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Graphite Lubricant For Air Scribes


Cluros

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not me. I rarely lube my airscribes. don't like the oil spraying on my fossils. But sometimes you have to, and I use air tool oil.

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No never have... like JPC I use oil on my scribes rarely, perhaps a couple of drops in the end of the hose every 100 hours of use. I have 9 scribes but really use two for 90 percent of my prep. My German pferd for almost all fine work and my ARO for bulk removal. The oil I use is a crystal clear sewing machine oil not an air scribe oil. I found the air scribe oil stained light fossils. I prep mostly trilobites and crinoids.

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sewing machine oil... good idea. 9 scribes... I thought I had a few... you beat me by two. And I agree.. most of the work is done with only a few tools.

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In the past, I used a Chicago pneumatic. Always had trouble with this air scribe: Sputtered quite often and even jammed from time to time. So I had to use a lot of oil and consequently got a lot of oil spraying on my fossils. I was really mad about this. I then switched to EO/PO copolymers as lubricant. Not as effective as oil but good enough. And they are water soluble - you can wash them off quite easily.

I am a fan now of air scribes from Hardy Winkler (HW10); more than 10 years in use without any problems and never had to use a single drop of oil.

Thomas

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes (Confucius, 551 BC - 479 BC).

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Ive never even heard of using graphite for an airtool? Have always used a couple drops of a (new mattic) oil depending on the weather about every 10 to 40 hours. Ive also never heard of Hardy Winkler? What kind of air scribes does he sell? Sounds interesting.

RB

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Hardy Winkler is a tool maker / turner. Since 1986 he is designing and selling his own air scribes and sand blasters. Sorry, his web site is only in German: http://www.hw10.de/werkzeugmenue.html but Stonecompany is offering his stuff http://www.stonecompany.com/tools/GermanTools2014.pdf

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes (Confucius, 551 BC - 479 BC).

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I was always looking for the perfect scribe and not finding it. My German Pferd MST31 with a fine stylus is as close as I have come to it although it is not as good as a slightly modified ARO I have for bulk removal (the needle is too fine on the Pferd and it has as very high cycle rate). I also have a regular stylus for the Pferd but still prefer the ARO for bulk. I only every bought two as expensive new scribes (Pferd and a british one which is good for heavy duty matrix removal but not good for fine work). The rest of my scribes were all purchased used on ebay for under $100 each.

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The HW10 from Germany is a very good scribe . I looked at it and a microjack from Paleotools but eventually settled on the Pferd MST31. I did a fair bit of research on the microjacks but came to the conclusion that they were very much a specialty tool and that selecting the correct size might be problematic. After speaking in some depth with a very experienced and respected preparator I came to the conclusion that the microjack even though it was an amazing tool was not a go to scribe and that in reality I would probably not use it more than 5% of the time. I probably use my Pferd 70 % of the time and the ARO 25% with the other scribes making up the last 5%. All my scribes have quick connects on them so changing out a scribe is very easy. My connection point currently supports up to 5 quick connects.

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I had a lot of trouble with my Aro scribe stalling. Oil/no oil, clean/dirty nothing mattered. So, I put about 50 drops of machine oil in the hose and ran the scribe until oil started spraying out the end. Then, shut it off, disconnected the hose and let it drain for a couple weeks until it stopped staining a paper towel.

No more stalling and after about 10 minutes, there was no oil coming out of the scribe with use.

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If an Aro is running badly, it will almost always be fixed by replacing the o-ring. Such has been my experience. But I am glad you got yours to work...and with a clever fix.

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One heck of a smart bunch of fellows here. And thanks Oilshale, but ive never been able to open up a pdf file? Is there another way I can get to stonecompany?

RB

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The German tools sold by the stone co are expensive, but I have heard from many folks who use them, and they moslty praise them to no end. I have yet to spring for one, but it is onr my list.

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I purchased mine (Pferd MST31) directly from a Pferd distributor in Canada. They are within 5 miles of my house so I saved on shipping and got it below the list price about two years ago. I basically paid list -$25 and they threw in an extra fine stylus. The unit comes with a reg stylus. I really only use the fine. The stylus are a bit on the short side so you can maybe sharpen them two times. I replaced mince with a new stylus after about a year. Since they are carbide and fairly thin they are quite brittle and will break if you bang or drop the unit. I wish I could find someone who makes a longer fine stylus that would fit the Pferd MST31. But they have a custom sized end plate in which an o-ring fits so you would need to have a fairly elaborate machining set up to duplicate.

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If an Aro is running badly, it will almost always be fixed by replacing the o-ring. Such has been my experience. But I am glad you got yours to work...and with a clever fix.

I replaced the o-ring and the spring as well as cleaned the air valve with only a slight improvement. So, I went medieval on it.

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I checked out the scribes at Stone Company and it looks to me that the HW-80 may do the trick. Has anyone here used this particular one before. it also says it runs on 20 to 40 PSI. Is that a mistake? Seems too low? I would hate to spend that kind of money and then have the tool not do a satisfactory job.

RB

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