Please help me...Shopmate trigger reassembly

[Brazen Bull]

I have this vintage 60s or 70s 6amp Shopmate drill. I replaced the cut off cord with a new groundrd orange one and a nice vintage grey Hubbel plug. And and put a new rubber cord protector on from a trash picked 6amp crapsman China made resipricating saw.
The saw was maybe less than a year old and looked new. The motor, comutator, bearings felt new, except the gearbox and motor shaft gear was shredded. No surprise. China.

I took the 12a thyrister variable trigger and put it into my vintage drill as it (believe this) it was 100% compatable, bolt holes and all.

It works good, but the trigger is just cheap feeling and I want to put it back to original.

I had taken the original trigger apart but I dropped the tiny pieces under my chair.
Picked them all up (I thought) but when I went to reassemble the trigger, something seemed to be missing.
I looked high and low on Google for pictures so I can see what the missing puzzle piece looks like so I can go hunting again, but I found nothing and I don't know what I'm looking for under my table/chair. Please help me.

 

[Brazen Bull]

A picture of the parts I have so far

 

[The Cobbler]

I'm guessing theres a small spring or 2 missing

 

[Brazen Bull]

Label

 

[Brazen Bull]

I know there is a spring missing, it's down there in the darkness of my rug.
That's the least of my worries. When I try to put it all back together the clip with the contacts doesn't make contact with the main contacts below.
I need help with what this thing looks like by another example.

 

[The Cobbler]

the spring pushes the rocker down to hit the contacts I think. sorry I'm not more help

 

[Brazen Bull]

Anything gents, anything will help me.

 

[Brazen Bull]

the spring pushes the rocker down to hit the contacts I think. sorry I'm not more help

The rocker (I didn't know what it's called before) wants to fall into the mechanism. I feel like it's missing so missing, but what....

 

[Brazen Bull]

This as far as I got it, trying to put it back together. I studied the almost microscopic scratch marks and figured out where the parts I do have might go. But.....

 

[Brazen Bull]

It almost seems the two large brass pieces with the button contacts should be more tilted up to meet with the rocker as it slides towards it, but they seem firmly secured down the way they are shown from the factory and prying gently with a small screwdriver yeilded no movement. It will shatter if I try to bend it. Heating it did nothing.

Bear in mind the switch functioned perfectly before I took it apart, but the drill had been left out in an open bin at the junkyard in the elements.

The gears in the gearbox are like new.
What harsh (now illegal chems) they put in gearbox greese, kept this old girl safe.

 

[Brazen Bull]

I just found this spring. It looks old enough, but I don't see how (if it's even for this mechanism) it fits in.

 

[The Cobbler]

any similar type switches I have taken apart or seen broken have a spring that activates the rocker assy that engages with the contacts . they are fitted at the top of the switch and rock back & forth as you operate the lever
that looks like a good candidate from that old switch for sure

 

[Brazen Bull]

The trigger mechanism has its own big spring that pushes a peg back and forth on its track. I don't understand how the bits in the black chamber will accept a spring. I looked in the pocket where the rocker seems to go, and there are no scratch marks from a spring being in there.

I need to see the inside of another identical switch to solve this.

 

[Brazen Bull]

Please guys I'm pulling my hair out here

 

[Farmer J.]

Please guys I'm pulling my hair out here

Keep your hair on.
Never abandon all hope.
I don't know about your switch, but some time ago I took a ratchet apart and when i tried to put it back together there wasn't enough pieces. A week or so after Mrs Farmer J. found a tiny spring on the floor which had jammed under my rocking chair, that was the missing part, and it's worked perfectly ever since.
If you wait long enough surely someone here will solve the problem..

 

[Brazen Bull]

Keep your hair on.
Never abandon all hope.
I don't know about your switch, but some time ago I took a ratchet apart and when i tried to put it back together there wasn't enough pieces. A week or so after Mrs Farmer J. found a tiny spring on the floor which had jammed under my rocking chair, that was the missing part, and it's worked perfectly ever since.
If you wait long enough surely someone here will solve the problem..

I'll wait, I will be patient. This is my fault, I didn't take pictures of the internals because I didn't think I was going to revert back to the stock configuration.
Than when I felt so much slop in the newer trigger mechanism, variable speed and a new trigger wasn't that great of an "upgrade". I learned a lot from this.

Don't fix what isn't broken

DO take lots of photos when taking apart tiny spring loaded mechanisms

Invest in a disassembly/parts tray with a magnetic surface and raised edges to stop unobtainium parts from falling into the black hole under my desk

 

[Brazen Bull]

Anybody with details guys?

 

[Brazen Bull]

Anybody have some pictures of this mechanism or ideas???

 

[gungatim]

Anything gents, anything will help me.

Do what I did and just use a lightswitch in a shallow work box. Wasn't worth my time trying to fix the original switch on my drill press.

 

[Brazen Bull]

I don't know what to say boys.
I can't find any info on the switch inards to fix the one I got, or find a replacement USA made one.

My options seem to be to buy a whole drill on ePay and either carefully examine it's switch to fix my tampered one, or shelf my tampered drill as "parts" and use the ePay one as my primary.

The other option is to select a switch that will drop in, from alibahbah and violate my nice USA made drill with insulting biodegradable carcinogenic China ****.

 

[Brazen Bull]

I'm dissapointed, I thought somebody would help me here, thousands of folks here and many of them cotton to vintage tools, and my drill is pretty common, and nobody has any solid help?? Ok than thanks anyways.

 

[gungatim]

"thyrister variable trigger". Try using the internets and the googles.

You will find that which you seek.

Combining it with a 50 year old shopmate will likely not give you many hits, as it is not something that appears common (or even existed?) in that era.

 

[RTM]

I'm dissapointed, I thought somebody would help me here, thousands of folks here and many of them cotton to vintage tools, and my drill is pretty common, and nobody has any solid help?? Ok than thanks anyways.

I think your expectations are way too high, personally. I have 6 or 7 older drills, and none match yours. None of them are currently users, and so I did have to dig a bit to check each of them to make sure they weren't Shopmates.

My users are all Milwaukees from 1980 onward. ANY time I open them up, I take copious pictures, work in a mid depth tub to contain any stray parts which may try to escape under the cabinet I work on.

If you want to go thru and personally check to see who is holding out, by having your drill, and not fessing up to want to tear into it, try this search.

Google Search

 

[Brazen Bull]

I think your expectations are way too high, personally. I have 6 or 7 older drills, and none match yours. None of them are currently users, and so I did have to dig a bit to check each of them to make sure they weren't Shopmates.

My users are all Milwaukees from 1980 onward. ANY time I open them up, I take copious pictures, work in a mid depth tub to contain any stray parts which may try to escape under the cabinet I work on.

If you want to go thru and personally check to see who is holding out, by having your drill, and not fessing up to want to tear into it, try this search.

Google Search

I own this f-up, I know I should have taken hires pictures each step of the disassembly process. But I didn't expect to want to revert my "upgrade" back to the stock 50s original untill I noticed the slop in the "new" trigger and I realized how cocka-cookoo the triac (or whatever) will probably go on anything but a pure sine wave inverter.
Id be open to paypalling a few bucks for anybody who will take one for old Michael (me) and opening the kimono on their drill switch to show my what tiny tiny bits I'm missing.

 

[Brazen Bull]

I'm making up brand new curse words dealing with this switch. Putting the pieces together, it falling apart, my owlishly looking for clues and minute scratch marks for the other mystery part that fell to oblivion on my floor.
Eff uuuu ceee kayyyy!!!!!!!

 

[Brazen Bull]

Do I have to put up a brand new thread announcing cash cash cash for pictures of the inside of this switch to get people motivated?? Like forums like this are saturated with keyboard pros and experts who know all and been everywhere and knew everybody (already dead of course) and nobody has **** to say about a switch on a common drill made in the thousands????
This is bs.

 

[RTM]

Do I have to put up a brand new thread announcing cash cash cash for pictures of the inside of this switch to get people motivated?? Like forums like this are saturated with keyboard pros and experts who know all and been everywhere and knew everybody (already dead of course) and nobody has **** to say about a switch on a common drill made in the thousands????
This is bs.

I doubt it would help. This is a pretty giving group. If someone had one, and read this thread, they 90% certain would be offering to assist.

 

[Brazen Bull]

I'm just going to punish myself for busting something that wasn't broken, fork out the $70 for a US made Shopmate 520 on ePay, and learn, beyond putting a new cord and lubricant; don't "upgrade" or "fix" what works properly. ****, teenagers starting out fixing stuff know this. What a retard I am. Something lasting for decades than picked up at a scrap yard in 2024 to be re-corded and the switch screwed up. Real smart.

 

[Brazen Bull]

I had a breakthrough just today.
The switch on my vintage b&d 10A 7-1/4" circular saw was sticking on and potentially making the saw dangerous.
So when i opened the handel i was surprised the ssitch assembly was exactly the same as the Shopmate drill switch/trigger. It would be a drop in replacement.
Just adjusted the switch position and the saw is a-ok for another 60 years.

But i guess different manufactures buy the same switch assembly that comes out of the same bin in some US factory?

Does anybody have this switch they can sell me or a "parts" saw or whatever else that uses this same switch?