I believe there's some sort of rule that on every drill that isn't
enough of a piece of crap as to break in less than a month the outer
insulation must break just below the strain relief. There's got to be
either some better strain relief that the manufacturers are too cheap
to use, or some contractor's trick with duct tape or something to
prolong the cords, but my googling isn't turning anything up.


-Leuf

On Dec 11, 10:32 pm, Leuf wrote:
I believe there's some sort of rule that on every drill that isn't
enough of a piece of crap as to break in less than a month the outer
insulation must break just below the strain relief. There's got to be
either some better strain relief that the manufacturers are too cheap
to use, or some contractor's trick with duct tape or something to
prolong the cords, but my googling isn't turning anything up.

-Leuf

Funny thing is, Leuf, that I have a 3/8 Bosch drill, 22 years old, and
never replaced the cord. That drill gets used a lot. 3rd set of
brushes.
Yet, I have replaced the cords on Bosch routers plenty of times.

I do not wind the cord tightly around the tool itself either. I wind
the cord around my hand and a strip of velcro holds it together. It is
quick release (unwind) as well and no strain on the relief.

On a couple of Milwaukee routers, I wind the cord around my hand and
stick the bundle inside the strap of the hand-grip. I just don't seem
to go through a lot of cords.

r

I was never successful to find something to prevent the insulation from
breaking.

The best way I learned is to replace the cord with a rubber made one.

Most quality tool come with a 10 to 12 rubber insulated electrical cord.

Here where I live a plastic insulated cord is PITA when it gets below
freezing. The cord stiffens and becomes hard to handle.


"Leuf" wrote in message
...
I believe there's some sort of rule that on every drill that isn't
enough of a piece of crap as to break in less than a month the outer
insulation must break just below the strain relief. There's got to be
either some better strain relief that the manufacturers are too cheap
to use, or some contractor's trick with duct tape or something to
prolong the cords, but my googling isn't turning anything up.


-Leuf

On 11 Dec 2006 19:51:01 -0800, "Robatoy" wrote:

Funny thing is, Leuf, that I have a 3/8 Bosch drill, 22 years old, and
never replaced the cord. That drill gets used a lot. 3rd set of
brushes.
Yet, I have replaced the cords on Bosch routers plenty of times.

I do not wind the cord tightly around the tool itself either. I wind
the cord around my hand and a strip of velcro holds it together. It is
quick release (unwind) as well and no strain on the relief.

On a couple of Milwaukee routers, I wind the cord around my hand and
stick the bundle inside the strap of the hand-grip. I just don't seem
to go through a lot of cords.

My motivation for the post was just recently getting a used and abused
milwaukee 1/2" drill. Those quik-lok cords are pricey little suckers,
cost more than the drill did. $25 for a 25 ft 18ga 3 wire cord? Some
places wanted as much as 40 bucks or more for it.

I grew up with my dad's craftsman drill, and he's obsessive compulsive
about wrapping the cord as tight as humanly possible. New cord a few
years back. I looked at it today and you can already see the spot
where it's going to break again in a couple years. Keep in mind it's
got its own drawer all by itself, so it's not like leaving the cord
loose is going to turn into an unwieldy tangle, but there it sits in
the drawer with the cord like a boa around it.

Now, I intend to keep that Milwaukee on a shelf under the bench, cord
long enough to reach the whole shop and not wrapped (how would you
wrap 25 ft of cord around it even if you wanted to?) so I reckon it
should be fine. But still, I figure if you had a longer strain
relief, long enough to take the whole bend to do the 180 to get
started wrapping around the tool then it would be fine.


-Leuf

wrote in
:

I was never successful to find something to prevent the insulation
from breaking.

The best way I learned is to replace the cord with a rubber made one.

Most quality tool come with a 10 to 12 rubber insulated electrical
cord.

Here where I live a plastic insulated cord is PITA when it gets below
freezing. The cord stiffens and becomes hard to handle.


That gave me an idea to throw out there. You can get Latex Rubber from
a hobby shop and put that on the cord. It'll stick and hold pretty
good, and might even help a bit with strain relief.

A word of warning... wear some kind of breathing protection. A dust
mask at the minimum. That stuff bothers me something awful and a dust
mask helps a lot.

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

Leuf wrote:

I believe there's some sort of rule that on every drill that isn't
enough of a piece of crap as to break in less than a month the outer
insulation must break just below the strain relief.

Cables are part of the tool IMHO, hence a crap cable means it's (to
some extent) a crap tool.

To avoid this problem, use decent cables (and make them long enough!)
Also use a strain relief that's long and flexible. A rigid clamp is no
good if it saves the conductors failing, only by over-straining the
sheath.

Leuf (in ) said:

| I believe there's some sort of rule that on every drill that isn't
| enough of a piece of crap as to break in less than a month the outer
| insulation must break just below the strain relief. There's got to
| be either some better strain relief that the manufacturers are too
| cheap to use, or some contractor's trick with duct tape or
| something to prolong the cords, but my googling isn't turning
| anything up.

One trick that's done the job for me has been to remove the cord
(remembering which wire goes where!) and slip a 1-1/2" and a 1" piece
of heat shrink tubing over the terminals. Position and shrink the
1-1/2" piece in place, then slide the 1" piece over (on top of) that
and shrink it in place. Re-install the cord.

It'll break somewhere else now. g

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto

some cords better than others



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On 12 Dec 2006 05:52:39 -0800, "Andy Dingley "
wrote:


Leuf wrote:

I believe there's some sort of rule that on every drill that isn't
enough of a piece of crap as to break in less than a month the outer
insulation must break just below the strain relief.

Cables are part of the tool IMHO, hence a crap cable means it's (to
some extent) a crap tool.

To avoid this problem, use decent cables (and make them long enough!)
Also use a strain relief that's long and flexible. A rigid clamp is no
good if it saves the conductors failing, only by over-straining the
sheath.

Does anyone have an example of a good strain relief? Not a tool that
has a good one, but something that could be bought for retrofitting.
Don't see anything on mcmaster-carr.


-Leuf

Leuf wrote:

Does anyone have an example of a good strain relief? Not a tool that
has a good one, but something that could be bought for retrofitting.

Heatshrink. Make sure it's decent quality (not too thin) and use the
glue-lined stuff.