Keeping cords from cracking just below the strain relief?

I believe there's some sort of rule that on every drill that isn't enough of a piece of crap as to break in less than a month the outer insulation must break just below the strain relief. There's got to be either some better strain relief that the manufacturers are too cheap to use, or some contractor's trick with duct tape or something to prolong the cords, but my googling isn't turning anything up.

-Leuf

Reply to
Leuf
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Funny thing is, Leuf, that I have a 3/8 Bosch drill, 22 years old, and never replaced the cord. That drill gets used a lot. 3rd set of brushes. Yet, I have replaced the cords on Bosch routers plenty of times.

I do not wind the cord tightly around the tool itself either. I wind the cord around my hand and a strip of velcro holds it together. It is quick release (unwind) as well and no strain on the relief.

On a couple of Milwaukee routers, I wind the cord around my hand and stick the bundle inside the strap of the hand-grip. I just don't seem to go through a lot of cords.

r
Reply to
Robatoy

I was never successful to find something to prevent the insulation from breaking.

The best way I learned is to replace the cord with a rubber made one.

Most quality tool come with a 10 to 12 rubber insulated electrical cord.

Here where I live a plastic insulated cord is PITA when it gets below freezing. The cord stiffens and becomes hard to handle.

Reply to
<marierdj

My motivation for the post was just recently getting a used and abused milwaukee 1/2" drill. Those quik-lok cords are pricey little suckers, cost more than the drill did. $25 for a 25 ft 18ga 3 wire cord? Some places wanted as much as 40 bucks or more for it.

I grew up with my dad's craftsman drill, and he's obsessive compulsive about wrapping the cord as tight as humanly possible. New cord a few years back. I looked at it today and you can already see the spot where it's going to break again in a couple years. Keep in mind it's got its own drawer all by itself, so it's not like leaving the cord loose is going to turn into an unwieldy tangle, but there it sits in the drawer with the cord like a boa around it.

Now, I intend to keep that Milwaukee on a shelf under the bench, cord long enough to reach the whole shop and not wrapped (how would you wrap 25 ft of cord around it even if you wanted to?) so I reckon it should be fine. But still, I figure if you had a longer strain relief, long enough to take the whole bend to do the 180 to get started wrapping around the tool then it would be fine.

-Leuf

Reply to
Leuf

wrote in news:dIpfh.31813$ snipped-for-privacy@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca:

That gave me an idea to throw out there. You can get Latex Rubber from a hobby shop and put that on the cord. It'll stick and hold pretty good, and might even help a bit with strain relief.

A word of warning... wear some kind of breathing protection. A dust mask at the minimum. That stuff bothers me something awful and a dust mask helps a lot.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Cables are part of the tool IMHO, hence a crap cable means it's (to some extent) a crap tool.

To avoid this problem, use decent cables (and make them long enough!) Also use a strain relief that's long and flexible. A rigid clamp is no good if it saves the conductors failing, only by over-straining the sheath.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

| I believe there's some sort of rule that on every drill that isn't | enough of a piece of crap as to break in less than a month the outer | insulation must break just below the strain relief. There's got to | be either some better strain relief that the manufacturers are too | cheap to use, or some contractor's trick with duct tape or | something to prolong the cords, but my googling isn't turning | anything up.

One trick that's done the job for me has been to remove the cord (remembering which wire goes where!) and slip a 1-1/2" and a 1" piece of heat shrink tubing over the terminals. Position and shrink the

1-1/2" piece in place, then slide the 1" piece over (on top of) that and shrink it in place. Re-install the cord.

It'll break somewhere else now.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

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Reply to
Morris Dovey

some cords better than others

Reply to
bent

Does anyone have an example of a good strain relief? Not a tool that has a good one, but something that could be bought for retrofitting. Don't see anything on mcmaster-carr.

-Leuf

Reply to
Leuf

Heatshrink. Make sure it's decent quality (not too thin) and use the glue-lined stuff.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

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