My old craftsman shop vac started to smell "hot", like the motor was burning out. I removed the top cap over the motor, and verified that the brushes were fine. On further inspection, I discovered that there were two wires that had broken loose from their commutator connection. I carefully heated the wire end with my soldering iron, then scraped the insulation with a knife, and scraped the connection point on the commutator, and then soldered them back in place. It now seems to be working fine. FWIW.
Fixed shop vac
Feb 21, 2008
4 Replies
If you are new to do-it-yourself projects you are off to a great start. Congrats!
Wish you coulda posted that like a week ago, when my 5-buck metal-can garage sale Shop Vac let the magic smoke out, just as I started the quarterly cobweb harvest. I already blew 40 bucks at Menards buying the replacement. (which, to my pleasant surprise, is backwards-compatible for accessories and filters, despite being 20? years newer. Good thing, because I already had a double-length hose, round brush, semi-hepa filters, etc, from the old one.)
Maybe before I pitch the carcass of the old one, I'll open up the motor box and see if it was the same problem with mine. A spare can and motor could come in handy, if I ever need to suck up anything real horrible.
aem sends...
Shop-Vac, very good product, good customer service, made in the USA, in Pennsylvania.
Made in the USA??? Who ever heard of such a thing?
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