat sensitive to collet & gripper adjustment.

smt