Yes it's the dreaded Screwfix 'Kinzo' job at £2.47...

Now don't give me a hard time for buying it - "what do you expect for
£2.47" etc etc; I know all about that, and that's not why I'm posting this!

Just that I'm curious as to the failure mode. This is the second of
these that's died on me in the same way (and the last, as Sfix have
stopped stocking it!). I was using it today, under pretty light
conditions; went off for a cuppa and when I came back it was dead a
doornail. Same thing last time - I took it out of the cupboard,
switched on: nothing, zip, nada, rien. Tried manually rotating the
motor a bit and tried again; fuse was OK, bushes intact, but it's
definitely dead.

Why amd how would a motor fail like that, ie, when not being used?

David

Lobster wrote:
Yes it's the dreaded Screwfix 'Kinzo' job at £2.47...

Now don't give me a hard time for buying it - "what do you expect for
£2.47" etc etc; I know all about that, and that's not why I'm posting this!

Just that I'm curious as to the failure mode. This is the second of
these that's died on me in the same way (and the last, as Sfix have
stopped stocking it!). I was using it today, under pretty light
conditions; went off for a cuppa and when I came back it was dead a
doornail. Same thing last time - I took it out of the cupboard,
switched on: nothing, zip, nada, rien. Tried manually rotating the
motor a bit and tried again; fuse was OK, bushes intact, but it's
definitely dead.

Why amd how would a motor fail like that, ie, when not being used?


Heat soak. The cheapies are very prone to it because of poor cooling
design. They run pretty hot when running, but the fan just about stops
them from burning out.


--
Grunff

Is it the switch which has failed? Most of the cheap units have crappy
switches. If you can get it apart, it may be that the contacts are not,
due to dust in the switch.

Regards
Capitol

"Grunff" wrote in message
...
Lobster wrote:
Yes it's the dreaded Screwfix 'Kinzo' job at £2.47...

Now don't give me a hard time for buying it - "what do you expect for
£2.47" etc etc; I know all about that, and that's not why I'm posting
this!

Where do you buy ANYTHING for £2.47???

It should have been £2.99.

Mary

Capitol wrote:
Is it the switch which has failed? Most of the cheap units have crappy
switches. If you can get it apart, it may be that the contacts are not,
due to dust in the switch.

Yes, my first one failed like that - just one pole of the switch not
closing. If I come across any Round Tuits I might bypass the built-in
switch and wire an external one into the cable. Mind you mine was one of
the expensive (£6.99) ones - a switch to repair yours would probably
cost £2.99 :-)

"Lobster" wrote in message
...
Yes it's the dreaded Screwfix 'Kinzo' job at £2.47...

Now don't give me a hard time for buying it - "what do you expect for
£2.47" etc etc; I know all about that, and that's not why I'm posting
this!

Just that I'm curious as to the failure mode. This is the second of
these that's died on me in the same way (and the last, as Sfix have
stopped stocking it!). I was using it today, under pretty light
conditions; went off for a cuppa and when I came back it was dead a
doornail. Same thing last time - I took it out of the cupboard,
switched on: nothing, zip, nada, rien. Tried manually rotating the
motor a bit and tried again; fuse was OK, bushes intact, but it's
definitely dead.

Why amd how would a motor fail like that, ie, when not being used?

David

I have a flat bed tilecutter, in fact I've had three, and all failed
mysteriously.
I took the first two from MachineMart back, but then bought one from Wickes
and that one failed too!

I took it apart in a fit of pique and found that the field winding of the
motor had
a series thermal fuse. Rather shortsightedly, the designers had made it a
single use device instead of a bimetallic resettable device. In fact I had
been
working the cutters hard and the windings got so hot they melted the thermal
fuse - end of story! At least one of the tilecutters went dead whilst I was
resting
it between tiles, and I think that the heat takes a little while to melt the
fuse.

If you're bothered, you can try and disassemble your grinder, and have a
look
at the field winding ( there may be fibreglass tape hiding stuff ). If you
see a
small metallic leaded can in the winding, that's probably a failed thermal
fuse.
If you take it out and connect the remaining two ends of field winding
together
again it'll probably work. WARNING: You must stabilise and insulate the
repaired
winding adequately, and you will have no thermal protection in future so
it's slightly
dodgy. I only give my tilecutter light use nowadays.

Andy.

In article , Grunff
writes
Why amd how would a motor fail like that, ie, when not being used?


Heat soak. The cheapies are very prone to it because of poor cooling
design. They run pretty hot when running, but the fan just about stops
them from burning out.

Run off load for a few seconds before disconnecting. Cautiously waggling
some fingers in the exhaust air should indicate how long.

Somebody will know the safe working temperature for the *between turns*
winding insulation:-)

regards



--
Tim Lamb

In article ,
andrewpreece wrote:
I have a flat bed tilecutter, in fact I've had three, and all failed
mysteriously. I took the first two from MachineMart back, but then
bought one from Wickes and that one failed too!

I took it apart in a fit of pique and found that the field winding of
the motor had a series thermal fuse. Rather shortsightedly, the
designers had made it a single use device instead of a bimetallic
resettable device. In fact I had been working the cutters hard and the
windings got so hot they melted the thermal fuse - end of story! At
least one of the tilecutters went dead whilst I was resting it between
tiles, and I think that the heat takes a little while to melt the fuse.

Yes, my original Plasplugs one did this while out on loan. I'd neglected
to pass on the instructions about duty cycle. However, I've never had a
problem myself, as I've not wanted to cut batches of tiles - I'll usually
do one at a time, and switch off between. I also prefer to use it outdoors
clamped to my Workmate, which may help with cooling.

Maplin stocked the correct replacement thermal fuse.

--
*In some places, C:\ is the root of all directories *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.