Leccy Problem

[Yorick]

Got a mega SDS drill that I inherited when we bought the house.
A normal drill won't even scratch the volcanic rocks on our walls, but this bugger goes in like hot knife through butter.
But today it's playing up. Runs for about 20 seconds perfect, then shuts down for 2 or 3 minutes, then off it goes again.

Any clues?
Or should I buy a new one?

Ta

[Felix]

I had this in an Angle grinder. Opened it up and cleaned out all the years of dust and shit in the windings and it was good again. Only for about a year mind as i killed it taking paint off a staircase.

[Count Steer]

Yeah. Sounds like a thermal cut-out - but 20s isn't very long so could be more than just dust?

However, SDS drills aren't really meant to be used as Kangos. I had one, a real lump of a thing, that I sold on to a gardener/landscaper and he trashed it breaking up paving in v short order.

[Trinity765]

• Rewrite will - include me, get it signed by two witnesses

• Take the cover off of the motor

• Plug it into the mains

• Clean the dust out with a kitchen knife

This will solve a few problems

[roadster]

If its an old drill it could have brushes running on an armature. These can wear out but they can also just stick randomly. Worth taking apart to have a look. Motors with brushes would show some arcing in normal use that is usually visible.

[Yorick]

Yeah. Sounds like a thermal cut-out - but 20s isn't very long so could be more than just dust?

However, SDS drills aren't really meant to be used as Kangos. I had one, a real lump of a thing, that I sold on to a gardener/landscaper and he trashed it breaking up paving in v short order.

Volcanic rock is so hard, nothing else will penetrate. All me pals use SDS drills for even rawlplug size holes.

That's all I was trying to do. My new Makita hammer drill wouldn't even drill a 3mm pilot hole.

[Count Steer]

Yeah. Sounds like a thermal cut-out - but 20s isn't very long so could be more than just dust?

However, SDS drills aren't really meant to be used as Kangos. I had one, a real lump of a thing, that I sold on to a gardener/landscaper and he trashed it breaking up paving in v short order.

Volcanic rock us so hard, nothing else will penetrate. All me pals use SDS drills to for even rawlplug size holes.

Wasn't sure exactly what you were using it for on the volcanic rock but yup, drilling holes in hard stuff is their speciality. (The gardener chappie was using it to break stuff up).

(TBH when I think of volcanic rock I think of tufa which is quite porous and soft, hard volcanic rock is a new one to me ).

[Yorick]

Yeah. Sounds like a thermal cut-out - but 20s isn't very long so could be more than just dust?

However, SDS drills aren't really meant to be used as Kangos. I had one, a real lump of a thing, that I sold on to a gardener/landscaper and he trashed it breaking up paving in v short order.

Volcanic rock us so hard, nothing else will penetrate. All me pals use SDS drills to for even rawlplug size holes.

Wasn't sure exactly what you were using it for on the volcanic rock but yup, drilling holes in hard stuff is their speciality. (The gardener chappie was using it to break stuff up).

(TBH when I think of volcanic rock I think of tufa which is quite porous and soft, hard volcanic rock is a new one to me ).

House walls here are made from brick.
Otherwise all garden walls and perimeter walls are made from lava rock.
So up Pen's donkey sanctuary, everything is volcanic rock.

It's cheap and plentiful. And more importantly, traditional and looks good.

[KungFooBob]

Volcanic rock us so hard, nothing else will penetrate. All me pals use SDS drills to for even rawlplug size holes.

Wasn't sure exactly what you were using it for on the volcanic rock but yup, drilling holes in hard stuff is their speciality. (The gardener chappie was using it to break stuff up).

(TBH when I think of volcanic rock I think of tufa which is quite porous and soft, hard volcanic rock is a new one to me ).

House walls here are made from brick.
Otherwise all garden walls and perimeter walls are made from lava rock.
So up Pen's donkey sanctuary, everything is volcanic rock.

It's cheap and plentiful.

Why don't you post more pictures of rescued donkeys. I like donkeys?

[Yorick]

Wasn't sure exactly what you were using it for on the volcanic rock but yup, drilling holes in hard stuff is their speciality. (The gardener chappie was using it to break stuff up).

(TBH when I think of volcanic rock I think of tufa which is quite porous and soft, hard volcanic rock is a new one to me ).

House walls here are made from brick.
Otherwise all garden walls and perimeter walls are made from lava rock.
So up Pen's donkey sanctuary, everything is volcanic rock.

It's cheap and plentiful.

Why don't you post more pictures of rescued donkeys. I like donkeys?

This one is quite excited

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[Count Steer]

I had this one (just needed it for one job). It weighs 6.3kg

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb631 ... _container

(Then bought a big Makita mains drill with a proper clutch for core drilling - for a hob extract fan exhaust tube....which I then decided to use in recirculating mode rather than cut a big 'ole in the wall )

[KungFooBob]

House walls here are made from brick.
Otherwise all garden walls and perimeter walls are made from lava rock.
So up Pen's donkey sanctuary, everything is volcanic rock.

It's cheap and plentiful.

Why don't you post more pictures of rescued donkeys. I like donkeys?

This one is quite excited

20230305_122240.jpg

Oh he was defo pleased to see you.

[Yorick]

There's 2 styles of rock wall. Our perimeter wall is 260m in total and done in the cheaper way. The rocks are cut from huge rocks but not smart or finished.

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.
The house opposite has the very expensive way. Very pricey, 100 euros per m2 as all hand cut. No fancy tools. Huge rocks are delivered and chopped by hand then each stone cut to fit the wall,
His perimeter wall is 300m

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.
And the house up the road has a beautiful, huge frontage

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[Yorick]

The recently built football stadium took over a year to build as every stone was cut by hand to fit.

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[Yorick]

I'll be attacking this after my snooze

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[cheb]

That's cool, you don't normally see windows that big in a bunker.

Post a picture of the drill, it'll be helpful to see if it has brushes, it probably does. Usually accessed via a screw cap on the motor.

[mangocrazy]

I had this one (just needed it for one job). It weighs 6.3kg

https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb631 ... _container

(Then bought a big Makita mains drill with a proper clutch for core drilling - for a hob extract fan exhaust tube....which I then decided to use in recirculating mode rather than cut a big 'ole in the wall )

I bought the same one to chisel out fence post footings. It made short work of it... It now lives in France and I threaten the walls with it occasionally.

[mangocrazy]

That's cool, you don't normally see windows that big in a bunker.

The architecture is what can be best be described as Brutalist, I think.

[A_morti]

For sure there will be brushes running against the armature. Even nowadays it'd be very rare to find a brushless motor in a mains tool. There are carbon brushes either side of the armature, in brass holders, with a spring pressing them to the armature, which is what creates the electromagnetism to make it spin. The brushes are behind the round black caps at the bottom of the machine.

• There may be dust, dirt, or grit in the brass holders such that they cannot keep pressure against the armature. A simple clean fixes that.

• The brass holders may have corroded such that the brushes cannot keep pressure against the armature. A simple clean fixes that.

• The brushes may be worn down to a nub and need replacing. That looks like an off-brand machine, so finding the exact brushes could be challenging.

• The motor may have got hot from the machine being overworked (either by the user, or from it being old and the grease going hard) which could melt any plastic parts and/or the armature windings. That'd be terminal on an off-brand machine as you won't get parts.

Those problems can all be more or less diagnosed by removing the black caps. Firstly, if the caps are melted closed then it's the 4th case and you can pretty much throw it away.
If you pry back the spring and remove very short brushes, most likely with visible wire at the front face, then it's the 3rd case. Which might be terminal for this machine. Maybe you have a local tool repair place that could say "oh, that looks just like a Makita brush" and make it work, but you'd have to be lucky.
If they come out but with difficulty, it could be case 1 or 2. You don't need to be especially careful cleaning those, you can use a little file. But don't deform them, the brushes need to move easily.
If none of those look in there with a bright light, turn the chuck manually, and see if there are different colour segments (one or more dark sections) on the armature. That'd be a new armature needed, which would be terminal for this machine.

[Yorick]

Took it apart but motor housing was a sealed unit. I bashed and banged it a but to loosen anything naughty.

Built it and now works OK. Drilled for a few minutes and no failures


Was secretly hoping I'd need a new one and the buying that ensues

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