I have a problem with my pneumatic impact wrench: It can turn clockwise but not counter-clockwise. Can I fix it myself?
Also, how do pneumatic impact wrenches work? Are there any schematics available?
I have a problem with my pneumatic impact wrench: It can turn clockwise but not counter-clockwise. Can I fix it myself?
Also, how do pneumatic impact wrenches work? Are there any schematics available?
Step one would be to hose the air inlet with pheumatic tool lube and try running it in both directions. If you’re not using mist lubricated air, and not giving the tool a daily or weekly drink of oil, operations can start to become funky.
Regarding your ability to fix it yourself-that’s a maybe, as I don’t know your degree of skill. I’ve repaired my 1/2" gun and 3/8" butterfly gun, and it wasn’t that hard. If you know the manufacturer, I’d start with their website, or perhaps you can reach manufacturer technical services for an exploded diagram. Most of my air tools came with exploded diagrams that I filed away should they be needed.
As far as how they work, I don’t know if this will help you fix yours, but they work by storing angular momentum in a moving weight inside. Angular momentum is fed more or less steadily into this weight from the body of the wrench (and therefore one step further away from your hand), and moves from the weight to the output shaft in brief pulses. The torque on your hand is fairly constant during this cycle. The torque on the output shaft is zero most of the time and for a brief moment during each cycle it rises to a high peak.
In a linear sense, a hammer works somewhat this way. Especially, a hammer on some sort of a spring frame that stored most of the alternating momentum of the swing would come closer to this.
Over the short term these devices store and release energy. Over the longer term, only the average forces must cancel for the tool as a system, not the momentary forces.