I searched the forum for "scaler" and "descaler" and nothing, nada, niete,...

So I'm buying a pneumatic scaler like this: http://www.harborfreight.co....taf?Itemnumber=1108

Does anyone here have experience with them? The one above seems too heavy duty. It seems the needles would come out with too much force for just scraping paint, rust, and cleaning welds up. Are there versions with smaller needles? I didn't find any in my searches.

Also, anyone here with experience that can tell me anything I should know before I start with it? What sort of impact will this make on the material?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(I actually picked-up a scaler up at harbor freight today, but I'm not sure it will do what I need. I have an area where I need to clean but can't get the normal grinder-brush, scraper in. Though sandblasting is a option, for the amount of area I'm cleaning I don't wanna do all the work of putting my car on dollies and rolling it on the driveway, setting out plastic, setting up my blaster, making sure it's dry, then blasting the little areas while getting coal slag stuck inside my chassis )

Thanks guys,
Michael

------------------
"A guy know's he's in love when he loses interest in his car for a few days." -Tim Allen

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[This message has been edited by Fierology (edited 11-19-2008).]

those are generally used for removing rust scale and weld flux. they do work nice, but they can leave a mark on thin metal. I've used a commercial grade one, and you can lighten the load a little by turning down the air pressure a little and using less pressure pushing the needles into the work. I used it on a heavy piece of equipment (19 ton crane) on some of the thick stablizer beams, and on a few spots on the cab where the metal is relatively thin, but still about 4x the thickness of the frame rails on the fiero. It would likely leave some very light dimpling marks on real thin sheet metal if not used with care. I would think that the "compact" one: http://www.harborfreight.co...taf?itemnumber=96997
would be a better choice if only for the shorter overall length.
it is primarly used for removing scaled rust and weld flux, not the most efficient on some paints, it likes to remove stuff that would chip off easily. the only way to know for sure if it will work for you is to try it. the samller one for 25$ isn;t bad, you will likely fing other uses for it if it doesn;t do the job you are looking for here.

Thanks. I was thinking the needes on the compact one looked to be the same size, only less of them, but I should take a closer look. It doesn't specify in the item discription. I hope they're smaller. If not, would simply removing some of the needles from the larger one do the same thing? It seems it would.

-Michael

I think the needles are pretty much the same size in all of them. you can;t really remove needles either, as they will then just fly out, as the extra room willallow the retainers enough room to slip out. if you really only need a smaller area, only thing I could suggest is cut some down shorter (dremel with a cutoff wheel) to reduce the tip size. the impact will stay the same however, as all the scaler really is is an air hammer type mechanism hitting the needles into the work.

I remember those things from when I was in the Navy years ago. They were used to strip paint off ships. Ship steel can be anything from 1/4" thick to several inches thick. I would think they could do some pretty good damage to anything thinner.

I use a wire brush 5/8 arbor on a small dewalt angle grinder . any good welding supply store carries them works great.

I have one. I wouldnt use it on any kind of sheet metal. Its great for things like frame rails. I got it to do a dump truck bed for a guy. I hope you live far from any neighbors....there VERY LOUD. Mine sounds like a highway repair crew jackhammer (actually a whole crew would be better discription ..)