needle scaler

[littlebob]

Just bought a needle scaler and tried it out today. It looks like this will speed up my project quite a bit. I will try and find apiece to do a before and after photo or vidio.
littlebob

 

[OPCOM]

A friend of mine who was in the Navy used one for months to clean out the walls of the many voids in the aircraft carrier Indy while it was being rebuilt. He said it blasts the rust and old paint right off, but he never wants to see another one!

 

[Jones]

Great tool. Fast for getting through heavy rust or scale.
They can also be used for peaning heavy welds to relieve stresses.

 

[ah1955]

Great tool, use one in the truck shop where I work makes fast work of clean up of heavy rust build up.
Can see where OPCOM's friend would say he would not care to see another one again.
Even with gloves,hearing protection and dust protection a little time goes a long way.

 

[hndrsonj]

just make sure it is only used on thick metal, so it does not get distorted.

 

[davesgmc]

I used one on the ferret when removing the paint. It worked great! I actually was able to find some of the original wax markings under the paint when it was being built!

 

[littlebob]

Played with it a little last night. found it's a good way to find the soft spots in the cab. I think I'll just try to patch the ones I can see and save the scaler for what I bought it for, removing the undercoating and rust from the frame and supporting brackets.
littlebob

 

[Ferroequinologist]

I used to duct tape the handle down, put on some goggles and hearing protection, wedge myself in between the fire pump and seawater service pump in the auxiliary engine room, and go to sleep for about 2 hours needle gunning the same 6in square on the base of one of the pumps... Probably took off more metal than paint after awhile.
I could only sleep for 2 hours because by then the water would have risen in the bilge to start washing my rear!
I must have pulled that stunt for about a week. Whenever someone came up, they had to yell to get my attention, and of course that would wake me up. Ah, those were the days...

Super tool for removing rust, paint and scale. Ditto on the using it on thicker metal.

 

[rdixiemiller]

They are great for cleaning up deuce wheels. They do use a fair amount of air, that is the downside to them. They will shake you to pieces after a while!

 

[BFR]

need to get one of these

 

[red devils dude]

ditto

 

[blackdog404]

I used to duct tape the handle down, put on some goggles and hearing protection, wedge myself in between the fire pump and seawater service pump in the auxiliary engine room, and go to sleep for about 2 hours needle gunning the same 6in square on the base of one of the pumps... Probably took off more metal than paint after awhile.
I could only sleep for 2 hours because by then the water would have risen in the bilge to start washing my rear!
I must have pulled that stunt for about a week. Whenever someone came up, they had to yell to get my attention, and of course that would wake me up. Ah, those were the days...

Super tool for removing rust, paint and scale. Ditto on the using it on thicker metal.

I did (and am still doing) the same thing with a needle hammer on an experimental LVT-P5 - an LVT-AA-X1 (has twin 40mm bofors)... all the CARC was chipping off so we decided to take it down to bare metal, prime, and paint 24052... best way was with needle hammers + a u bolt to keep the trigger depressed.

 

[D-Man]

Does anyone have any recommendations on brand of scaler or are they all fairly similar.

 

[clinto]

Does anyone have any recommendations on brand of scaler or are they all fairly similar.

get something good like an Ingersol-Rand.

 

[ARMYMAN30YearsPlus]

Good old Harbor Frieght had one on sale recently for under $50 and I snapped it up with an extra set of needles. They are the tool to remove rust on heavy steel period. Short of high pressure sand blasting with black beauty abrasive and way less messy. I too shook my brains out as a Coast Guardsman years ago with one only topside since I was a quartermaster and had to use them around all the stancions.

The tool that really did the number on paint and rust was the growler it had multiple wheels of hardened steel that rotated the wheel set up was about six inches wide and it looked like a mutant grinder. If you really boar down on it, it could pull you along the deck. I guess this is part of the reason I have constant ringing in my ears.

 

[OSO]

I picked up one a while ago . One thing you need a lot of air, as with any good air tool.

 

[alphadeltaromeo]

I've never heard of this tool before. Can someone explain how it actually works?

 

[clinto]

I've never heard of this tool before. Can someone explain how it actually works?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2345320363641606503&q=needle+scaler&hl=en

 

[alphadeltaromeo]

Much appreciate Clint...that makes sense.

 

[littlebob]

I still have plenty to clean up, I will try to get my kids to help me make a short vidio that will give those that don't have one a better idea of how it works. I didn't really have a good understang ,till I actually used mine.
littlebob