Back in business, or whining about plastic parts in tools

[twistsol]

Every issue I've ever had with a Festool product is directly related to plastic parts and sub-zero temperatures in the upper Midwest

On Saturday morning I was moving my Festool STM-1800 into the high school wood shop for the annual robotics course build. I caught a wheel in an ice rut in the parking lot, it turned sideways and the plastic hub shattered.




The call to Festool was less than 3 minutes and the replacement is on its way, free of charge, but in the meantime, I had a functional spare in the shop.

[LCHIEN]

Lucky your cart didn't turn over and dump the tool on the ground (shudder to think about it).

Not very confidence building.

[leehljp]

Plastic like that weighs heavily into my purchases. I am at the age where I tend to go carefully with my tools - I don't throw them around, but still I watch out for tools that might break. I would not have noticed that on a Festool through . . . unless it broke.

[Jim Frye]

One of the aspects I learned from buying a lot of bench top class tools was that they are/were composed of a lot of plastic parts. Shortly after buying my BT3000, I began reinforcing those cheap plastic parts with lead shot and epoxy infills. It makes up for the questionable design use of plastic in areas that might be subjected to more stress than what the designers/engineers thought about. I know that's extra work and some expense, but none of the "improved" parts have ever failed yet. The added mass also improves the performance of the machines.

[leehljp]

I buy a round bar or two or three of those epoxy-putty that one has to fold and twist and mix, and then put that putty into the folds and empty places to reinforce weak joints. I rarely ever have a problem with things I have reinforced that way. I will say I press in hard and use a punch to make sure it gets deep into corners and crevices. It is fairly solid when I get through.

[nicer20]

Interesting idea about filling and reinforcing plastic parts with epoxy. Got to explore this.

[nicer20]

One of the aspects ........
It makes up for the questionable design use of plastic in areas that might be subjected to more stress than what the designers/engineers thought about. I know that's extra work and some expense, but none of the "improved" parts have ever failed yet. .......

These days I wonder if it is actually a well thought out design aspect for Planned Obsolescence !!

[capncarl]

I believe that most parts are included in this planned obsolescence. Looking in the plastic vacuum hose hook up on the Festool Domino 500 makes me shutter. It’s rightfully not a necessary part that wouldn’t prevent it from operating if it broke or fell off, but you couldn’t use it without it.

[Jim Frye]

Another poorly designed plastic tool. I was installing vinyl PSA appliqués in our walk in shower for SWMBO's impending knee replacement and was using my old wallpaper seam roller to firmly adhere them. I got two done and the roller completely separated from the hub. The center web just sheered off right around the hub. The center web is less than 1/16" thick and there was no fillet around the hub to strengthen the area that broke. My initial thought was I got over thirty years of intermittent use out of it, so I should toss it and replace it. Then it occurred to me that I might not be able to get one since nobody does wall paper now. Then the cheapo in me kicked in and I decided to repair it with the old buckshot and epoxy method. Besides, it was made in the USA, and a replacement probably wouldn't be. Opps, no epoxy in the shop, so I tried some e6000. It worked just like the epoxy did. It flowed down and around all of the shot pellets and forced the air out of the spaces. It does take 72 hours to cure as opposed to 15 minutes for the slow set epoxy. I didn't get a pic of the two pieces, but the first pic shows the break and the second pic shows the finished repair. The added weight improves the effect of the tool also.