Harbor Freight air riveter hydraulic fluid

My 3/16-inch Harbor Freight air riveter (#93458) came with a small, unlabeled bottle that is half-full of some type of oily fluid. I assume it's hydraulic fluid, but the instructions say, "hydraulic fluid not included." I've never worked with hydraulic fluid, so I don't want to pour this stuff into the tool without knowing what it is! Does anybody with this air riveter know for sure? Also, what kind of hydraulic fluid would be appropriate for an air riveter, and where do you find it?

Thanks!

Filled mine with motor oil I just happen to have close by. Been working great for years now.

If it is like most of my HF pneumatic tools, it is tool oil used by placing a couple of drops in the air inlet. I recently rebuilt my HF air riveter after pulling those 13,500+ rivets on my -12. I used hydraulic jack oil to refill the oil piston area and o-ring grease on the seals, seems to work a bit smoother now.

John Salak
RV12 N986HS

My HF didn't last that long. Perhaps I just got lucky and bought a lemon. I went ahead and bought one from Avery (somewhere around $100). I haven't regretted it at all. Its much smoother than the HF one and I've not had any issues. For all the rivets we'd pull I'm glad I got there early in the game.

Bob

I've noticed that simply removing the nose tube and re tightening the shroud around the mandrel jaws fixes problems. They tend to work themselves loose.

Another gotcha: my friend inadvertently put a 3/16" mandrel nosepiece on and pulled a 1/8" rivet. It extruded the manufactured head into the nosepiece.

12vaitor said:

If it is like most of my HF pneumatic tools, it is tool oil.

Click to expand...

Thanks, John. Harbor Freight product support says it's tool oil, too.

Mark