Proper maintenance of your tools and equipment is one of the most important things you can do. If done right your tools will last a lot longer, and will work a lot better for you. Maintenance is quick and easy, and you may already have what you need. Now let’s take a closer look at what you can do to take proper care and maintenance of your tools and equipment.
What Is Proper Care and Maintenance of Tools and Equipment?
Proper care and maintenance of your tools and other equipment is paramount to keep them running right. This means you will want to get in the habit of regularly inspecting your tools, cleaning, oiling, and sharpening them when needed. Keeping your tools stored appropriately will prevent them from getting lost or damaged as well.
Why is Care and Maintenance of Tools and Equipment Important?
Maintenance of tools is an important aspect of owning them. When done right, proper care and maintenance will increase the tools life span, and make it safer to use them. Another benefit is that the tool will be less likely to damage the material you are working on.
There are two basic types of maintenance: preventative maintenance, and repair. Preventative maintenance keeps the tools in their best working condition, allowing them to work optimally. It includes cleaning, oiling, and sharpening your tools.
Repair is when a tool has a broken part that needs to be fixed. Sometimes older tools, or ones that haven’t had the right amount of preventative maintenance will have a part break on them. If it’s an expensive tool, oftentimes there may be a repair part available. You may need to use your discretion to decide if it’s worth replacing the part on your tool.
Inspecting Your Tools and Equipment
When inspecting your tools it’s best to start with giving them a quick once over, looking for anything that might stand out to you. This could be something major like a fray on a power cord. Or maybe it’s something more subtle like grease or sawdust that needs to be cleaned off. Getting in the habit of inspecting your tools before and after use will let you notice a potential problem before it becomes something more major.
Cleaning Your Tools and Equipment
It’s good to get in the habit of cleaning your tools and equipment on a regular basis. Start with a wet rag to wipe off any sawdust. This will get the loose dust off your tools, cleaning them up nicely. It’s important that tools are dry before storing them away.
To clean small amounts of grease or light dirt, put a teaspoon of Dawn Dish Soap in a gallon of water that’s as hot as your hands can handle. Use a rag, or a scrubber pad if the grease is tough to get off. I like using Dawn because it won’t leave a residue and cleans up nicely.
As we use sawblades and router bits, there will be sawdust that has been caked onto the cutting edge. This causes burning of the wood, and will reduce the blade’s lifespan if left on. Try using a cleaner that’s more industrial strength like this Trend CLEAN/500 Tool Cleaner Spray.
Also something as simple as emptying the sawdust on your random orbital sander’s dust collector will help it run better. When dust collectors get too full the motor tends to strain itself. This will reduce the motors lifespan over time. It doesn’t take long to empty the contents into a garbage can or in the yard.
Oiling Your Tools
Oil for tools with moving parts is good both for reducing wear and preventing rust in high humidity environments. You can use most types of oils, as long as it doesn’t stain the wood. It’s a good idea to put a coating of oil on your tools to help keep them from rusting in the future, and promote the tool’s longevity.
What Oil Do You Use For Woodworking Tools?
You can use almost any type of oil you have on hand. You don’t want an oil that will stain or put a foul odor on the materials you are working on. Some popular options for woodworking tools are Mineral Oil and WD40.
Sharpening Your Tools
Over time a tool’s cutting edge tends to get dull, and may require sharpening from time to time. Some common woodworking tools that need sharpening are chisels and hand planes. As the blades get dull they tend not to work as efficiently as they would when sharp.
It’s the same process to sharpen a chisel and a hand planer. This is a detailed process that I won’t be able to fully cover in this article. I recommend using a honing guide and sharpening stone set. Check out this sharpening kit that has multiple grit stones, and a honing guide included.
For a more affordable option try using multiple grits of sandpaper adhered to either a polished tile, or a piece of glass. You can use most any type of spray adhesive to glue up the sheets.
When sharpening most blades use multiple grits of either sandpaper or sharpening stones. Start with a coarse grit which are the lower numbers. Try using 80 grit first, and work your way up to 2000-3000.
Storing Your Tools
Storing your tools properly is the easiest form of preventative maintenance, but is also very important. They should be kept in a location away from moisture and humidity.
Some tools come with carrying cases. It’s good to return the tools to it after being used. The case will protect your tool from potentially getting damaged, or lost. It’s good to wipe down your tool of any visible sawdust before putting it back in it’s case.
Conclusion
Your tools are going to last much longer if they are maintained well. You will have less difficulties from using them, and less likely to be damaged from normal use. Maintenance of tools is a basic part of tool ownership that will let you enjoy your tools for many years to come. I hope this article has been helpful.
Happy Woodworking,
Kevin