Needle scaler

caterpillar guy

Well-known Member
I am looking at needle scalers. What is the best bang for the buck. I'm caught between durability and price. I don't have much need for one on a regular basis now. I am sure that I will find uses for it that I didn't envision.
What are your suggestions and experiences with them. Thanks
 
(quoted from post at 16:06:52 08/31/15) I am looking at needle scalers. What is the best bang for the buck. I'm caught between durability and price. I don't have much need for one on a regular basis now. I am sure that I will find uses for it that I didn't envision.
What are your suggestions and experiences with them. Thanks

I have a scalier that simply screws on the end of a air chisel and a dedicated scalier. Both are Northern tool specials.

Air Chisel scalier adapter about $15
Dedicated $40

The air chisel add on will whoop the real deal hands down I like it much better the a dedicated scalier. They both have there place depending on what you are working on...
 
Hobo how is the pistol style, versus the straight line one for your hands? It appears to me the pistol type would be harder on hands, since you holding inline with the needles. Where as the other would seem like it would tend to slip through your hands during use.
 
(quoted from post at 03:06:52 08/31/15) I am looking at needle scalers. What is the best bang for the buck. I'm caught between durability and price. I don't have much need for one on a regular basis now. I am sure that I will find uses for it that I didn't envision.
What are your suggestions and experiences with them. Thanks

I've had the harbor freight model for years. Works fine.
 
Like Hobo I also have one that goes on the air chisel. One of the handiest things I have for cleaning off old dried grease and old paint. The thicker the paint the better it comes off. Does not bother my hands but is pretty noisy. Of course it won't work on sheet metal but does an excellent job on cast and heavier metal. Also works great to blend repairs back in when you have welded on cast. Lee
 
(quoted from post at 18:12:52 08/31/15) Hobo how is the pistol style, versus the straight line one for your hands? It appears to me the pistol type would be harder on hands, since you holding inline with the needles. Where as the other would seem like it would tend to slip through your hands during use.

I have better control with the pistol and less with the inline... I can hold the part with one hand with the pistol :wink: it takes 2 hands to hold on to the inline to do much of anything with it...

The impact has not been a issue YET.
 
I bought a Harbor Freight screw-on one 10 or so years ago and have used it quite a bit. Put it on a garage-sale air hammer so I didn't have to keep switching it around. It's hardly an everyday tool, but it does a wonderful job at removing scale, rust, weld spatter and similar substances, and is yet another one of those Harbor Freight tools where it's proven to be so useful that had I known it, I'd have bought a better one the first time and would get a better one the next time except that I haven't worn this one out yet!
 
HF pistol grip model here. I dont use it a lot as most of my welding it MIG and TIG.
I mainly use it to stipple welds on cast aluminum to blend it in for cosmetic reasons on antique machinery, to clean concrete from my antique mixers, and knocking heavy rust from old steel for welding before grinding.
 
I 've had my Harbor Frieght inline for about 25 years. Used the crap out of it. NO complaints.I will buy another HF when this one gives up.
 
A few years back I used to use an in-line needle scaler on steel sculpture pieces. On one piece I used it to give the surface a parchment look. On several others I used it to remove weld spatter from surfaces I had textured using stick welding or MIG welding. The college had an American made scaler, probably an Ingersoll-Rand, although I'm not sure of that. I had my own Harbor Freight scaler of the same style. Side by side, doing the same thing, the American made scaler did a better job. The needles of the HF scaler seemed softer. The texture it put on a smooth steel surface was quite a bit fainter, and it took longer to remove weld spatter with it. What I was doing was probably beyond what the tool is intended for, and others here have had good results with the HF tool, but that was my experience. For what it's worth, if I had to buy a needle scaler now, I doubt that I'd spend 4 times as much to get one that was slightly better doing something unusual which I may never do again.

Stan
 
If you are going to use an attachment for an air hammer you will get the best results with a high blow per minute unit.
The cheapy 20 dollar air hammers tend to have a low bpm and are great for driving 6 inch spikes into corral boards but they will shake you stupid on something like a scaler.
The high bpm units feel more like a constant vibration and are much easier to control.
A name brand scaler will be 4000+ bpm where an economy air hammer may only be rated at 1500-2000 bpm.
 
I bought a CP inline about ten years ago. I've used the heck out of it on some of the military projects I've done and it's still going strong. It's gone through one set of needles, the flared end of the needle gives way and the needle falls out but other than that it has served me well. I can't vouch for whether it is better than a pistol grip because I have never used a pistol grip but I can see advantages to both. The pistol grip would have the hose going out at an angle where the hose is straight up out of the top of the inline one. This one is fairly heavy and if I use it for a prolonged period I need to wear insulated leather gloves to smooth out the vibes or my hands will be buzzing.
 

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