PC ROUTER BEARING REPLACEMENT

[rtm (Unregistered Guest)]

My new pc router just quit, its less then a year old so I'm sendind it back to the service center It just quit in the miidle of cutting. I felt it and it was'nt hot.
I have another 7518 that need new bearings . I've had the bearings for sometime but now I need to instal them. How do you get the chuck off the bottom shaft inorder to replace the bottom bearing ?

[pappy]

Pneumatic impact wrench and 1-1/8" socket

[Mike Windsor]

I drilled a hole the same diameter as the commutator in a 2x 4 with a hole saw , then cut a slot in the end of it . I use this in a vise to grab the armature and a wrench on the collet end .

[D.Hunt (Unregistered Guest)]

Now this IS a fun subject!
Just this afternoon, we were beating our brains to figure out how to get at the bottom Porter Cable 3.5 hp. bearing,
and came up with our own solution, much like Mike Windsor's solution.
One of our resourceful workshop guys put the top end of the shaft in a vice carefully, to get a grip, and then went at the big nut down bottom, and released it, so we could replace the bearing.

NOW... there must be an "official" way to do this, without rigging up all sorts of Heath Robinson devices to accomplish this end.

Porter Cable must have something to say on the matter, or are we NOT supposed to be going in there?

Is there a Special Tool?
Where do we get one?
Additionally..
here on our Caribbean island, BRUSHES for the PC 3.5hp. simply are not available,
and so we had to re-assemble with what brushes we had left (not too bad, but not great either).
Ahhh.. life in the Tropix!

[ron brown]

D.Hunt,

An air-impact wrench is commonly used to take the nut off. Do it before you open the case.

Ron

[marshawk]

D.,

You have to be very careful when putting the armature in a vise. There are balance and electrical issues associated with squeezing the bearing shaft or scratching the brush contacts.

The impact wrench method, as Ron said, is the best for getting the bearing off.

Porter Cable has a parts center in Philadelphia that I use to get parts for my routers. The phone number is: 215-658-1430. Brushes are about $5.00 apiece. Dewalt also has a website where you can order the parts, but I have not been able to get it to work for me. The website will not recognize my address.

***IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU - don't keep trying it. Your parts will not be ordered BUT your credit card will have a "pre-authorization" attached to it. The amount of the purchase will not be available for several days.***

This is the link that I use to get a schematic and part numbers before I call Porter Cable: http://www.toolpartsdirect.com/cgi-bin/schematic.cgi/portercable/75182

Hope this helps.

Chip

[dingwall]

My router has a recurring problem of vertical play in the bearings. It took a couple of years to figure out that I could just take the top cover off, loosen the locking setscrew in the center of the shaft, put a block of wood under the collet and lightly bring the Z down onto the block to remove the play in the bearings. Then tighten up the setscrew.

I don't know if this is good for the bearings or not, but the router runs a lot quieter now with minimal verical play.

[D.Hunt (Unregistered Guest)]

Thanks for your responses!

We rebuilt our 3.5 PC router after 2-3 yrs. mainly because we were getting tapered holes,
and presumed something slack in the Z-axis.
We found a few slack things here and there,
and of course tightening helped somewhat,
but still we were getting tapered holes.

The bearings in the router were BAD,
especially when compared to their brand-new replacements!
But even after bearing replacement, our holes are still slightly tapered,
- much improved,mind you, but still tapered, probably to within the 15.thou 'allowable'.

Can anyone shed any light on why Z may be rendering slightly tapered plunge holes?
-despite repeatedly tweaking the design and cut-files?

We're using a 1/2 inch 3-fluted Amana Tung.carb bit to rout a hole of about 3/4 inch dia. in TEAK..

[dingwall]

Chuck the bit in the router, then put a dial indicator at the tip of the bit. Push on the bit with your finger and see how little pressure it takes to deflect it a significant amount.

Maybe climb cut the hole to .730" then conventional cut the cleanup to .750"