Has anyone grounded the spindle of your Dewalt DWP611 so you can probe without attaching a ground wire to your bit?
I should mention before I get responses on this, you cannot ground the body of the router… there is no continuity between the router body and spindle. I attached my wire to this screw, which gave me ground to the whole outside body, but no ground whatsoever on the spindle.
Before I go tearing my whole router apart trying to find a spot that will give me a solid ground to the spindle (bearings maybe), I’d like to see if anyone else has done it with success.
Sooo, since I’m impatient and when I get something in my mind, I have to fulfill it before I move on, I went ahead and ripped the router apart. The easiest way I could see of getting ground to the spindle, was to, don’t gasp, solder a wire to the bearing . I know, I know… probably not the best ground, plus it’s a little rigged in the router, but it seems to have worked!
Quite possibly. Soldering isn’t much heat at all though, so I doubt it softened the metal or warped it very much at all. I did not measure runout before & after, but I probably should have… oh well. All said, I would do it again. The convenience is amazing!
I used Rosin paste flux, no.135 and silver bearing rosin core solder with a cheapo iron. I sanded the bearing and cleaned it with alcohol before I soldered it at iron setting 400F. Don’t know if I needed that much heat, but I just wanted to get in and out fast instead of keeping it heated for a long duration at a lower temp. I gave it a good tug after to make sure it was solid.
If you saw the Dewalt bearing housing, that wouldn’t really work; It’s a tight fit where it’s touching the outside race and open where it’s not. I really don’t think it’s a big concern to have soldered it.
Edit: Thinking about it now, people heat up bearing press fit housings all the time with propane before they put the bearing in, which will undoubtedly soak up that heat as soon as it goes in… I do not think this will cause any sufficient long-term issues.
I’m a little late to the party, but this is how I did it. I’ve since moved to a water cooled spindle but I enjoyed not having to remember clipping anything when using the BitZero and the DeWalt.
Edit: I purchased a replacement power tool cord that was a little longer and had a ground plug.
The easiest way I could see of getting ground to the spindle, was to, don’t gasp, solder a wire to the bearing 
. I know, I know… probably not the best ground, plus it’s a little rigged in the router, but it seems to have worked!
