repair "gloat"(?)

Bill,

If you are worried about losing spring loaded parts, get a big clear plastic bag and disassemble inside the bag.

Roger beat me to the punch suggesting this one.

This trick has saved my hide more than once... I even keep a nice dedicated 'containment bag' tucked away in the shop for just such occasions.

Erik

That's taking all the sport out of repairing things. Karl

i suspect this post is of no value to anyone, just more or less a "gloat", and mine's not nearly as good as some of you other guy's gloats. :( march of '07 i won an 18 volt cordless drill from northern tool in a sweepstakes, i was *tickled pink* but i figured it was a cheap piece of chinese crap so i didn't have very much in the way of expectations. when i won it i checked the price and was astounded to see, i think it was $29 (!). i couldn't BELIEVE they could make and sell a drill at that price and make a profit, i figured it was a REAL piece of junk. i mean, you can't even buy one part of a cordless drill (drill or battery, prolly even just the CHARGER) for $29! they don't even sell this model any more. over the course of a couple months and various projects i grew to like this drill at least as much as the porter cable cordless i bought 15(?) years ago for more than $120. i liked it AS MUCH as my porter cable cordless. a few months after i started using it started developing an intermittent problem, wouldn't run when i pressed the trigger. bummer. i was like "i knew it". was an intermittent problem, i'd slap it on the bottom of the battery and sometimes that would cure it, temporarily. problem kept getting worse and worse to the point where the drill wouldn't work at all. being the cheap bastard that i am i couldn't stand the thought of tossing this great drill i got for free. last night i opened it up hoping to find a loose wire. turns out i *did* find a wire that goes into the trigger that, when i fiddled with it the trigger/motor reacted, i figured i'd isolated the loose wire. i was hesitant to open up the trigger switch, i'd done such things in the past, when i was younger (recently turned 50), had better eyesight, more nimble mind and body, now i was afraid if the inevitable SPRING (BOING) flew out of it or a miniscule part fell out and bounced off the table and onto the floor as i was disassembling it i'd NEVER be able to find it, and parts aren't available for this drill, er, i don't think so, i called northern and the guy gave me another phone number that i didn't get around to calling. well, so, anyway, thankfully i isolated a loose wire, carefully pried open the trigger switch, saw the wire had been improperly inserted at the factory (was kinda off to the side of a pincer thingy instead of straight through the middle), was able to redo it all (soldered the tip of the wire, etc.) and i'll be damned the drill, so far, seems to be working fine. i'm pleased as punch. tee hee! i really like this drill. turns out it's really handy to have two cordless drills. tried to find a picture on-line, this is the only one i could find. in this pic (from an on-line auction) there are three the same and two other different ones that are alike. mine is like the three that are alike ('cept mine has the battery and charger). i hate the color of this thing, burgundy? huh?! but, oh well, works good.

"Roger Shoaf" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news01.syix.com:

If you fail to remember this trick, keep a large speaker magnet handy to sweep the floor. Springs are almost always magnetic, although some of the parts they can launch may not be. It also helps not to have the music turned up, so you can hear what quadrant of the shop it landed in...

Don't ask me how I know this...

Doug White

Where is the fun in that? :)

Good work! I can see that you got a lot of satisfaction out of it, which is the most important part. Any number of times I've fixed something that I got at the dump just for the satisfaction of fixing it. Even the stuff that I couldn't fix was interesting to take apart & see what was wrong. That's not something that I tell people who have to ask what I do in the shop. If you have to ask, you won't understand.

Bob

Gloats are relative. In your case you are thrilled and I'm happy for you.

I tried to salvage a cordless drill whose charger died using my current limited variable voltage power supply. I got a bit too aggressive on the charge rate though. Oh well. Some lessons come at a price.

On the metalworking front, I recently scored a 3 ton arbor press. It wasn't a steal since I had to pay 50 bucks for it but the press is American and not off short. Shipping isn't a problem since I work where it is located.

Back to your gloat. Taking the time and effort to go out of your experience zone can pay off a lot of times. At worst it is only a bit of time lost in most cases.

I haven't tossed my cordless drill since I'm considering putting new batteries in it since it had a nice balance of power and weight.

Wes

you've seen this guy? i think r.c.m. was where i heard about him, or maybe it was the welding group. i used him and was thoroughly satisfied. (two battery packs for the porter cable drill i mentioned)

they were kind enough to allow me to remove the cells from the plastic battery pack, to reduce shipping costs to them. their rebuild batteries are cheaper than brand produced battery packs.