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Purchasing a high speed flexible shaft machine is a significant investment of your professional funding. It is a versatile drain cleaning tool that can not only help you with the removal of blockages, but also help you with cleaning sewer lines and household drains. Because of this, you will want to make sure that your flex shaft machine is properly cared for and maintained on a regular basis, as this is not a small sewer machine that you want to treat haphazardly. Spartan Tool is here today to give you some useful pointers on how to maintain your high speed flexible shaft machine.
What Makes High Speed Flexible Shaft Machines Better Than Other Methods?
High speed flexible shaft machines are one of the bigger innovations in drain cleaning tools from the past few decades. Because of this, they are still relatively unknown, or at the very least underutilized. Many people stick to what is familiar and what they know has worked for them to some degree in the past when it comes to sewer and drain cleaning methods. However, this is actually a mistake. Flex shaft machines are one of the most efficient and effective ways of cleaning out a line and breaking up various forms of tough obstructions that have found their way in.
A high speed flexible shaft machine essentially acts as a weed whacker that can be used for sewer and drain cleaning, using a cordless drill with a flex shaft machine drill head and a wire coil that rotates at a swift rate (like a speedometer cable) while inside of a tube or hose that is both flexible and hollow. Flex shaft machines come with a motor that turns this coil with a chain knocker to do the work of getting rid of whatever obstructions are in the way of water properly flowing to and from the faucet. It can not only break through some of the toughest clogs like tree roots, but it has other utility as well – like cleaning off the walls of a drain or sewer pipe. Plus, it leaves drain plumbing intact and in good condition for pipe relining.
Unlike using a flat rod as a battering ram to get the job done, high speed flexible shaft machines are easier on the pipes, get them much cleaner, and are much easier and quicker to use.
How to Maintain Your High Speed Flexible Shaft Machine
One of the best things that you can do as an owner and operator of a high speed flexible shaft machine is to keep it maintained as well as possible in a consistent manner. The big reason behind this is that not only will you get far more years of reliable and effective service out of your small sewer machine, but you will also end up saving a significant amount of money as well. You will not have to get it repaired or have parts replaced anywhere near as often. To get an idea as to how to go about maintaining your high speed flexible shaft machine, let’s look at some tips below:
Cleaning Your Flex Shaft Machine the Right Way
Keeping everything clean and sanitary is one of the most vital aspects of doing any work with plumbing, especially work that involves drain cleaning tools such as flex shaft machines. High speed flexible shaft machines that have not been properly cleaned and sanitized after every single sewer and drain cleaning operation can not only end up having considerable damage to them by the dirty water, but also increase health risks toward you and anyone else who might come within proximity of it. For these reasons, it is of the utmost importance that you keep everything cleaned the right way each and every time you use it.
With all that being said, here are some important things to keep in mind in order to get your flex shaft machine as clean as possible. First off, you want to use a towel to wipe off all of the dirt and other debris that is hanging onto the sheath as you are retrieving the drain cable out from the drain entrance and being fed back into the drum. By doing this, you will help keep your sewer drain cleaner’s drum cleaner and cut down significantly on the likelihood of any of the drain cable sticking within the drum.
If you need to, you can pull the cable assembly out from the high speed flexible shaft machine and you can open the housing up for flushing and/or cleaning. While you are cleaning your small sewer machine, you will want to use hot soapy water and/or mild disinfectants. In addition, you will want to drain your flex shaft machine as often as you need to during this process. This will help get more dirt, grime, and debris out and help you do a more effective job at cleaning the flex shaft machine.
Draining the Drum
One of the most important things you can do with a drain cleaning tool like a high speed flexible shaft machine is drain the drum after each time you use it. As mentioned prior, this helps keep your drain cable in proper working order longer and also helps in preventing any bacterial infection related issues. To do this, you can turn the flex shaft machine and then let the water out through the machine’s drain hole. Where the hole is will depend on the individual unit itself, but your sewer drain cleaner’s user manual will be able to tell you the exact location as well as how to open and close it.
Check for Damaged Power Cords
Before you begin any sewer and drain cleaning job using a high speed flexible shaft machine, it is important to make sure that you check its power cords in order to make sure that none of them are damaged in any way. You want to check to see if any of them are at all frayed, missing ground prongs, have damaged switches, or have pulled out strain reliefs. A damaged power cord can lead to not only your small sewer machine getting damaged, but also you getting electrocuted as well. If a power cord on a flex shaft machine appears to be damaged in any way, you want to get it replaced as soon as you possibly can in order to avoid adverse consequences.
Inspect Drain Cables Regularly
Your drain cables for your high speed flexible shaft machine are one of the key components in making the whole operation work. Before you begin a job using your high powered drain cleaning tool, you want to inspect your drain cables. The reason behind this is that if you are not careful, they could become damaged or kinked. You want to make sure that they are in tip-top shape and ready to take on whatever job you have, whether it is cleaning sewer lines or just a household drain. A kinked or damaged cable could end up doing far more harm than good, so it is best to keep an eye on your drain cables and replace them with new ones if need be.
Inspect the Drum Belt
Another safety concern you should keep in mind as you are doing your pre-operation check list for sewer and drain cleaning is to inspect the flex shaft machine’s drum belt. It is important that you keep an eye out for any wear and tear on it, as a drum belt that has become worn out could become a considerable safety hazard to you as you are conducting a sewer and drain cleaning job. In order to avoid having to deal with serious injury, make sure that you get the drum belt replaced before it becomes overly worn out for professional use.
Cable Lubrication
Having a properly lubricated drain cable makes getting a cable for a high speed flexible shaft machine down a dirty drain or sewer considerably easier, especially if the job involves various kinds of debris and roots from trees. Although some flex shaft machines will often come with a lifetime guarantee when it comes to their drain cables being properly lubricated, it is still important for you to make sure that the drain cable that comes with your machine stays properly lubricated until it is time for it to be replaced by one that is not so worn out from significant use.
Proper Storage
When you are storing a high speed flexible shaft machine, you want to make sure that it is kept in conditions that are both dry as well as indoors. If for some reason you do have to keep your flex shaft machine outdoors, you want to make sure that it is kept well covered so that factors like weather, wildlife, and other factors do not have as easy of a time doing any damage to it. Additionally, it is wise to keep this drain cleaning tool in a space that is locked and also out of reach of children as well as people who are not familiar with such machinery. Those who are untrained in the proper usage of a flex shaft machine could end up receiving serious injury when attempting to use it in some way. These kinds of injuries are usually the kind that need a trip to the ER to treat, so it is best to prevent easy access.
Proper Transportation
Another important thing to keep in mind when it comes to the proper maintenance of a high speed flexible shaft machine is that the method in which you transport it is of considerable importance as well. When you are transporting a flex shaft machine, you will want to feed all of the cable assembly into the flex machine’s drum and then secure its chain knocker in the hook.
From there, you will want to make sure that you remove the drill from the small sewer machine’s drill shaft. You do NOT want to leave the drill attached to the drill shaft while you are in transit to or from a sewer and drain cleaning job because you could end up experiencing tipping as well as damage to your highly valuable drain cleaning tool. Repairing this kind of problem can end up being quite a costly and time consuming matter, and it could cost you several opportunities to make new business and profit. An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.
Cable Assembly Replacement
One thing you may end up running into once in a while is the need to replace your high speed flexible shaft machine’s cable assembly for one reason or another. Whatever the case may be, it is a relatively simple process to tend to. This involves:
- Remove the whole cable assembly out from its housing.
- Remove the fasteners that are holding the housing closed (type of wrench will vary depending on the kind of high speed flexible shaft machine you are working with) and then open the housing.
- Remove the flex shaft machine’s retention plate fasteners and then also the retention plate itself
- Loosen the gear box plate fasteners a few turns but do not remove them. The type of wrench in this step will also vary by make and model, like in Step 2.
- Take off the detent pin from the drain cable coupling.
- Take the cable coupling off from the flex shaft machine’s gear box shaft and then proceed to remove the cable assembly. From there, you will need to lift the gearboxes a little to allow for the removal of the cable coupling.
- Getting the new drain cable assembly onto your high speed flexible shaft machine is a similar process. All you need to do is reverse the process you went through in order to take the old one off. Make sure that you attach all fasteners in a secure fashion. Make sure that the sheath is tight to the stop inside of the small sewer machine’s drum cable slot in order to minimize the amount of exposed cable. This will help keep the cable from experiencing any damage or exposure to undesirable elements.
