Smoking Hot Router

[onedash]

What does it mean when your router stops running and starts to smoke and is almost to hot to touch???? Thats what mine did. After it cooled off it worked fine. I was doing my raised panel profile in one pass. Made 3 1/2 before it stopped (on display in finished projects forum . Then I remember to much wood at once.....
So I finished them in three passes each. No excessive heat that I noticed.
Wasn't checking before.
Think it will be fine or did I take a lot of life away from it????Its under a year old so still has the warantee. Should I have it checked? I don't notice any problems, I just have a feeling it won't last as long as it should have. They would probably plug it in and say it works fine...

[gmack5]

Get it checked!!!

If you take it in and they check it and give you a trouble ticket number, then you'll have it documented during the warrentee period. May come in handy later, if nothing else.

[LCHIEN]

I suspect when a motor gets hot like that and starts to smoke what is happeneing is that the enamel insulation they use on the motor windings has gotten so hot its beginning to burn and melt. That's the source of the smoke. If the insulation melts totally away between two layers of wire, then the motor will short out and stop working.

If it hasn't totally melted, then the motor may continue to work, but you may have shortened the life or the reliability of that motor.

[ryan.s]

What brand/model router was it?

[onedash]

What brand/model router was it?

It's a PC 890.

[monte]

I would definately take it in and have it checked out. The insulation has already deteorated some and the life of the router has been shortened.

[ted van halen]

All electric motors run on smoke that is sealed in from the factory. You obviously have a bad smoke seal. It's not a total failure but unfortunately there's not anywhere to put smoke back in should any leak out. I'd think that should be covered under wqarranty.

[MPod]

It's not your fault.

Porter Cable has recalled many of the 89X routers due to problems with insulation wear caused by vibration. Take it to your nearest PC service center and you'll get a new updated motor for free. I have one and have yet to take it in. You just reminded me that I need to get that taken care of.

[onedash]

Any idea how long the swap takes? probably not take it in and go home with a new one.

[charliex]

The recall is listed on PC's web site. Sounds like people have been electrically excited (shocked) when they short out. They send it in and then PC sends a new one directly to you by FEDX. Mine took about 10 days. Depends on how fast the repair shop ships your old one out. Too bad this happened but I'm impressed with PC for addressing the problem and not ignoring it like some other manufacturing outfits do, like TS power switches sticking on.
Chas

[JimD]

I have never gotten a router hot enough to smoke but I used to do it fairly regularly with an old electric chain saw I had. I would run multiple 100 foot small gauge extension cords to the saw and then use it to cut down trees. It would get hot enough to smoke, I would let it cool off, it would get hot enough to smoke etc.. This sort of abuse finally did it in but I overheated it more than a dozen times before it gave up. Now I use a gas powered chain saw. My only excuse for mis-treating my electric chain saw is it was cheap and I knew I would ruin it but if it did not do what I needed it to do.....

My guess is that if you don't do it again your PC890 will be fine. I also think having it checked while it is under warranty is a good idea, however.

Jim

[onedash]

Does the waranty matter if it was recalled? I still have a couple months left before it runs out though.

[Glenmore]

Hi onedash there was a recall about two months ago on that particular model so it should be still good in your case. Concidering that was a motor problem recall so if I were you I would check into it.