Eh? my power tools keep breaking!

[My_Teenage_Self]

I'm stumped.

Over the course of a few months, I've lost 4 power tools, all with seemingly similar problems; basically, they all lose a bit of power then die - dead. Two even released the magic smoke.

All brushes have been fine, and actually all have been relatively new, and i'm not too hard on my tools anyway.

The first was a Bosch hedge trimmer - smoked. Then a Titan (screwfix) SDS drill. Next was a Titan electric chainsaw, and today was a bosch 'Blue' angle grinder - smoked.

This has happened on two different 13a extension leads (all uncoiled) and one from our garage socket (on it's own CU) and one from a house socket.


Weird coincidence, or possible cause for concern..?

 

[syncrosfan]

Maybe you have special powers?
The government agents are on the way to your house right now.

 

[phill77]

Check the voltage where you had the tool plugged in. I know someone who was losing kettles, irons and lightbulbs because of a too high voltage (>253vac), and I guess too low a voltage could overheat a motor.

 

[My_Teenage_Self]

238v everywhere.

 

[ajm]

Switch to hand tools, they're cheaper, more reliable, better exercise and far more retro...

 

[kingbling]

Damp windings ?

 

[mattr]

Switch to hand tools, they're cheaper, more reliable, better exercise and far more retro...

Hmmmm. The ~4000 screws I've used my leccy screwdriver for this summer says bollocks to that.

The circular saw has gone through two blades in the same time scale.

And quite glad i have a dry, well ventilated shed!

 

[xerxes]

Re:

Hmmmm. The ~4000 screws I've used my leccy screwdriver for this summer says bollocks to that.

The circular saw has gone through two blades in the same time scale.

So you use them a lot.

Maybe you've answered your own question.

Seriously though, I don't know much about power tools, but presumably these things don't last for ever and will eventually wear out with use.

On the subject of voltage, 238 is actually a little higher than some items were really intended to run at, if you look at some electrical products they will say 220v or 230v. The whole thing was a fudge, with a 10% tolerance built in, to bring us into line with the 220v they have in mainland Western Europe: http://www.schneider-electric.co.uk/en/faqs/FA144717/.

I had a problem with some kit built Hi-Fi amplifiers a while back, my mains voltage was a little high at 242v, and that was sufficient to make the secondary voltage high enough to trigger the overvoltage protection, so I had to use some alternative transformers with a slightly lower secondary output.

 

[ajm]

Switch to hand tools, they're cheaper, more reliable, better exercise and far more retro...

Hmmmm. The ~4000 screws I've used my leccy screwdriver for this summer says bollocks to that.
The circular saw has gone through two blades in the same time scale.

And quite glad i have a dry, well ventilated shed!

I would suggest that you'd definitely have had far more exercise doing the same work with hand tools Dry, well ventilated sheds are always a good thing for tools, retro or modern... on the flip side to your experience I've been building myself an office recently and whilst a lot has been done with power tools, nothing at all matches the controllable torque of an old brace - it's incredible how easily it winds in really big screws where even the very good impact driver I've been using fails. Ten quid or so and about sixty or seventy years old... I doubt the impact driver has another decade in it!

I really hate non-captive circular saws and won't use one - a sharp and well lubricated hand saw is surprisingly fast if your technique is right though I admit I used a chop saw a fair bit... it does give a pretty accurate cut every time without too much thought.

 

[mattr]

I wouldn't have had any exercise if I'd had to use hand tools. I'd either have not bothered, or got a man in. Who would have used power tools.
And I've got a couple of decent hand saws that I use on day to day tasks. Cutting through 2 dozen 8"×2" floor beams (as an easy warm up) is still a little excessive. Think i worked out that I've cut through (about) 3.5 sqm of wood in the last 12 months. Still got another 1 to go.

And the leccy screwdriver is a high power one, so it'll run 6 inch screws into pretty much anything short of teak! (With a pilot hole of course)

Only down side is that a couple of screws I've done on the wrong setting, so they went almost straight through.......