Thread: Submerged power tools

Sort of.

About 40 years ago, I obtained an electric typewriter that had been in a flood. I'd read previously that a standard method of cleaning typewriters was to brush with "Gunk" - a trademarked product for cleaning engines, and wash off with fresh water. I reduced the machine to sub-assemblies for cleaning. It worked fine until computer printers replaced it.

Similar soaking in fresh water is usually recommended for motion-picture cameras (film type) that had been bathed in salt water.

Key is to remove any mud or dust so that they don't do further damage. Let it dry thoroughly (especially electric motors), and use plenty of oil.

Micro-electronics probably aren't robust enough for survival, though. Welcome to the 21st century.

Cheers,
Joe

Hi,
The main thing is the motor must be completely dry before powering up other wise there will just be a big bang and one dead motor. It is best to test with a megger to make sure. If the motor is turning freely by hand and the bearings are not making any strange noises when it's running don't worry about them unless they start wining latter. The only other worry is the centrifugal start gear could be gunged up with mud. Signs of that would be if the motor just hums and won't start or if you don't hear a click as the motor gets up to speed and it does not reach full speed and gets hot.

And remember the forum's electrical warning if you take this advice.

Regards

Originally Posted by Allan D

I would have thought the bearings in these tools would be pretty much sealed and waterproof.

Doubt it. I've had to replace bearings on a power tool and a two bandsaws, all reasonably new. And they weren't from the low end of the market. In each case the tools had been manufactured with shielded bearings, but fully sealed bearings were needed.
I now expect that that is the norm with any asian-made tools I might buy.
You don't cut corners on price without cutting some corners on quality.

Hi, I've had a few GMC power tools over the years and replaced bearings in them. They were all shielded rather than sealed. You could either replace the bearings now or follow A Duke's advice and wait till they start to get noisy.

Use your common sense and listen to your comfort zone. No doubt there will be some on here who will think differently but here's my view:

Forget the water, it's the least of the problems I imagine. Simple power tools without low voltage controllers will be the easiest. Everything will be coated or filled with silt or salt, right? If there's no surface rust, reduce to sub-components likes been said before and give a good rinse. Let dry out. Reassemble. Let dry out. I've had power tools revived from being underwater a day or two and did nothing with them except let them thoroughly dry out. Notice I said thoroughly dry out. They must be DRY before you turn the electrickery on. Got it? Dry.

Megger testing. Some machinery have signs on them saying: DO NOT MEGGER. Be a tad careful here.

Allan D, I am replacing the bearings on my 8" grinder as well after my workshop went under in the January Flood. My problem is removing the bearings from the Aluminium end housings of the grinder. The shaft came out easily but left the bearings in the housings. Did that happen to you or did they stay on the shaft.

The opening in the housing is only just larger than the bearing inner diameter and trying to knock it out is proving futile.

I don't think a bearing puller will fit into the inside of the bearing to pull it from the inside.

The housings are cast aluminium so don't won't to apply too much pressure when I tried to pry the bearings out with a screwdriver.

I have replaced the bearings on 2 other motors (lathe & bandsaw) and they work perfectly, but was able to remove them as they were on the shaft and I have access to a hydraulic press, so I thought I'd do the grinder as well due to it's horrible noise it was making after the flood.

Any sugsestions on getting the bearings out would be appreciated.

Try heating the housings (only the end parts without the windings) around the bearings but not the bearings themselves either gently with propane torch (or carefully with an oxy - you dont want to melt the housing, just heat it up a bit) with the bearing side facing downward. Once hot, lift the housing off the bench and drop it level (from about 30cm high) onto a soft surface (like a scrap sheet of plywood or whatever) and the shock may displace it. If that does not work, heat it up as above and use a largish pin punch that has a fresh end ground on it (so that the edge is keen so it will catch on the bearing) to evenly drift it out, with soft blows, one side at a time.

Thanks for the reply Blu_Rock but all is OK now. I went down to the shed this morning and had another look at it...luckily I found that a 14mm Sidcrome socket fitted perfectly into the housing opening and as the inner diameter of the bearing was slightly smaller, the socket just sat on the bearing.

A couple of whacks on the socket and the bearing came adrift perfectly. They are a standard 6204 bearing so should be able to pick some new ones up from the local Repco for about $10 so all is OK.

Cheers

After the big flood we had here in 1998 , I stripped and cleaned around 150 power tools for people who were ready to toss them into the dump .
Basically I stripped them washed them in clean warm soapy water to remove any silt and mud , then rinsed them in white spirit ,this will displace any water ,I had a large wooden box made from ply wood into which I placed a light fitting with a 100w globe which was left on ,the motor parts of each tool were placed into the box and left for a couple of days to heat up and dry .
Then bearings were replaced and the tool re assembled ,tested electrically and then started and run .
I don't recall any tools that had to be thrown away.

Kev.

I have a vacuum chamber that is big enough to hold one of those large angle grinders (without a grinding disc on).

It can also hold about 6 drills with their power leads attached and will hold about 16 battery packs which attach to DC drills and sundry devices.

About 10 minutes in the vacuum chamber and all water will boil off, then the tools can be tried to see if they work.

This happened when I was on a friend's property when we were subject to the mother of all downpours, some years ago.

I believe that the bearings of all of them eventually required replacement, some were chucked others were repaired, dependent upon their replacement cost and state of wear when dunked.

Mick.