Hi all,

I'm trying to strip a Porter-Cable 879879 router head / motor
(bearings and brushes gone) but can't get the collet chuck off the
motor spindle. The reason it's difficult is there is no real / safe
way to hold the motor / armature to be able to put any real force on
the chuck to remove it (the only thing of any size I could hold is the
commutator and I don't want to do that!).

So far I've tried holding the assembly in the lathe top shaft in the 3
jaw, chuck on the dead centre so it stays steady) , Plus-Gas, heat and
tapping the spanner round (to try to shock it undone) but as yet no
luck (it just rotates in the lathe chuck / vice soft-jaws etc).

In case it helps it looks like this:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/y446cvl

In fact it looks very much like that exploded view except the armature
is trapped in the casing by chuck. ;-)

I guess if it comes to it I could carefully grind through the chuck to
release it from the thread (once I know a replacement is available)
and I'll give the Plus-Gas + heat + tapping some further goes but are
there any tricks for this sort of thing please (apart from not taking
such things on of course). ;-) [1]

I did think a rattle gun might help but the chuck only has two flats
rather than a hex nut (nothing stopping me making it into a nut I
suppose).

I'm assuming (dangerous I know) that the chuck is held on with a
conventional thread as the exposed collet thread is conventional.

There was the thought of putting expanding foam down between the
armature and outer casing in the hope that would hold it firmly and
then, once the chuck is off, dissolving the foam out with acetone but
I didn't think the motor windings would appreciate that? ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[1] I asked if I could borrow my mates nice, big, computer controlled,
flat bed router table and he said "Yes, anytime, if you can fix it!".

"T i m" wrote...
Hi all,


I did think a rattle gun might help but the chuck only has two flats
rather than a hex nut (nothing stopping me making it into a nut I
suppose).


Youtube may be your friend - search "porter cable router armature removal"
and it pops up a video of a guy using a rattle gun for it - it may be that
he has a dedicated socket for it though? If that's the case, could you take
a larger socket and a couple of judiciously filed bars to grip the flats?

Dave H.
--
(The engineer formerly known as Homeless)

"Rules are for the obedience of fools, and the guidance of wise men" -
Douglas Bader

On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:04:53 +0100, "Dave H."
wrote:


"T i m" wrote...
Hi all,


I did think a rattle gun might help but the chuck only has two flats
rather than a hex nut (nothing stopping me making it into a nut I
suppose).


Youtube may be your friend - search "porter cable router armature removal"
and it pops up a video of a guy using a rattle gun for it -

Wow, fancy that being on there. Funny, I don't think of Youtube for
engineering type solutions. Must check it out more closely in future.
;-)


it may be that
he has a dedicated socket for it though?

Or that smaller size motor has a std hex as std?.

If that's the case, could you take
a larger socket and a couple of judiciously filed bars to grip the flats?

Yeah, I'm sure I could do something along those lines.

Right, back down the workshop then! ;-)

Thanks.

T i m

On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:31:31 +0100, T i m wrote:


Right, back down the workshop then! ;-)

I managed to get a 30mm socket on the end with a thin washer over one
of the flats to provide a bit of traction (I had to gently tap the
socket on).

My little compressor didn't have the oomph to run my rattle gun and
the bigger one is on loan, so I walked up to my mates garage and he
spun it off with a couple of short blasts on No1 with his Snap-On
jobby with me on the rubber glove. ;-)

Now to find some brushes and then the bearings.

Cheers, T i m

T i m wrote:
On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:31:31 +0100, T i wrote:


Right, back down the workshop then! ;-)

I managed to get a 30mm socket on the end with a thin washer over one
of the flats to provide a bit of traction (I had to gently tap the
socket on).

My little compressor didn't have the oomph to run my rattle gun and
the bigger one is on loan, so I walked up to my mates garage and he
spun it off with a couple of short blasts on No1 with his Snap-On
jobby with me on the rubber glove. ;-)

Now to find some brushes and then the bearings.

Cheers, T i m


Thanks for posting this Tim. I have a 'Flex' router which is the
European arm of Porter Cable. As and when I need to do this job sometime
in the future, I will have bound to have forgotten how to get it apart!!

Bob

On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:31:10 +0100, Bob Minchin
wrote:


Thanks for posting this Tim. I have a 'Flex' router which is the
European arm of Porter Cable.

Ah.

As and when I need to do this job sometime
in the future, I will have bound to have forgotten how to get it apart!!

As is often the way.

In hindsight I took more of it apart than I needed as I thought the
wiring would all have to pull though one of the holes in the bodywork
but it all came out as one. ;-(

I'll put that bit back together tomorrow before *I* forget! ;-)

Cheers, T i m