new-to-me router maintenance

[Shawn Wilson]

I just bought my first router - a $15 Sears "Work-Lite" 6.5Amp - at a flea market. I plugged it in and it works. I didn't get the impression that it was well taken care of. I don't see any broken pieces or rust, but it's caked with sawdust that has dried to the point of being cement. And the other 3 routers the guy was selling were missing switches or had broken plastic. I was wondering if anyone can suggest a checklist of things I should do besides chuck it out and buy a good router :o)

Thanks, Shawn

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Nope, that should do it.

[Rolling Thunder]

The primary thing to check is the collet. It needs to be clean as a whistle and hold the bit tightly. If the bearings are rattling around, chuck it.

Thunder

[Larry Jaques]

On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 19:15:12 -0400, the inscrutable "Shawn Wilson" spake:

You should have read here about the ARHA mechanism of the Searz routahs before even THINKING of buying that, Shawn. The inadvertant Automatic Random Height Adjuster of those routers has been famous here and hated by anyone awake enough to notice it. DAGS of the Wreck for more info.

I've owned enough other Crapsman tools to have lost my pound of flesh and gallons of blood over the years. I'm glad I didn't own that one, too.

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[Steven and Gail Peterson]

As it seems to work, hang on to it. I have an old Sears (maybe 35 years, it was my first router). I keep a round over bit in it which I just about never change. For other work I have other routers, preferably 1/2" chuck. I have a Freud FT2000 in the router table, and a PC691 for other work. When Nawm did new shop cabinets, he moved about 15 routers. On Router Workshop, they often grab another router for the next step. You can't have too many routers.

Steve

[Shawn Wilson]

Thanks, everyone for the responses. I certainly won't chuck it. If I get a better one I'm sure I can use this one for something.

The collet is now clean and runs smooth. No rattling. I routed an arc into the beginning of a longworth chuck last night. It came out clean as a whistle, though the ARHA made itself known. It was much easier to route at the end of the arc than the beginning. :o) I don't normally read the posts about tool specifics unless I have one. Guess I should start. Still, by akwardly keeping my fingers on the depth knob I was able to get it done.

Thanks again, Shawn