In article ,
"Bob La Londe" wrote:

Ok, The Bosch Colts seem to be getting worse. The first couple I used
easily ran over 750 hours continuous duty. I think I got over 1000 on the
first one. At the price I just replaced them. The last few have been
running progressively less hours before failure, and the failures have been
faster and more catastrophic with over heating bearings actually melting the
nose out of the router case (nylon press fit busing) Each one seems to last
less than the last with my most recent one failing at about 250 hours.

Are you driving them harder? ie, have you optimized production to the
point where they work harder and die sooner, or are the programs
/feedrates the same and they really are just making them worse and worse
(believable, just asking...)

I'm looking for an affordable replacement.

Another similar, but better router. Maybe a PC 890?

One of the import 3 phase VFD controlled water cooled spindles?

A bigger router might be ok although I am not maxing out the horsepower of
the Colt. Just wearing out the bearings. Yes I have replaced bearings on
some, and the replacement bearings usually last longer, but once it
overheats and melts out it can't be fixed again. Well, not economically. I
did consider trying to remove the nylon bushing the bearing rides in and
replace it with a home made aluminum one that would transfer heat better.

Not familiar with the Bosch colt, but if the design hasn't changed much
since I bought mine, there's a reasonable amount of metal (and
replaceable parts) in a good old PC690 - which I use as the spindle in
my CNC, but it's wood CNC, mostly, so....if you are not maxing the
power on a (web says) 5.6 amp colt, an 11 amp PC690 should be plenty of
power, and likely costs somewhat less than an 890... No plastic in the
nose of a 690, as far as I recall.

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