Thread: Power Tool Maintainence?

In the same way as you have found it difficult to find info on the web you may find forum members reluctant to provide public advice on the grounds that if you electrocute yourself they may be liable.

Cheers

Having just rebuilt my broken Makita planer with a new (2nd hand) body, these tools aren't all that difficult to repair - I'm not talking electrics here- sounds like the bearings are corroded - they are all numbered - get some new ones from a bearing shop, and the tools will probably run like new (Again, electrics are for electricians, not novices) unless you are talking about just cleaning up and replacing brushes

Cheers,

Ned

I do have a reasonable idea of electrical safety, just need a rough idea of the mechanics of how a drill works.
I know the brushes are replacable, they run on a round segmented motor winding , (the commie?)

Just need to know what to look for, chipped brushes, brushed not traveling their full length and making contact.

Just not sure what else to look for and the best way to clean the commie

Commie is close enough, commutator is the right word for it.

A pen eraser will work, one with the little bits of grit in it. Plus is that it can be made to fit into the hole so you don't need to pull the thing apart. When I clean them up, I pull the thing all the way apart, stick the motor's armature between centres on the lathe and gently sand the comm with #400 wet and dry.

I recently did two cheapie routers, and I pulled them all apart carefully (hint, don't force ANYTHING!!!), replaced the Chiwanese bearings with Japanese bearings (cheap as all get out here, of course. ), cleaned comms, cleaned everything with electrical contact cleaner (shellite will work in a pinch, make sure you dry it out.), re-assembled and got two working routers again. Both had dud bearings, and I decided that I might as well go all the way if I am going as far as bearings.

A couple of things.

Generally, you cannot re-grease a bearing. You can remove the shields on small bearings (usually under 3/4" OD) and clean/oil, but bigger ones have shields you can't get out without destroying the shield/bearing. If the bearings are shot, replace them.

Often the bearings are a a tight fit or pressed onto the shaft. You may/will need a bearing/pulley puller and know how to work one.

Depending on the tool, off the shelf bearings might not be right. The bearings I used in the routers were pretty 'tight' compared to the old ones, so they are both down on speed now. Doesn't affect the bigger one much since it's 1.5hp, but the little trimmer doesn't get going as well as it used to. At least it doesn't make ugly noises.

Seriously, I'd see what it would cost to get a tool shop to replace the bearings. If it's too spendy, then do it yourself, but a tool shop is going to do it without hurting the tool, which might happen if you do it yourself. No problem on a junk tool if you kill it, big problem is it's a good tool and you kill it.


If you are careful, you shouldn't hurt any electrical parts in the things, but again don't force anything. If it's not going together properly, something is amiss and correct it before you do damage. If the problem is electrical, please take it to a professional.

(I wouldn't myself since I have a little plastic card with my name on it that says 'sparky'. )

Thankyou for that Schtoo.
(Years ago Dad cleaned out his paperwork, I found the 1978 Makita tool catalogue and ticked off the tools that he was still using )

Its more sentimental value, I would like to use the tools that he used. There are only a couple that wont run, and one that throws a few too many flashes from the brushes for my liking. I know that they were working about a year and a half ago, because I pulled them out of his work car, and he was using them up till then.
I can remember him pulling some of his tools apart, and replacing the brushes, but wasnt sure on my memory of how brushes etc worked.

Thankyou for your help.

Originally Posted by BobL

In the same way as you have found it difficult to find info on the web you may find forum members reluctant to provide public advice on the grounds that if you electrocute yourself they may be liable.

Cheers

That's easily solved if they do actually want to help though.

All they need to do is to say something like "This is what I have done..." or "This is what I would do...", and finish off by saying "ABSOLUTELY DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES try to fix it yourself if you are not qualified. Safety first, get a professional to fix it for you" etc.

No one can be held liable for simply describing what they have done in a given situation, if some clown then goes off and tries to do it themselves and stuffs it up. Otherwise, we'd have racing drivers held liable for car crashes, adventurers held liable for climbing/abseiling accidents, and so on. Perhaps if you tell someone "Yes, you SHOULD go and do such and such", and the advice is patently wrong, then you might be liable. But if you just say "here's what I did or would do, but don't try it yourself if you're not qualified", then there is no grounds for anyone to take any legal action against you at all if they are stupid and hurt themselves.

Caution is one thing, but paranoia just means people end up not getting the very advice that COULD save them from an accident, when they still try to do the job anyway but without any information to guide them.

EDIT: the advice given by Schtoo is a perfect example of what I mean. Excellent advice, but with the appropriate caveats added just in case.

Originally Posted by blue penguin

No one can be held liable for simply describing what they have done in a given situation, if some clown then goes off and tries to do it themselves and stuffs it up.

Are you sure of your facts, and in particular of all the different State legislation and overseas countries laws where a lot of our respondents are. Or is this your opinion, if so can you financially back up your opinions?

Originally Posted by blue penguin

Caution is one thing, but paranoia just means people end up not getting the very advice that COULD save them from an accident, when they still try to do the job anyway but without any information to guide them.

You may think it is paranoia but I think it is totally and utterly irresponsible and completely stupid to give advice on gas or electrical matters in an open forum where anyone from anywhere in the world can read and act on it without knowing what to do.


Peter.

It's because their is little Australian-specific electrical advice around that these forums are useful. I've seen entirely too many people do silly things because they have never had any (decent) advice or exposure to the right way of doing things - such as:

• cleaning the insides of a 3.5kw fan heater (covers off, still live, with exposed contacts) with a wet rag ("Because it's all dusty")
• fixing the frayed cotton end of a power cord for an iron while the iron was on (poking the frayed cotton back into the terminal cover with a metal crochet needle)
• leaving bare wires poking out of wall outlets while they were painting (and not just in one room, but the whole house!) They thought they were safe as they had turned it off at the fuse box while they unscrewed the terminals and took the wall plates off...after they were all taken off...they turned the power back on!!!!)

That's the sort of thing that people happily get up to because they don't know anything - I'd rather they come here and ask "What do I do about the broken light holder thingy in my ceiling?" and get told the correct way to do things (or not, if their question suggests that their experience is such that they would see nothing wrong with asking in the hardware store if they could buy a left handed screwdriver or a bucket of tartan paint).

As far as disclaimers go, they are worth their weight in what they are printed on (which in this case is electrons, and they don't weigh very much at all); generally they can be considered quite successful if they discourage even one in 10,000 lawsuits since their effective cost is zero.

My favourite (email) disclaimer states:

By sending an email to ANY of my addresses you are agreeing that:

1. If it has my email address on it, I am by definition, "the intended recipient". If you meant to send it to someone else, don't send it to me. That's not too hard, is it?
2. All information in the email is mine to do with as I see fit and make such financial profit, political mileage, or good joke as it lends itself to. In particular, I may quote it on usenet. If it's confidential, why aren't you encrypting it? If you can't figure out how to encrypt it, maybe you should go back to pen and paper. Oh - ROT-13 hasn't counted as encryption for a long time.
3. I may take the contents as representing the views of your company. Especially if you are sending it on company time and company facilities and the content is relevant to your company.
4. This overrides any disclaimer or statement of confidentiality that may be included on your message. Nyahh nyahh.