Making Cheaper Power Tools More Robust?

[Nocturncal]

I tried searching for this topic but I came up with nothing. Im new to the tool/wrenching scene. I mostly do motorcycle work, and am starting to take a dip in electronics and metalworking.

Ive been disassembling my cheaper tools to take a look inside em and want to beef up the insides to help make it more robust. Just things like adding hot glue/epoxy/potting/lawyer to help protect the board from dust and chemicals. I figure use my cheaper tools as a learning experience and try to increase the chooch factor

Is there a website or resource available that talks about beefing up robusticity of my tools?

E.g. I took apart my Wen detailing 1/2 x 18 inch, and noticed that the field windings were just bare copper, no epoxy, only a piece of tape wrapped around it. Could I put some type of epoxy to seal off the windings? Or is this something a more advanced?

 

[sberry]

Can find enough to do?

 

[dadsEH]

He's been watching too many AVE BOLTR's on Utube....lol.

 

[General Geoff]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it

 

[hotrod1968]

I tried searching for this topic but I came up with nothing. Im new to the tool/wrenching scene. I mostly do motorcycle work, and am starting to take a dip in electronics and metalworking.



Ive been disassembling my cheaper tools to take a look inside em and want to beef up the insides to help make it more robust. Just things like adding hot glue/epoxy/potting/lawyer to help protect the board from dust and chemicals. I figure use my cheaper tools as a learning experience and try to increase the chooch factor



Is there a website or resource available that talks about beefing up robusticity of my tools?



E.g. I took apart my Wen detailing 1/2 x 18 inch, and noticed that the field windings were just bare copper, no epoxy, only a piece of tape wrapped around it. Could I put some type of epoxy to seal off the windings? Or is this something a more advanced?

Seems to me if one has enough time to "play" with cheap tools I would spend that time making a buck and buy better. But that's just me. Good luck.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[Jason280]

Yeah, buy once cry once...I'm tired of fighting cheap stuff, hoping it *might* last long enough for me to finish a project.

 

[gnpenning]

Geeze guys, not much of a welcome to a new guy. His tools his choice. By doing what he is doing he is learning about the tools and how they operate, weak spots and how to improve things. Down the road this knowledge could be very helpful.

Nocturncal do what works for you and ignore useless feedback.

 

[dnschmidt]

I just buy Milwaukee and Makita.

 

[shawhite]

All the tinkering in the world will not turn a wen into a Milwaukee. I think you are putting to much thought into this. Just use the tools to make money and if you can afford it next time upgrade if not buy another cheap tool and keep making money with it. I think you will find that cheap tool will do its job. May not be as powerful or as ergonomic to use but they usually get the job done.

Cheap tools are better than no tools.

 

[sberry]

There are better cheap tools, lots of them today. So much is rather generic and rebadged, different boxes, different sales venues. It had got so much cheaper to produce a good cheap tool and rebadge it even under discount than to make layers of quality which need to be tracked, need more inventory.

 

[JRC3]

Sounds like a good way of voiding Harbor Freight's ****** 90 day warranty.

 

[Nocturncal]

Yeah I tend to lean on the buy once, cry once adage, but I mean for me it's not an ABSOLUTE rule. I'll go cheaper if it's something that will find infrequent usage.

Mmm playing and tinkering with stuff is my way of learning about stuff. That way when I run into problems in the future ill be somewhat familiar with what I'm working with. And I'd rather tinker on a 30 dollar HF/Wen tool that I use one in a blue moon than something like my 1/2 inch Makita Brushless High Torque Impact.

I've got good tools and cheap tools, a number of Milwaukee and Makita for the stuff I use the most.

FYI think I misspoke, I don't use my tools to make money. Unless your talking about my trauma shears lol.
I do work on my motorcycle, not motorcycle work.

 

[Nocturncal]

He's been watching too many AVE BOLTR's on Utube....lol.

So true. Feeek.

 

[Nocturncal]

Can find enough to do?

Lol its been in the span of over a year, and it's all came about when working on my motorcycle.

Been running into different problems where I've said "man, if I knew how to weld...work with pcbs...etc it would make life so much easier"

Current project is making a phone mount for my motorcycle that has wireless charging and can draw heat away from the unit so the charger/phone doesn't overheat in high temps and slow down the charging process

 

[neophyte]

Cheap tools tend to use chea bearings. Since bearings are mostly modular in size, it can be possible to replace crappy original bearings with much better bearings to extend tool life or to extend service intervals for the tools.
I don’t know how much financial sense this would make for a cheap tool, but I’ve heard of people doing it who use routers in professional settings for hours on end, since routers used for production use can die after a few months.

Just running a tool no load when you first get it can help.
Fresh new gears are not going to match up perfectly, and certain additives in tool greases need to be worked into those gears.
On tools made with brushed motors, the brushes may need to be worked in to increase surface contact with the rotor for better efficiency.
Just letting the tool run will work in the brushes, and start smoothing out the gearing in a tool, which can help the tool run smoother and quieter, and it will also increase the efficiency whith which the motor transmits power thru the tool.
You could also try lapping in the gears, but that would be a bit ridiculous as far as overkill.

 

[jd_1138]

Yeah, buy once cry once...I'm tired of fighting cheap stuff, hoping it *might* last long enough for me to finish a project.

Yeah I have a friend with a garage full of Chicago Electric power tools. He spends a lot of money replacing them, time to go to HF, time wasted on trying to find the warranty paperwork to get a "free" replacement, etc.. Also when I am there helping him when one of the tools breaks, it leaves less time for me to help him. Loss of productivity and your helper.

Cheap is not a good value. I use Makita and Ryobi -- never had one break and I am not easy on these things at all. I was helping a friend cut down a small tree growing into his garage. I continually threw my corded Makita reciprocating saw on the grass like 20 times. Better to have the tool take the punishment than me wasting time lowering it and picking it up plus wear/tear on me. It has been beat to hell and back for years -- still works perfectly.

 

[Robinson1]

Yeah I have a friend with a garage full of Chicago Electric power tools. He spends a lot of money replacing them, time to go to HF, time wasted on trying to find the warranty paperwork to get a "free" replacement, etc.. Also when I am there helping him when one of the tools breaks, it leaves less time for me to help him. Loss of productivity and your helper.

Cheap is not a good value. I use Makita and Ryobi -- never had one break and I am not easy on these things at all. I was helping a friend cut down a small tree growing into his garage. I continually threw my corded Makita reciprocating saw on the grass like 20 times. Better to have the tool take the punishment than me wasting time lowering it and picking it up plus wear/tear on me. It has been beat to hell and back for years -- still works perfectly.

Harbor Freight has allowed me to add tools to my shop that otherwise would have been way out of my price range at that point in my life. In turn allowing me to make more money doing things that previously would have been way too labor intensive to be practical if not flat out impossible. Harbor freight has their place and alot of their tools are actually very good. Several pieces are the exact same as tools sold by Grizzly at 2-3 time the price.

I've made 10's of thousands of dollars over the years with their 14 inch woodworking bandsaw and several of their stationary sanders. Nothing else even compares in that price range. Even if you triple the price it's still hard to find a better tool for the price.

I've got so many of their pipe and bar clamps it's almost comical. It would have been thousands of dollars to buy the same clamps from a name brand supplier.

I'm not saying run out and buy everything from Harbor Freight but a informed end user can come out pretty good.

 

[Farmall450]

He's been watching too many AVE BOLTR's on Utube....lol.

I was going to recommend watching them but his vernacular implies that ship has already sailed lol.

As far as that, you'd be best off applying what you know to fixing the broken ones.

 

[Nocturncal]

Cheap tools tend to use chea bearings. Since bearings are mostly modular in size, it can be possible to replace crappy original bearings with much better bearings to extend tool life or to extend service intervals for the tools.
I don’t know how much financial sense this would make for a cheap tool, but I’ve heard of people doing it who use routers in professional settings for hours on end, since routers used for production use can die after a few months.

Just running a tool no load when you first get it can help.
Fresh new gears are not going to match up perfectly, and certain additives in tool greases need to be worked into those gears.
On tools made with brushed motors, the brushes may need to be worked in to increase surface contact with the rotor for better efficiency.
Just letting the tool run will work in the brushes, and start smoothing out the gearing in a tool, which can help the tool run smoother and quieter, and it will also increase the efficiency whith which the motor transmits power thru the tool.
You could also try lapping in the gears, but that would be a bit ridiculous as far as overkill.

Thanks for the info! Just the kind of information I was looking for.

Ill be hunting for free/broken equipment in the city via the free section on Craigslist. It's crazy in a city that puts a huge emphasis on being "green" so many people just throw electronics and other perfectly fine stuff out on the sidewalk out.

 

[sberry]

Finding free broken good stuff is on the fringe of profitable. I tease a little but got no problem fixing a few well worked cheap tools. Sometimes they earned their keep, on occasion the repair is better. My helper fixed a switch on a Walmart grinder, no parts, did it immediately, put it back to work in a few minutes.

 

[KnurledNut]

Can find enough to do?

...says the guy with 30,500 posts....

 

[99LeCouch]

Good consumables like blades, bits, or sandpaper helps cheap power tools work much better. HF sander with 3M sandpaper will likely do a decent job. Or good bits in a cheap impact driver. Always helps when the tool's power gets to do work instead of stripping out the bit.

 

[Jason280]

...says the guy with 30,500 posts....

That made me chuckle...

 

[Nocturncal]

...says the guy with 30,500 posts....

 

[bwringer]

To answer one of the questions, adding layers of goop or tape isn't usually a good idea because you can then cause things to overheat. Make sure you don't cover or block the ventilation holes, too.

There are times when you can improve things by changing or adding lubricant after they've been in use a while, like with angle grinders. And you can blow out any dust and swarf while you're at it and potentially extend the life of the tool.

Taking tools apart doesn't pay the bills (unless you're a Youtuber with a large following, I guess), but if you find it interesting and educational, knock yourself out. However, you also run a nonzero risk of damaging the tool.

Whether HF or whoever would actually notice that you took something apart and refuse a return, I dunno, but returning a tool you damaged by taking apart is not ethical.

Repairing dead tools rarely pays off either, but again can at least be educational.

 

[Mechanical Noise]

Run your cheap tool until it fails and figure out what went bad. But consider that smart engineers would design the thing so most of their parts reach their end of life at around the same time. That time might come at 10 hours or it might come at 1000 hours.

In other words, they aren't going to cheap out on only one critical part.

 

[JRC3]

Run your cheap tool until it fails and figure out what went bad. But consider that smart engineers would design the thing so most of their parts reach their end of life at around the same time. That time might come at 10 hours or it might come at 1000 hours.

In other words, they aren't going to cheap out on only one critical part.

Yep. I didn't have my Dewalt recip with me one day so I grabbed my backup Ryobi to cut through a bunch of plaster and lath. I threw in a Dioblo blade and went to town...I smoked the motor 3/4 the way through the task. Those plastic endbells just don't hold up. No reasonable "upgrade" is going to replace a cheap and/or brushed motor.

 

[sberry]

Remember back in the day,,,, I want alum and metal, none of this plastic shat. Well in the drive to make cheaper thay actually make some better, some brushes and holders etc and in some places it isn't worth it to cheap on some models, just sell the same to everyone and if it cost 2x they are more than happy to warranty it.
The old is often kept for sales,, the color or some features. Take cords on drills and grinders, the new modern cord on a BD is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better than the rubber on a DeWalt but in the sales isle the rubber wins. Have overheated a couple 402 grinders, never a 7750 that cost 1/3. I like a paddle better than a slide, I get used to it though but they only put it on premium models.

 

[mcj115]

As a DIY homeowner I start out and a buy cheap power tool, use it until it dies. If the cheap tool dies then it means I use it enough to justify buying a good quality version of that tool.

 

[Showkey]

Use to be an ad years ago:

“Quality goes in before the name goes on”..........trying add quality after the fact might be harder than it sounds.


Zenith was the brand..........For many years, their famous slogan was "The quality goes in before the name goes on" (this slogan was borrowed from the "CROWN" Piano made by Geo. P Bent of Chicago). Now days .......LG Electronics acquired a controlling share of Zenith in 1995; Zenith became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1999........

 

[dutchgray]

Repairing dead tools rarely pays off either, but again can at least be educational.

Unless it brushes or a switch on a common corded power tool, or a switch on a cordless, or bearings in a Router or Planer, or replacing a damaged cord, I don't bother messing with much more than that in hand tools
I find the Makita grinders can usually wear out 2 sets of brushes without another failure.

Common tools are so cheap it isn't economical to spend even an hour working on them really, just order up a replacement.

 

[kctyphoon]

Leave everything alone.. if you want your power tools to be better, just buy better power tools. You are far more likely to break something or cause some other issues by poking around trying to mess with things that don't need messing with.

 

[General Geoff]

Leave everything alone.. if you want your power tools to be better, just buy better power tools. You are far more likely to break something or cause some other issues by poking around trying to mess with things that don't need messing with.

Agreed, unless you enjoy it. Then by all means, carry on.

 

[MushCreek]

I had to do a fair amount of work to make a Harbor Freight horizontal bandsaw usable. In hindsight, I should have just brought it back.

 

[crasher98]

One place to find out how to improve a Harbor Freight tool is to read the reviews for that tool on their website -- quite often people take the time to explain what they did to make them better, in very helpful detail. Much more helpful than the "this tool sux" type of reviews for sure.

 

[unknownroad]

E.g. I took apart my Wen detailing 1/2 x 18 inch, and noticed that the field windings were just bare copper, no epoxy, only a piece of tape wrapped around it. Could I put some type of epoxy to seal off the windings? Or is this something a more advanced?

Hey, I recently bought that same tool, naturally after *completing* a project where it would have been really helpful. I was pleased with the belt tracking when I tested it out, though.

The windings on the spinny part of the motor? I wouldn't mess with it unless you've got a way to true up the balance on it afterwards ... If you throw off the balance with a bunch of epoxy you'll do more harm than good (even considering that a cheap motor won't always be perfectly balanced from the factory).

I agree that bearings are probably the best bet for time/money invested to improve a tool, but cheap tools tend to have a lot of bits molded in place, so it's a matter of how much you need to cut apart to replace the bearings.

Not aware of any sites like what you're looking for... best shot is probably searching for the individual tool on youtube. Good luck, have fun.

 

[Ton ton]

Interesting thread.

 

[pcmeiners]

If you want to expend energy making tools better, get older quality second hand tools/machinery and rebuild them. You end up with shop equipment which will last lifetimes, unlike the **** you can buy today.