trakwebster
09-08-2008, 05:27 PM
There are a couple of threads from 2005 about Porter Cable router 7518 (or the motor 75182) running very hot, and the consensus is suggestive that (at that time) some really poor bearings were being sent out with Porter Cable.
For several years I've been running a smaller Makita router, but it began to somehow lose power and start bogging down, even with brand new cutters and using the same cutting speeds that used to work fine. I'd originally chosen the lesser-powered Makita because it's one of the quietest routers, and at that time there were neighbors in the same building.
However, now we have our own 1200 foot shop with its own shopbot room, so I figured it's time just to change to the often-used Porter Cable routers. I also had two of them sitting under-utilized in router tables, so I got one that had perhaps 5 hours of light use total, and installed it in the shopbot.
Immediately, the bogging down problem went away, plus we began getting cleaner cuts. However, the first time I did a bit change -- ouch! -- the collet (on the router side) was too hot to change bits using bare hands.)
Experiment showed that the heat was being generated from inside the router, not from the cutter, and that only a couple of minutes running (with no load) was enough to make it too hot to handle.
A search on talkshopbot found a couple of threads in the archives, and the same thing came up on via google search on some other forums.
In that shopbot thread, some recommended bearings were SKF made 6202ZZE/C3 & 6005ZZE/C3. The zz means shielded on both sides, and the c3 means extra clearance.
However, when I tried to buy these through my normal vendor (MSC at http://mscdirect.com) I had trouble getting the part numbers to match up. The helpy person at MSC did get SKF folks on the line, and SKF claims that they have a different designation that means the same thing. The manufacturer's part numbers in the MSC system show as 6202ZZJEM & 6005ZZJEM, and the claim is that the JEM means c3.
I've ordered them. We'll see.
The posts about this trouble were all back in 2005; however, that also happens to be about when I bought both my PC routers. Maybe it's no longer a problem.
There was also some suggestion that the Milwaukee 3.5 router was a better tool for the job, but I already have the two PC routers, so we'll first attempt to use the ones we have.
If anyone, now in 2008, has any additional info about this, please let me know. Thanks!
For several years I've been running a smaller Makita router, but it began to somehow lose power and start bogging down, even with brand new cutters and using the same cutting speeds that used to work fine. I'd originally chosen the lesser-powered Makita because it's one of the quietest routers, and at that time there were neighbors in the same building.
However, now we have our own 1200 foot shop with its own shopbot room, so I figured it's time just to change to the often-used Porter Cable routers. I also had two of them sitting under-utilized in router tables, so I got one that had perhaps 5 hours of light use total, and installed it in the shopbot.
Immediately, the bogging down problem went away, plus we began getting cleaner cuts. However, the first time I did a bit change -- ouch! -- the collet (on the router side) was too hot to change bits using bare hands.)
Experiment showed that the heat was being generated from inside the router, not from the cutter, and that only a couple of minutes running (with no load) was enough to make it too hot to handle.
A search on talkshopbot found a couple of threads in the archives, and the same thing came up on via google search on some other forums.
In that shopbot thread, some recommended bearings were SKF made 6202ZZE/C3 & 6005ZZE/C3. The zz means shielded on both sides, and the c3 means extra clearance.
However, when I tried to buy these through my normal vendor (MSC at http://mscdirect.com) I had trouble getting the part numbers to match up. The helpy person at MSC did get SKF folks on the line, and SKF claims that they have a different designation that means the same thing. The manufacturer's part numbers in the MSC system show as 6202ZZJEM & 6005ZZJEM, and the claim is that the JEM means c3.
I've ordered them. We'll see.
The posts about this trouble were all back in 2005; however, that also happens to be about when I bought both my PC routers. Maybe it's no longer a problem.
There was also some suggestion that the Milwaukee 3.5 router was a better tool for the job, but I already have the two PC routers, so we'll first attempt to use the ones we have.
If anyone, now in 2008, has any additional info about this, please let me know. Thanks!