D'day,
My old Wickes electric drill has started sparking brightly from the back end, presumably where the brushes are located. It also cuts out intermittently. Is the drill in the throes of giving up the ghost, or is there some way I can save it - say by squirting WD40 into its back end, through the cooling vents?
Cheers,
JD
Sounds like it needs a new set of bridges, or the current ones are possibly jammed, you will need to open it up to see, unless the brushes are accessible from the inside, and find the model of motor to see if brushes are available.
WD40 would be a far more memorable solution :-)
Spoilsport!!
AB
*brushes, not bridges!
+1, but if it started cutting out in the middle of a job you *might* get a bit more working time with WD40. Be aware that it is inflammable, but not very. So if you did get a bit of flame, wrap the "brush end" in a bit of cloth and it will go out.
Presumably it's a mains drill? In the old days brushes were accessible without splitting the casing, and very easy to replace. These days it can be a bit more fiddly, and sometimes brush leads are crimped or soldered.
If it is really old, you might consider treating yourself to a new cordless, if you don't have one. They really are at the stage now where they are fine for a lot of jobs.
^^^^^^^ What?:-)
If you want to set fire to it, wd40. If you want it to work, brushes are often tweakable to get more travel out of them, delaying replacement by many years.
NT
IME Wickes tools are re-badged versions on well known brands. My Wickes SDS drill ia an Erbauer and when I had problems with a broken mains lead I had it repaired by Draper (UK agents) They replaced the mains lead (problem was over flexing when put in the storage box) FoC and shipped it back to me FoC. I had delivered it to them as I live close to their Southampton HQ.
It would be wortwhile finding the Manufacturer of the drill and working from there.
Malcolm Race
I'd imagine either the communtator is worn or the brushes are. If there is no way in to replace the brushes if that is the issue, then I'd say its dead, and probably every time you use it you are silently cursed by anyone with a medium wave radio in the vicinity. Brian
Not just medium wave: I was on the M3 last Saturday in heavy traffic - a very nice looking elderly Rolls Royce came alongside and my R3 reception was plagued with ignition interference.
"ARW" wrote in news:mmcits$qgc$1@dont- email.me:
My Australian never was much good.. ;)
Thanks to all for the advice...
JD
now i know why new electrical items come with 30+ pages of safety instructions
some people are beyond belief really
-"Mark" wrote in news:mmelq8$d9r$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
FU2
If the sparking is fairly light, it could be brushes or brush springs, but if there's a continuous "ring of fire" round the commutator, it's likely that one of the armature coils has burnt out. Good commutation relies on the next segment to reach a brush having a back emf on it close to the previous one: if it's very different, because the winding is open circuit, it sparks.
I wouldn't squirt a flammable spray onto anything sparking vigorously (unless it was in an engine).
Kevin
I would love a cordless drill but I just know the battery would die as I don't use one much
So buy one with a Li-ion battery ...
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