Searched the archives, but couldn’t find anything about how to keep your sander going strong for years. Kokua, if you are reading this, I ended up buying that Makita. Works great (compared to the junk sander I had before) but now that I spent the $, what can I do to make sure its going to last? I haven’t bothered to find the manual and read that yet, so I figured I’d see what you guys have to say about it. Is it necessary to open it up/clean/replace any parts on a regular basis? I haven’t noticed any change in performance yet, are there things to look for/feel that would tell me it needs some TLC?
Howzit OahuSurfer, I think the best thing for your Makita is to use a compreesor to blow out the dust in the motor windings and trigger assembly, I do this before every sand or polish job, but with the motor not running,no need to open the casing. Blowing out the motor when it’s running can damage the insulation covering the windings. You’ld be amazed at how much dust there is in the motor and trigger. When it comes to blowing out the trigger just shoot the air in the gaps around the trigger. One of my Makitas is 11 years old and I’ve only had to replace the brushes once ( just recently) and the cord about 3 years ago. My other one is 6 years old and I have noticed the cord is getting worn and needs to be replaced. The cords tend to twist as I work around boards and a new replacement cord is only $10. I’m sort of a pack rat and when ever I find a tool that’s broken I take them apart for the parts and have accumilated a few extra cords that fit so I’m set. A little off this subject, A friend was cleaning out his tool shed and gave me a 100’ 10 gauge cord, couldn’t believe what a score that was.Aloha,Kokua
100’ of ten gauge cord? NICE score! As Woody Allen said, “70% of success is showing up”, or being there at the right place at the right time.
Around here I’m known as something of a cord nazi - “you think I am gonna use that %$#@ lighweight piece of $^&% with my good tools and burn 'em out cos you’re such a ()&%# - &%$#@ Cheapass, think again…or maybe %^*()#ing think to %^&(ing begin with!”
Yeah, a little vehement on the subject. But ( getting back to the original subject) a good and proper sized cord can keep a tool from frying and vastly extend its lifespan. You try running a high-amperage tool on an eensy weensy cord, so that you are getting less than 90% of the voltage it was designed for, it’ll fry. Check at the outlet and then at the end of the cord with a volt meter, you might be surprised.
I know the manufacturers recommend changing the gearbox lube in sander/grinders, but I don’t know of anyone who actually does it. On the other hand, I doubt that anyone doing surfboard work is gonna be sanding for long enough, hard enough to be breaking down the gearcase lube.
Howzit doc, You are so right about cord sizes, I wired my shop myself since I do some electrical work on the side and made sure I wired it for plenty of juice. I run a 50’ 12 gauge extension cord to power the shop and it works fine but am going to cut the 10 gauge down to 50’ so I’ll have one to run the shop and an extra for construction work. My Makita uses 7.5 amps and that’s the biggest power draw and my compressor uses 6.5 amps and they never run at the same time so I have extra power for lights. A couple of years back my friend ran over my 12 gauge to the shop and in a pinch used a 14 gauge but every time my compressor kicked on the lights flickered so I knew it was time to get a new big cord.Aloha,Kokua
Howzit John, Think the mesh might hinder the air flow to the motor which wouldn’t be so good, plus the mesh would have to be so small to keep out the dust. I wouldn’t do it since my grinders are one of my best friends.Aloha,Kokua
Hey Kokua, keep that 12 guage too & run your lights off it. Before I hardwired my shop, I ran cords like you and if I blew a breaker, it was nice if the lights didn’t go off at the same time I had 2 cords, 10 ga. for the tools & 12 for the lights, battery charger, radio, etc.
Howzit Benny, The only tool that ever kicked the breaker was my first compressor that was a direct drive needing 15 amps to run. after geting a belt drive using less amps there’s never been a breaker problem. Probably don’t use over 12 amps for whole shop now. Aloha,Kokua
Ahm, before you cut that 100’ beauty, might it make sense to run some 10/3 house wire instead? Then just wire it into a GFI plug and a four-way set of plugs and you’d be set, fairly cheap - you may even have that as job leftovers. And you’d still have that nice 100 footer for those jobs that just are not convenient, y’know?
Been thinking about doing something similar here, as I wouldn’t be running much out there beyond a few light tools, just put an outside outlet there for it off one of the 110 circuits in the main workshop.
Howzit doc,Actually that was what I had in mind since I have some underground conduit for the gap between the house and the shop, I don’t have any 10/3 on hand but I do have some 12/3 outdoor that should work since it only about 35 feet from the power source to the shop. The only snag is getting the landlord to OK it, but that might not be to big a problem since I fix all his boards at a discounted price.Aloha,Kokua
Oh yeah,I bag all my machine/power tools when cool and not in use…Atmosphere dust seems to create more of the problems than the general work dust causes.
I had 2 cords, 10 ga. for the tools & 12 for the lights, battery charger, radio, etc.