Tips from the Master
by Gary LeMaster

Following this request from egger on the Eggart Group, Gary offered the following hints and tips for cleaning carving tools. Thank you Gary for allowing me to include this valuable information on the website. I'm sure a lot of eggers will find this very helpful.

I would very much like to read again how to clean, oil, and care for all the brands. I have the Shofu and the Endura. I would use them more if I felt more comfortable about taking care of them.  I am not above adding the Turbo-Carver on your word alone.
Lois Yaw

Okay then...

I'll outline the most important issues regarding the maintenance of our beloved high-speed air tools.

First, if you have a drill that needs to be regularly oiled, be sure to follow the guidelines provided by the manufacturer and follow them to the letter.

The Shofu (or SCM) drill comes with a special fine oil and I do believe that the instructions say to oil it after every 4-6 hours of use. SCM and Shofu both include oiling instructions with the tools and although they vary a bit in wording, they are trying to say the same thing.

Most other drills (the Paragraver, PowerCrafter, Foredom, the Golden Egg and older models of the Turbo-Carver) need to be oiled about every 20 minutes.

The Endura comes with its own metered spray for lubrication. If you have an automatic oiler, you need to keep a sharp eye on the oiler bulb to make sure that it is only feeding one drip into the line every 45 seconds or so.

Please follow your manufacturer's oiling recommendations carefully, keeping in mind that too much oil can cause as much damage as not enough oil. finally, never use oil other than what is required by the manufacturer. Air tool oil is very, very fine and if you try to use 3-in-one oil (or something similar) you'll really cause havoc.

Speaking of damage, moisture is poison for all of these drills, too (except for the Turbo-Carver, of course) so you MUST have a good moisture trap on your air hose between the compressor and your drill. Compressor heat produces a surprisingly large amount of moisture, even in areas of low humidity and just the tiniest bit of moisture hitting your turbine will cost you dearly. Even with a moisture filter, you should regularly empty the compressor tank (if your compressor HAS an air tank) through the moisture escape valve on the bottom of the tank. In high humidity areas, this task should be performed daily.

Now, no matter what type or brand of drill you have, this next maintenance tip is absolutely critical. The #1 drill killer is poor cleaning methods on the part of the user. You MUST clean the tip of your drill EVERY time you remove a bur. Before removing a bur, use a soft toothbrush (provided with every Turbo-Carver) and clean away the debris that collects on the end of your drill, paying particular attention to where the bur enters the drill.

When you've removed all the debris you can see, remove the bur. Before inserting a new bur, however, run the drill for about one second or two so that the air can blow away the microscopic dust around the collet that you CAN'T see. Limit this time to one or two seconds because more is NOT better.

Running the drill for more than a few seconds without a bur inserted can wreck your bearings, too. Okay, you've cleaned up as best you can. Before inserting another bur, make sure that it is clean, too. Failing to heed these simple steps will ensure that, over time, you'll be pushing egg dust, gourd dust, etc. right down into your drill and - believe me - if you'retrying to blame the problem on bad bearings during your warranty period, the manufacturer of your drill can tell as soon as he/she looks inside the drill if it's truly a faulty bearing or if you've caused the problem yourself by not cleaning your tool as required.

Finally, you must use the tool properly to begin with. I know this isn't exactly maintenance, but you can do irreparable harm to your drill by misusing it. The two most common user mistakes are: not inserting a bur all the way and asking the drill to do more than it's designed to do. If you insert a bur only partway into the drill, it can wobble during use, which will quickly strip the bearings. And, if you're trying to cut all the way through an ostrich shell in one pass, you'll probably burn up your bearings, so be patient and make several passes, going deeper with each stroke.

That's all that immediately comes to mind, but I'll give maintenance some more thought and if anything else occurs to me I'll let you know. If you have specific questions, just let ME know.

Happy carving!

Gary LeMaster
Helping YOU Create Exquisite Eggshell Art
The Eggshell Sculptor Magazine (TM)
415 Terrace Road
Iowa City, IA  52245-5026
Ph: (319) 338-2094
Fax: (319) 339-9133
http://www.eggzotica.com
Email: Eggzotica@mchsi.com
or EggZotic@aol.com
 

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