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Hi everyone, Hi have an ME-9100 and I’ve had years with no problems. Yesterday I took off the sleeve and cleaned everything and the only difference to my routine was that I directly put oil in where the piston is. now I can get it to start, but there’s no power, seems like the stroke length is almost zero and the stylus is barely vibrating. I took it all apart, including taking the tool off the hose and removing the pin and checking the piston, but it back together. Had slightly more power for a few seconds. But now the same problem. Any ideas? Thanks!

Finally gonna start acquiring some air prep tools (scribe and abrasive) to better my prepping. My question at this point is this, on the CP brand air scribes, can you use other tips? Have seen here where sometimes a longer or different shaped tip is useful but didn't see in the Amazon description that the tips are changeable. Looking at the CP9160 scribe. So glad I found this group. Already learned much

Hello everyone, I am relatively new to fossil preparation and up until last week have been using an electric engraver to prep some of my collection, but it overheated and died on me so I am looking into upgrading to a proper air scribe. I was hoping some of you who work with UK tools might be able/willing to give me some advice on picking a tool. I have heard very good things about both Zoic pens and the Ken Mannion TT but I'm curious to know what the difference between them is from a use standpoint since one uses pusher plate internals and the other a piston (I think). A little background into the sort of thing that's in my collection that I'd like to prep. Most of my collection comes from the Whitby area, so hard pyritised ammonite nodules (the photo is a D. commune I was working on when the engraver died). I also have Rhaetian bone material from Aust and some small concretions, probably C. clalamensis from the last time I was back in Washington. I will post a few pictures of the ones I'm looking to work on next below as comments. Any and all advice you can give me is greatly appreciate. I'm looking forward to getting some things shelf ready while I can't go out and hunt for more. Thank you, Benton Walters

Hi everyone, I saw this tool up recently and it was described as a paleo tool type ARO. Would this be a good tool to start off with? Is it a proper ARO or a clone? I’d just like to make sure because it’s not cheap (£250) . If I get a cheaper ARO clone, will I be able to fit a nib like this on? Also, is there another tool or website someone could recommend? Thanks.

Hello everyone, Just spotted this online for a very cheap price. It’s labelled as a Chicago pneumatic cp9160. However the seller only listed one picture and not much info. Should I be worried? Is it suitable for fossil prep? Also apart from an air compressor what else would I need to get it up and running? Thanks in advance

I was given ~$400 USD on Christmas, earmarked for an air scribe and air compressor. I've read many posts on the site about what to get, but many are almost a decade old now (that's so hard to believe!) My use-case would be limestone fossils (primarily ammonites or trilobites from North Texas / Oklahoma areas. I've seen recommendations for Chicago Pneumatic, a 8315B, Paleo-Tools, etc. What all do I need to get, assuming I'm starting with nothing? If I need to save more money, I'm willing to do so. I do have a 5 gallon cylinder shaped air-compressor, but assume I should get something bigger. Thanks all!

I've found a used Chicago cp9160 on Amazon listed at 61.55USD. It's one of the models I've been looking at and seems useful for bulk removal of matrix. But! I can't figure out if I can set in new needle or if there are different ones like chisle shaped! Where would I get accessories (couldn't find one on what I think is Chicago's website) and what price do new needles usually run at? Also wondering if this is a good buy? (it's the red one if you filter for used air scribe on Amazon). Would you recommend it to a newbie with no experience? (I have plenty of air compressors so that won't be a problem).

Hello. I am setting up to finally prepare some of the fossils that have been languishing in my collection in desperate need of exposure. I live within a few miles of one of the premier Devonian formations in the northeast USA, (Hamilton Group) of Penn Dixie fame, and I have always lamented my inability to pull out the best from my finds. I have begun to accumulate equipment. I will list what I have so far, and I am open to suggestions as far as what direction to go from here. Already have: A room, far from the rest of the household, where the noise from the equipment won't ###### everyone off. A garage based compressor, with a line running to said room. A micro dremel, (electric, which was much quieter than the pneumatic one) with numerous bits. A respirator Small shop vac, with various small attachments. An air-line bridge, with three attachment points, one with an adjustable gauge. A good sturdy drafting table, (got lucky on that one) A micro nozzle duster, self-constructed A CP9160 Air Scribe, with 2" and 2.5" sharp needles, as well as the stock needle. (Apparently, very similar to the ARO) Various artist brushes. Okay, here's where I need some help: I need a magnifier with light, and there's absolutely a gajillion of them out there. Suggestion? 5X 10X 20X? LED, Green vs. White glass, etc. I also know I should be looking into a pen type sand blaster, but I don't have the resources to sink into the system, the air handler, and the glove box etc, but would be willing to take suggestions for when I can afford it. Thank you for your help, Derek

FYI @DevonianDigger @JamesAndTheFossilPeach @Kane @Malcolmt @caldigger @RJB @Ptychodus04 @Fossildude19 @FossilSloth @FossilDudeCO I need your guy's input as I go along! I'm a green horn! Thank you in advance. Well since some of you who I know have started your own fossil preparation threads I thought I'd do the same. A lot has transpired since, well Saturday morning. I went all chips in and bought a really nice two stage, 60 gallon Kobalt air compressor. You don't want to know the cost. My jaw dropped when the cashier rang up the total but I had no other choice. I was all in at this point. Went home and my neighbors helped me lift this monster out of my cousins pickup and I spent the rest of the day setting everything up then realized that I didn't have the connector for the 3/4 output on the tank so went back today and figured it out. The Lowes guy and I had fun figuring this puzzle out together. So I have a moisture trap, emergency shutoff (isolator) valve, regulator, 25 foot air hose, CP-9361, some fossils to prepare, and 240 volt connection (yes I wired up the plug and cabling). Wiring up this 240 volt electrical housing was probably the scariest thing I've ever done in my life. Definitely not a lot of room for error. Really was nervous about doing this. Also nervous about this. Had to punch a hole through 11 inch dry wall and plywood to get to the washer/dryer room to access the 240 volt dryer outlet. Thankfully we weren't using that outlet as our drier runs on natural gas. Here's the big 250 lb air compressor. This thing pumps out a ton of air. I was able to run the scribe continuously for three hours. No stopping! Moisture trap, shut off valve, and the regulator all hooked up to a large 3/4 elbow. One of the reasons why I had to get the elbow was because I knew with all the extra valves and connections it would put strain on the line so I wanted gravity to compliment the setup (as punishing as gravity can be at times). So now for the good part. The fossils. Recently acquired a massive Tumidocarcinus giganteus crab concretion from New Zealand. Within a few hours the carapace is well exposed. I'm not exactly sure what to look for here. There's either an exoskeleton that's flaking off or that's some sort of chemical process on the outside. I'm really not sure as I've seen these crabs in both that light pinkish hue and then in the black color. Where the black is was where the concretion was exposed to the elements. You can see the non-dominant left claw being teased out. That's also delicate so I've really been taking my time. Worked on it for about 3 hours total. So far so good. Here's a couple pictures to illustrate the process. Unlike @RJB I may not have a beer by my side but I'm ready to go crabbing. Definitely needed the safety goggles. Will need to pickup an air mask tomorrow along with some noise cancelling headphones (have some Beats at work). Roughly 10 minutes in and am really taking my time (don't want to do anything that I might regret later). About 40 minutes in. Slowly inching my way towards the left claw. About two hours into the process. The carapace is starting to show. Decided to leave at this point with nearly three hours invested. I hear crabs can have leg parts in virtually any arrangement depending on their displacement and preservation but I'm anticipating legs going from the carapace region out towards the edges (you can see points where legs should be). Really decided to slow down and take my time. I think this is going to be a very special fossil especially since it's the first crab I'm preparing and the first fossil prepared by my first owned air scribe the tried and true CP-9361. I'm sure I'll make mistakes along the way and I'm not doing this the way other more experienced prepares would but it's a start. The CP-9361. I'm in love. Then for kicks I decided to do some work on this little Knightia from the split fish layers. The Museum of Ancient Life curator that I've been volunteering with has been teaching me the ways of prep. Some secrets I won't be able to divulge here as I've sworn an oath of secrecy but he's really good at preparing Green River fish. He actually uses a CP-9361 so I figured why couldn't I right? Well I went in really slowly on this fish and exposed it in about five minutes flat. There's a few punch holes on the far end of the tail from where I was a tad bit to aggressive with the scribe but with time and practice I'll get a better feel for how to work with this soft matrix. I'm sure the 18 inch layer is a bit harder. Still I think it came out for a common fish and it looks pretty good. I forgot to take a before picture but here's an after picture. Little Knightia required only 5 minutes of preparation work with the CP9361 when it would have taken at least an hour with dental picks, which I'm never going back to again.

I’m looking to buy an air scribe but there are so many types i’m not sure which to choose. I will mainly use it to prep Aust, charmouth, Lyme Regis or Isle of Wight fossils (all in the UK). Does anyone have any recommendations? Also, am I right to say that I would also need to buy a air compressor? Thanks in advance.

Apologies if anyone has seen this before: I originally posted in another, older topic, but got no answer. I'm reposting as a new topic... (Since the original post, I have sourced a rebuild kit, anvil & both chisels at a decent price.) I found this forum while searching for information on an air scribe. A few months ago I found a CP9361 on a table at our local flea market. The guy mostly cleans out barns and sells what goodies he finds; his prices usually are rather reasonable, but this scribe cost me a whopping $4.00! So hooray! (And it is fully operational.) I had been using an old Burgess engraver to experiment with, but my tool selection just took a major jump upwards. My question is: do most preparators simply use the scribe point, or is there an advantage to adding the anvil/chisel to the tool? If so, is there a preference for the round point or the flat 1/4" chisel? I mostly play with thin sections and petrographic microscopes, but I have recently become very interested in fossils from the Permian and earlier. I hope to gain some degree of skill in preparing these materials. Thanks to all.

Hello everyone I have decided to start prepping with some mechanic aid and was hoping for some advice. The compressor I have runs at 8 bar, 120l/min and has a 6l tank. The air scribe I am considering is from Krantz and has the following technical data: 36000 beats/min air consumption: 25–30 l/min pressure: 3–7 bar weight: 250 g size: Ø 17 x 160 mm length of the tube: ca. 2,5 m with internat. plug-in coupling pointer: acute, hard metal, medium, 38 mm My first question is if it looks like a good choice for a first scribe, any other alternatives anyone can suggest? My second question is if I need an external component to control the maksimum air pressure? On the compressor I can adjust the pressure range it runs on from x-8 bar, where x is the minimum pressure i allow it to go, before it brings it back up to 8 bar, but the scribe prescribe a 3-7 bar running pressure. Any spare parts worth getting straight off the bat? Best regards

I’ve decided I need a blast cabinet to help me prep things like Green River fish and various invertebrates. I have a few questions I’d like to post for feedback. First, I have a stereomicroscope with a Barlow lens, so I want a cabinet with a flat top. Even with the Barlow lens the working distance between my microscope and the specimen is only about 6”, so a cabinet with an angled window won’t work. I will primarily be using this with an air eraser and a Dremel engraver tool. I don’t expect to pick up any kind of serious pneumatic air scribe, and I recognize what I will be trading off by not doing so. @Malcolmt gave a design for a blast cabinet here: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/76546-affordable-trilobite-preparation-setup/ Also, in September I visited Fossil Butte National Monument. At their visitor center they had a ranger demonstrating how to prep fish under a blast cabinet. I didn’t take photos but the FBNM website has a video showing their blast cabinet in use. I liked that design. Here are a couple of screen shots I clipped from the video: Here are my questions: 1. The FBNM blast cabinet opens from the front. I’ve seen other designs that open from the top. Opening from the front would seem to be nicer because I wouldn’t have to move the microscope out of the way every time I want to reach in. Am I missing anything here? 2. I plan to use it with a shop vac and dust collector (see below for my ideas there). A lot of people say you need to seal every joint in the blast cabinet securely to prevent dust from getting out and all over the place. But if you look at the photos above, the FBNM blast cabinet has three large holes on the side, presumably to help with airflow to the shop vac. Should I be drilling holes like this or not? I don’t expect to use sealed gloves on the armholes, just some sort of fabric I can reach through, so that should be another path for airflow. 3. I’m a bit limited on space. While 20x24 inches would be a nice size, I think I may only be able to do 16x20 inches. That would also let me use a 16x20 piece of glass from a picture frame for the top. Do you think that would be a sufficient size (I don’t expect to be prepping any large vertebrate fossils)? 4. For dust collection I have two choices. @Peat Burns uses the Dust Deputy: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/79131-what-is-your-microscopeair-blaster-setup/&tab=comments#comment-871944, and @Ptychodus04 designed a Water Trap system: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/79125-water-trap-dust-collector/&tab=comments#comment-834634. That one is cheaper and seems like it is less likely to let really fine dust escape so I will probably try that. Anyone have any recommendations here?

Wanting to move beyond dental picks. Right now I have a dremel I’m think about using for fossil prep but am worried about maintaining control as it tends to pull. The other options I am seeing are air scribes and abrasive blasting. Which is best? Which is the next logical step?

I just got back from a week-long trip that included a stop to dig Green River fish at the American Fossil Quarry outside of Kemmerer, Wyoming. That was a successful venture and I will post a separate entry showing some of my finds once I get them unpacked. While I was there, I stopped in at the nearby Fossil Butte National Monument. In the visitor center, one of the rangers was doing a demo of prepping a Green River fish (a Diplomystus from the 18" layer they got from one of the commercial quarries). I didn't take any photos but I did ask a lot of questions. Before I share his answers, you might want to take a look at this video from the Fossil Butte National Monument website. It shows how they prep the fish using an air scribe and air abrasive. But be warned that what I learned isn't exactly the same as what is shown in the video here: https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=9BD712EE-1DD8-B71B-0B88EC525E86D328 The setup I saw was the same as in the video. It looked like a home-made blast cabinet with a sheet of acrylic plastic on top, held on by blue painters tape. It was connected to a good dust collector. The microscope, as in the video, looked like a Leica-Wild M8 stereomicroscope with a video camera on top and an offset binocular viewing head. This is a top-of-the-line unit that probably cost somewhere between $7,000 to $10,000 (sadly, this model microscope is no longer manufactured, but you can pick them up on the used market if you have enough money). The microscope seemed to be fixed in the center of the blast cabinet, you move the specimen around under it. I didn't learn the make of the air scribe tool he was using, he said it was a specially modified one with a large rubber sheath that reduced the vibration transmitted to his hands. For the air abrasive, they had two Crystal Mark Swam Blasters model EV-2. One of them, set off to the side and not being used, was labeled "Dolomite." I asked him what abrasive he was using and he said iron powder. I was surprised because I thought that would be much too hard on these fossils, but as I watched on the screen it did a great job of removing the matrix without damaging the fossil. I probed some more and he said that while the machine could be set to go up to 80 psi, he had it set to 13.3 psi. There is also a setting for powder flow that can be set between 1 and 10. He had it set to 6, and when he is doing delicate work on the fins, turns it down to 2 or 3. He also said the nozzle was specially modified to be smaller in diameter. I was pretty impressed with the quality of his work and am inspired to make my own blast cabinet similar to theirs (but without the high-priced microscope). I thought everyone might like to know what works for this facility even though it's different from what is usually recommended here on this forum.

Hello, prep friends! Does anyone have exact specs on the stylus/pins for the CP and Paleotools units? I just purchased a knockoff and this diamond pin that it came with is totally useless. I want to replace it, but have no idea how compatible it will be with anything else.

Made this quick reference guide as a fun little graphic to aid in sandblasting matrix. Hopefully, someone finds this useful! Enjoy!

Hi. Can anyone tell me the air psi range for a Paletools Micro Jack 3? Also, what are the lubrication requirements. Thanks, Andy

Hi, I just got back from Kemmerer with a large amount of fish fossils to prep and have an Aero scribe. I was wondering if a Micro Jack would be better as the vibration of the Aero knocks some of the scales off. If the answer is yes, which Micro Jack would be best in your opinion. If anyone has other prep suggestions I would also be interested. I've read all of the old posts that I could find on the subject.

Well the wife surprised me -- she ordered me a paleo tools #3 micro jack so I can do fine detail scribing on trilos. I spent the summer replumbing my manifold so every tool has a shut off and pressure gauge. I also installed an industrial dust collector. I will post photos of new setup soon.

I want to preparing and cleaning fossils. And I tried to find great tools, but I can't. I want to buy air scribe and small drill(?). Can you tell me about what site I can buy those? +I live in South Korea.

After prepping my first ammonite I decided it was necessary, before starting another prep, that I would need something to catch all of the dust and debris. So, inspired by ZiggieCie, I went DIY. However, unlike ZiggieCie, I couldn't boast about $0... I had some scrap 3/4" plywood in the garage, which I put to good use. Most everything else I had to purchase specifically for the project. But it gave me the opportunity to buy tools I would need for other projects! I mounted an air manifold to split my air supply between my CP 9361, my Harbor Freight air eraser and an air gun. I hooked my Rigid vacuum into the side to collect the dust. Below is the result... All I need now is some dolomite for the air eraser. I'm planning on picking up a 50 lb. sack from a ceramics store in Houston. I can't wait to get started. I have some other ammonites to get to!

Has anyone tried using graphite as a lubricant for air scribes?

I've found air scribes and I've found pneumatic engravers and I've found air scribes / pneumatic engravers. What is the difference in what happens at the tip? I can't find a clear explanation. Thanks, Adam

Today I received my new Chicago pneumatic 9361 air scribe, however the instructions gave no operating pressures. What pressures are best?