Router maintenance

[LCHIEN]

Does anyone know offhand if there's any periodic maintenance to be done to routers like the Bosch 1617evs, like lubrication?

just cleaned mine of dust and pitch and cleaned and waxed the exterior, blew dust out of the switch and now trying to recall if it needs anything but too lazy to get out the manual.

[LCHIEN]

I know where my manual is but I found the manual on-line (Amazon has it on the product page) with less effort. It has sealed bearings I presume, no lubrication necessary, but replace every 2 brush changes... 300-400 hours of operation. I wonder how I can figure that out...

lets say Fifty projects, average less than ten minutes each... less than Ten hours running time. I guess i have a long way to go.

The metal part of the motor housing on the originals is magnesium. It tends to oxidize with a whitish finish and get a little rough and hard to slide.
I waxed my housing and base today and put some wax in the slots where the pins from the base slide in the motor. Looks better and slides smoothly up and down. Adjusted the cam clamp force. Switch was a little flakey, blew the dust out it and seems to work fine now.

[Bill in Buena Park]

Loring, are you saying that you need to replace the bearings with installation of the third set of brushes OR circa 400 hours - or could the need for a third set of brushes be the indicator that 400 hours of operation have been reached?

[LCHIEN]

Loring, are you saying that you need to replace the bearings with installation of the third set of brushes OR circa 400 hours - or could the need for a third set of brushes be the indicator that 400 hours of operation have been reached?

That's just what the manual says. I presume that the point is that they think your set of brushes will last 150-200 hours. Or that's what I read into it.

I guess they rate the bearings at ~400 hours. I'm sure there's a dependency on speed and temperature and side load as well. I would presume higher speeds, higher temperatures and larger loads will accelerate wear.

So it's all approximate. YMMV as they say.

[cwsmith]

I have four routers, including my Ridgid trim router. The three larger consist of one old single speed and two decade-old variable speed multi-base combo's. All of them have sealed bearings, and the manuals basically states that "under normal use no further lubrication is required".

My oldest is a 1970's-era Craftsman 315-17480 which is still running great, though not used very often. I have the Ryobi 1801 three-base router combo and the Ridgid R2900. Only the Ridgid seems to have any maintenance problems, because of its magnesium housing.

Magnesium, at least in my basement shop, seems to be a challenge in keeping the oxidation minimized. I've tried WD-40, wax, etc. Even keep it in a plastic bag, and have even tried keeping it upstairs when not in use. IT still oxidizes!

Beyond that, I basically keep the routers clean, and don't let dust accumulate. I generally just use the shop vac on them. I also keep the collets clean, wiping them down with a light machine oil after each use. I do the same with the router bits, cleaning them off after use with mineral spirits and then a light coating of machine oil, especially on their shanks.

Regarding the motor brushes, I really don't have that many hours on them to be concerned as yet. I suppose if your a production shop or a really avid woodworker, that might well be an issue to be addressed.

CWS

[atgcpaul]

Back in 2010 I successfully had Bosch replace my magnesium housing with their new housing. I think I bought the router in 2002. What a world of difference! I posted instructions over on Woodnet but it's no longer there.

Anyway, I worked with a guy at Bosch customer service named Brian Rapoza out of NJ. Brian.Rapoza@us.bosch.com. I don't know if he's still there, but he knew about the problem and was very helpful. They only replace the router housing, not the subbases. The new housing is nice, shiny, and smooth.

You need to fill out and include this form with your shipment:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3K...it?usp=sharing

At the time Bosch had free shipping if you had the person at the UPS store follow the instructions on page 1. The UPS store owner did not want to go through the steps (I think he thought I was scamming him) and I paid for shipping on my own (at another store)--like $10. I also tried taking the router to a certified Bosch repair center and they looked at me like I had three heads. They wanted money up front to evaluate the problem, etc. No thanks.

Before you go shipping your router back, call Bosch and make sure they are still doing this. The Bosch guy was kind of flying under the radar when he confirmed they would fix it for free (and remember my router was at least 7 years out of warranty).

Good luck and sorry for hijacking the thread. I sent my Bosch router back less than a year after buying it because of the dust-in-the-switch problem. They fixed it under warranty. I haven't had a problem since and in 10 years of ownership, I am nowhere near the hours of use to require any kind of maintenance.

Paul

[greenacres2]

At some point early in its production, Bosch change the alloy in the housing of the 1617. The earliest versions had the worst corrosion issues, and from what I've read nothing seemed to work to keep it from happening. If you do get one prone to corrosion, I've heard of Bosch replacing the housing at no cost, most recently within the past 2 months--far out of warranty.

Neither of my 1617's have shown any sign of degradation of the motor housing.

earl

[cwsmith]

That's terrific!!!

I guess I need to give Bosch serious consideration when and if I buy another router.

Problem with Ryobi and Ridgid brands, both being TTI productions, is that there is little to no service consideration after the warranty, unless it is deemed to be a national safety issue. (At least that has been my experience with the contact person.)

In the case of the Ridgid and it's magnesium corrosion of the motor housing, the gentleman had the audacity to tell me it wasn't magnesium, and that only the base was made of it.

With my Ryobi 1802M (3-base router), and its infamous swelling plastic housing, they told me that they had NO record of any complaints. I had it replaced under warranty and I had them send me a new housing after the warranty. The latter was out-sized when I received it and the former, like the original, swelled within the first year.

Too bad, because I really like the features of both the Ryobi and the Ridgid. The Ridgid I use in my router table and just keep cleaning up the corrosion. The Ryobi is dedicated to "plunge-base" only, where the swelling doesn't seem to matter, but it would be nice to use the fixed D-handle and regular bases which no longer fit.

CWS

[LCHIEN]

So the reason for the router tune-up is that I planned to do some router swapping around.

First, as mentioned, I cleaned up the Bosch 1617evs I had mounted in my Woodpecker table with the Woodpecker pheonlic plate and Bosch fixed table mount base (RA1165) that can be adjusted from the top with a long 1/8" hex allen wrench. The so called table mount base is just the latest revision fixed base with the handles not installed and the hex socket in the bottom of the fine height knob and a pass through hole in the base to allow the hex key to reach it. On the whole it works pretty good and keeps you from having to reach below the table to make fine adjustments. If you have a late model Bosch 1617 fixed base you don't need to buy this base as it has the hole and hex socket already. Just take the wood ball handles off if you desire.

The complaint about this base is that you still need to reach below the table to lock and unlock the base before adjusting. And locking the base to the motor causes a few thousandths shift in height after you've made the adjustment (its predictable with practice). Theres been a couple of times I forgot to lock the base - which is worse. The motor can wobble around a few thousandths in any direction since its not held perfectly centered and your routing work gets kind of sloppy.

I bought a Jessem router lift some time back that was on sale. It fortunately comes with an aluminum plate that matches the Woodpecker plate. Now the woodpecker plate has a small spring loaded ball on the top, long edge to take up any slop in the fit. The reason I hadn't used the Jessem plate until now is that there was .032 (1/32nd inch) total clearance space top and bottom of the plate. I measured with a feeler gauge. So when you turned on the router you could visibly see the plate move. I finally got a spring loaded ball catch with about .105" travel from rockler for box hardware and mounted it to the bottom of the plate on the side away from the user to press on the inside lower edge of the hole. This now keeps the plate firmly in place.

Now that the slop is fixed, The reason the Jessem is nicer than the Bosch table base is that not only do you adjust from the top but there's very little backlash and slop so you don't have to use a cam lock to lock the router height. It comes with twist lock throat plates which will be more convenient and it also has a screw in safety pin which I had had to add to my old WP plate.

So I put the 1617evs back into the original fixed hand base after having cleaned it all up. and I put a less often used 1617 fixed speed motor into the Jessem (which accepts any 3.5" diameter router motor by the way (PC 69x, 89x, Dewalt 618, Bosch 1617xxx among others). Clamps the outer diameter, not any grooves or teeth on the motor.

I have a router speed control which works quite nicely going from 8000 to 23000 RPM and I can mount it to the side of the table so I no longer have to reach below for anything, except to help change bits when needed. I think I can raise the motor high enough to do it from the top... but I haven't tried yet. So the 1617 got all spiffed up and the motor control and router spin oh so nice and smoothly. I leveled the plate to the top (all ten set screws), so I'm ready to go.

I'll use the 1617evs for handheld work. But in some ways I've been using the Bosch Colt mini-router (palm router) for a lot of the handheld work like edge roundovers although I had to get a set of 1/4" shank bits, its much handier for that.

Anyway, back to some sense of order on the routing table. I feel like I accomplished something even if its just rearranging. I hope to try is out some more routing real soon.

[lrr]

I have a Craftsman 315.17380 router I bought in the mid 70s. I'm guessing if the brushes last for a couple humdred hours, my yet-to-be-born great-great grandchildren will have to deal with changing them. I found a 31.17480 for $5 that is the collet, but Sears shows I can get one for around $11-12. Or, the kids can pull the brushes out of it to fix the other router.

Seriuosly though, my biggest maintenance is thorough cleaning of routers that get used in my router table, and get plugged up every couple years or so, to the point they are difficult to adjust.

I am amazed at the abuse a router takes, and seem to run for years -- admittedly for maybe just a few minutes or part of an hour each time they are used.

I have three full sized routers, the newest a Ridgid 2930 combo with plunge base, and I also have a Ridgid palm router I bought this past summer. I just took the Festool plunge and bought their track saw, and since their routers can use the same guide rails as the track saw, I see myself going down that path before too long.

I cannot imagine selling any of my current routers, especially my first one from the 70s. I currently use the big Ridgid for 1/2" bits in the router table, a newer Craftsman to 1/4" bits in the router table (they have their own plates) and the others dedicated to a particular bit to minimize bit changes.

[Tom Slick]

I used to maintain a few routers in a factory. They would get used 30 to 60 minutes everyday. The ones mounted in tables needed the dust blown out occasionally otherwise they went years with no maintenance. The bearings will start making noise when they're ready for replacement.