[Jewelry making - Article 00133] - Re: [Orchid] Air tools

[Dave Arens]

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    Hi Anne, 

>     We bought an air compressor this year for house painting, and I'm
>     wondering if there are uses for this in my small production jewelry
>     business. 

    There are a number of uses for compressed air in almost any shop. 

    One of the uses you've already mentioned, air hammers/engravers.
    Check out the GRS line of tools in most jewelers tool catalogs (Rio
    Grande has a very good description).  The air hammers can be used for
    engraving, stone setting & texturing with the appropriate tips
    installed. 

    Another use is to power a sand/bead blaster. There are a number of
    these devices listed in the same tool catalog. You can probably get a
    better price on sand blasting cabinets from places like Harbor
    Freight though. 

    Air powered turbine handpieces are another possibility. 

    A couple of other applications you might not think of aRe: powered
    paste solder application (again see the tool catalog) & use as a high
    pressure cleaner in place of a steamer. I rigged up an input tube
    from a liquid cleaner to a blow gun. (Works real well.) 

    One caution about the cleaner: use adequate ventilation as the
    cleaner is atomized in this process. The paste solder application is
    really only viable if you have lots of joints to solder (like in
    chain making). 

    Some of these applications work better with dry air, you may have to
    put a drier between the air supply & the tools. Depending on the
    humidity where you live, you should drain the water that collects in
    the air tank on at least a weekly basis. Whether the tools being used
     require an in line lubricator will be spelled out by the users
    manual for the tools. Some tools require a special dry lubricant
    instead of oil. 

    There are almost as many air powered tools as electrically powered. 
    What you do with air power is only limited by your imagination & tool
    budget. 

Dave

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