If this is O.T. I apologize. I'm cleaning up from the flood ,has anyone had any success with cordless or corded tools that have been under water for a month? I hate to throw them out but then again I may not be able to replace them .Local Miller dealer has offered to clean up the mig welder so that will help .Power wash ,then WD40 or just pitch em .Battery chargers the same? Thanks fellas.
The corded tools with motors should be salvageable; you may need to replace some switches. I suspect the cordless ones are permanently dead...
Depend how far you want to go. I think I would put them in a warm dry place, like on top of a radiator or under some kind of heater for a week then plug them in. If they work great, if not throw them away. It should be possible to save them if you take them apart, clean and oil them but is it worth the bother? Most tools these days are so cheap it is easier to buy new ones.
you might try to put them in a bag of rice for a few day that will pull the moisture out, then clean and try good luck
Depending, water is dirty , water conducts, if there are printed circuits in there ( probs not on corded) there is a good chance the dirt on them from the water will short the pcb. Shouldn’t be hard to pull apart and clean the pcb before applying voltage,
Sorry to here about your flooding problem. Flooding is a nightmare and no joke. There's a good chance many of your power tools can be saved. In one of my past lives, I performed ABS and Coast Guard electrical certification tests and inspections. If I found a grounded motor, transformer or generator due to water, it would get disconnected, washed out with Citra Solv, or similar cleaner, placed into a large drying oven and dried until it would pass a megger test. If the motors had unsealed bearings, the bearing would be replaced. Once things were cleaned and baked dry, they would be reinstalled and were as good as new. Switches would get blown out with air to get the water out then sprayed with a moisture displacer, like WD40. One thing to keep in mind, is that most electrical hand tools have a gear box packed with grease. You should remove the old grease and repack it with fresh. Usually, anything that had any electronics was tossed or the electronics replaced. Good luck!
If you can get to the control circuit boards, give them a blast with switch cleaner (available at electronic supply stores). Let the stuff run out when you spray it, just keep it to the electrical parts (switches, boards, brushes, etc). Allow to dry out for a while, re-assemble, plug in & cross your fingers. Good Luck.
man it’s staggering how bad that flooding has been. I can’t think of anything that hasn’t been mentioned other than to maybe check out the garage journal with a similar post? They get pretty in depth over there, if you don’t frequent that board maybe @Ryan can think of a member off hand who could be helpful? Seems maybe @squirrel would have info on this sort of thing as well so I’ll give him a tag. What tools specifically are you trying to save? Some of them might be easier than others, and maybe your needing to fix something one of us has an extra of? I’m curious if all the nasty stuff in the flood water will play a roll in this salvaging as well. Keep us posted
Be careful what cleaners you use to clean PCB, some electrical cleaners will melt the coatings on circuit boards so be sure to check into their applications before using them as they are not created equal!
No one can provide an extra hand to you until we know what tools you may need to replace. Let us know .
I've been told that a motor winding shop would rinse the corded motors with clean water and then dry them in an oven, but I don't have any 1st hand knowledge. Gary
i worked in a place that ran electronics on the open decks of ships. occasionally salt spray would get into things, both printed-circuit and electro-mechanical. what often works is to as soon as possible flood it with lots of clean water, and wash with soapy water, rinse really well, and make sure it's dry dry dry before you turn on. out in the hot sun three days kind of dry. gotta get the conductive stuff off before it eats metal, and definitely before power is applied.
Do you have much dirt, sand or just plain skanky crap that were in the floodwaters? You probably do so I think you will have to disassemble and clean that nasty stuff out of your tools. Just placing them in an oven or other heating/drying device won't help you. I'm in Omaha so I have some idea what problems you may have. My wife's cousin lives in King Lake which is just west of Omaha. We have been helping him out so I have some idea what you are going through. He was told he could not rebuild (clean out his house and move back in) but has appealed this decision to the state. Good luck. I hope you can salvage all of your tools.
Drink the Everclear....use rubbing alcohol on the wet tools to dry them out. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Sounds like an opportunity to move forward and join cordless generation. Except for the welder, plasma cutter, band saw, and bench grinders, I would scrap most anything with a tether and upgrade to Bosch, Dewalt, or Milwaukee cordless.
Flush with clean water. Blow out, I've used citru-solv as well, as suggested above. Blow out, etc. Worked on a couple of motors, I salvaged.
Do you have insurance? Are they in your Garage as part of your home? If so so try making a claim. You may find they will replace them all.
Replace everything you can. For what you can’t, if you want to save it... Disassemble it completely. Toss and replace all bearings. Everything else, wash. If it’s not part of the electricals, toss it in the sink and scrub it clean. Dawn dish soap is good. Several toothbrushes and a “grout brush“ are good here. Rinse with distilled water. Blow dry with compressed air. Then dunk in a bucket of rubbing alcohol. Air dry. For circuit boards, pretty much the same. Wash, rinse, blow dry, rubbing alcohol. I blow dry these too, rather than let the alcohol sit. Reassemble with new bearings, grease anything that should be greased. If there are batteries, toss and replace those too. Power up and see what happens. It’ll probably work. Walmart has cheap distilled water and rubbing alcohol. Buy in bulk. You’ll use a lot of both. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
...I had a pedestal sump pump with the motor on the top, power went out and the motor got under water;...pulled it out after pumping the water out of my basement, let it sit for about a week, figured it was junk, took a blow gun to it , blew it all out thru the vents, plugged it in,plugged it in and it worked,...it's still workin today about 2 years later... give some of these suggestions a try, you mite get lucky.
The OP is a decades long member, has a home under 8 feet of water, and is more of less homeless at the moment. I’d assume his internet connectivity may be less than stellar, and his list of shit that needs to be done fairly long.
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