Got ready to do some cutting this morning (Saturday). Homed the S03, loaded the job, pressed the button to start the DeWalt, and…only the light. Nooooo! Not brushes today!? No, not today. Pulled them out, cleaned them up a bit and put them back in. Router started. Started the job. Midway through, it grinds to a halt. So here it is. Advice: order some brushes to have on hand. I do this for my random orbit sanders because I chew through them about every 45 days. But I got lazy and thought the router brushes would last.
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On the DeWalt, users usually report about 100 hours of use before replacing them. I managed to get 130 hours out of mine ( the Super PID shows how many hours of total run time). I will replace mine after 100 hours going forward, 60 hours left before the next change out…
The brushes are much more reasonably priced from the DeWalt Service centers than from Amazon.
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FYI: If you put a filter (A sock OR two) over the air intake your Brush life will is the 1000’s of hours. Two years of 30+ hours a week, and haven’t replaced a brush yet.
Nore the White Sock
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Wouldn’t be a bad idea to to pull the brushes and have a look at them to see how worn they are. I keep extra sets on hand but of course it’s gonna happen it the middle of an important job.
How about pantyhose ? Seems that would work pretty well.
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That’s one of the things that always bugs me–there’s a lot of life left, it seems. On my RO sanders, it’s the same thing. I’ve often thought about taking a chunk of an old, discarded worn one and using it as a backer. I haven’t done it because I thought it might be a bad idea. People here don’t seem to like it, so that means it’s worth giving it a try. No one has any personal experience doing it, so someone has to do it.
I don’t know since I don’t use them…(anymore…hahahaha)
Lol Rich, just wondering if the fine mesh in the pantyhouse would be better or not.
If you can’t see the dirt or debris building up on it than how much is it blocking, knida like the filter on a window ac unit, so thin you can see thru it, I always hang a regular furnace filter in front of mine and it works. Also my sock (on my router, a once white one) shows the dirt it is catching to the point that I hit it with the vacuum nozzel once in a while to “clean” it off. I’ve never seen a woman vacuuming her legs, so I don’t think pantyhose would work. How’s that for an analogy???
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I threw some old pantyhose on my router after reading this thread(didn’t have anything on it before). I thought it would be a good compromise between filtering and airflow. It seems to catch quite a bit of dust while machining since I dont have a dust shoe. I vacuum off the outside every once and a while. It probably doesn’t catch as much as a thicker sock.
Do any of you sock guys think that it inhibits airflow at all?
It appears from a quick glance at that Internet thing that pantyhose are the preferred DIY filter for people overclocking their PCs. Also, some suggestions are made for used dryer sheets. I didn’t see anyone using actual cloth (cotton, etc.) as filters on those. People doing overclocking are going to be more worried about airflow than people running CNC routers, I think, so their advice might be better heeded.
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Well…I agree with your pantyhose synopsis, although I don’t want to put out a request for anyone’s old pantyhose…So I’ll stick with my old used to be clean cotton sock. I did cut a hole in it so I could see the speed dial but that does not affect the airflow around the air inlet section of the router. I may attach a heat sink bar to the sock in the case of any over heating that the sock may attenuate to…
They certainly do but in a good way, my feet don’t smell when I am wearing socks, but than of course it’s my nose that smells and since it doesn’t smell the socks that they must inhibit airflow around my feet. I’m staying on the sock team.
If we are the sock guys than are you guys the …(I’d rather not say).
Just remember the copper leads are embedded into the carbon brush.
When I replace the set of brushes when they are due, I will try the sock since I will have a baseline without the sock.
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Kind of curious as to what the sock is doing, I understand filtering the air, but I am struggling to see a correlation between filtered air (or reduced air flow) and brush life? Is it perhaps that the particulates filtered by the sock, cause wear of the brush/commutator?
Art
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Oops, not enough coffee, I mean prevent brush wear?
Note that DeWalt says in the user manual for the router that brush life is 100 hours. Of course, they say brush replacement should only be done by an authorized service center. I will test myself, but I am having a hard time believing that a sock will increase brush life more than 10x.
Be sure to include a data set for the pantyhose guys, don’t want them to feel left out.
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Part sizes?
And where is a good place to buy? (no dewalt service centers near me)
I use ereplacementparts.com.
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