While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some 3/8 holes through the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill crapped the bed.. Plenty of battery, but it wouldn't drive the bit. I love that drill. So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita service center to see if I somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I must have knocked the top as the speed control was in neutral. Since confession is good for the soul, I never even knew the damn thing had selectable speeds :-)

Larry

"Gramp's shop" wrote:


While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some
3/8 holes through the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill
crapped the bed. Plenty of battery, but it wouldn't drive the bit. I
love that drill. So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita
service center to see if I somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I
must have knocked the top as the speed control was in neutral. Since
confession is good for the soul, I never even knew the damn thing had
selectable speeds :-)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Reminds me of that age old question, "What's the difference between an
Oriental and an Occidential"?

Answer:

An Occidential learns from his mistakes while an Oriental learns from
the mistakes of others, it's cheaper.

Lew

Gramp's shop wrote:
While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some 3/8 holes through the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill crapped the bed. Plenty of battery, but it wouldn't drive the bit. I love that drill. So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita service center to see if I somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I must have knocked the top as the speed control was in neutral. Since confession is good for the soul, I never even knew the damn thing had selectable speeds :-)

Larry

Did the same thing, but I eventually came across the solution without
the trip. I felt like a dummy too.

--
 GW Ross 

 Laugh, and the world ignores you. 
 Crying doesn't help either. 

"Gramp's shop" wrote in message
...

While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some 3/8
holes through the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill crapped the
bed. Plenty of battery, but it wouldn't drive the bit. I love that drill.
So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita service center to see if I
somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I must have knocked the top as the
speed control was in neutral. Since confession is good for the soul, I
never even knew the damn thing had selectable speeds :-)

Larry

We all do that at some time in life. Our toaster quit working. took in
apart. Checked all the circuit board parts. Checked OK. Cleaned the switch
contacts even though they looked OK. Reassembled toaster. Still dead. Then
noticed the GFI tripped. Reset ,,Toaster OK. WW

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 20:52:24 -0400, "G. Ross"
Did the same thing, but I eventually came across the solution without
the trip. I felt like a dummy too.

Whenever I do something dumb like that, I always take a furtive look
around to see if anyone has been watching me screw up.

On 8/21/2013 9:47 PM, WW wrote:


"Gramp's shop" wrote in message
...

While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some 3/8
holes through the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill crapped
the bed. Plenty of battery, but it wouldn't drive the bit. I love that
drill. So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita service center to
see if I somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I must have knocked the
top as the speed control was in neutral. Since confession is good for
the soul, I never even knew the damn thing had selectable speeds :-)

Larry

We all do that at some time in life. Our toaster quit working. took in
apart. Checked all the circuit board parts. Checked OK. Cleaned the
switch contacts even though they looked OK. Reassembled toaster. Still
dead. Then noticed the GFI tripped. Reset ,,Toaster OK. WW

You are lucky you could find the GFI reset. I looked for an hour for it
in a house we had recently moved into. The circuit I was using was on
the outside receptacle and I finally found the reset in the bathroom.

WW wrote:


"Gramp's shop" wrote in message
...

While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some 3/8
holes through the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill crapped the
bed. Plenty of battery, but it wouldn't drive the bit. I love that drill.
So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita service center to see if I
somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I must have knocked the top as the
speed control was in neutral. Since confession is good for the soul, I
never even knew the damn thing had selectable speeds :-)

Larry

We all do that at some time in life. Our toaster quit working. took in
apart. Checked all the circuit board parts. Checked OK. Cleaned the switch
contacts even though they looked OK. Reassembled toaster. Still dead. Then
noticed the GFI tripped. Reset ,,Toaster OK. WW

Been there, done that. Not a toaster, but took item apart, checked it
out. Then noticed that the radio connected to the same circuit was no
longer playing. The pitiful thang about it was that my brother was
standing there waiting for me to get it working.

--
 GW Ross 

 Laugh, and the world ignores you. 
 Crying doesn't help either. 

On 8/21/2013 8:47 PM, WW wrote:

We all do that at some time in life. Our toaster quit working. took in
apart. Checked all the circuit board parts. Checked OK. Cleaned the
switch contacts even though they looked OK. Reassembled toaster. Still
dead. Then noticed the GFI tripped. Reset ,,Toaster OK. WW

Once, when doing FOH sound at a large outdoor festival, I watched a well
known band leader and inventor of a piano pickup (a Rice EE graduate, no
less) **** off an audience to the point of riot; first by being almost
two hours late to start his set; then by totally disassembling his
electric piano onstage because it wouldn't turn on, Only to discover,
after another 45 minutes of wasted time while the audience became even
more under the influence/unruly, he had neglected to plug it in ... oops!

#1 rule of troubleshooting electronics: Check the voltage, first.

--
eWoodShop: www.eWoodShop.com
Wood Shop: www.e-WoodShop.net
https://plus.google.com/114902129577517371552/posts
http://www.custommade.com/by/ewoodshop/
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 17:23:01 -0700 (PDT), "Gramp's shop"
wrote:

While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some 3/8 holes through the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill crapped the bed. Plenty of battery, but it wouldn't drive the bit. I love that drill. So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita service center to see if I somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I must have knocked the top as the speed control was in neutral. Since confession is good for the soul, I never even knew the damn thing had selectable speeds :-)

Larry

Consider yourself more of an intellect than a dummy if it took you
that long in your life to do something like that. Most of us
accomplish a task like that much earlier in life.

On 8/21/2013 5:23 PM, Gramp's shop wrote:
While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some 3/8 holes through the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill crapped the bed. Plenty of battery, but it wouldn't drive the bit. I love that drill. So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita service center to see if I somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I must have knocked the top as the speed control was in neutral. Since confession is good for the soul, I never even knew the damn thing had selectable speeds :-)

Larry

Whilst patching some drywall holes left by the plumber, I managed to
drop my Panasonic 15v on the tile floor. I picked up the drill (a
strange 5 second rule) and turned it on. Nothing. **** me says I.
Turns out the two speed control ended up in the middle which gives out a
rattling sound and a free wheeling clutch. Set it back to low and all
was well. Phew. I will never ever drop a drill again (the pledge).
mahalo,
jo4hn

Gordon Shumway wrote in
:

On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 17:23:01 -0700 (PDT), "Gramp's shop"
wrote:

While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some 3/8 holes through
the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill crapped the bed. Plenty of battery, but it
wouldn't drive the bit. I love that drill. So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita service
center to see if I somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I must have knocked the top as the
speed control was in neutral. Since confession is good for the soul, I never even knew the
damn thing had selectable speeds :-)

Consider yourself more of an intellect than a dummy if it took you
that long in your life to do something like that. Most of us
accomplish a task like that much earlier in life.

+1

"Swingman" wrote

#1 rule of troubleshooting electronics: Check the voltage, first.

Yep, as an old time techie, who went to school to learn this stuff, I am
well acquainted with that rule.

A mantra that was pounded into our heads was, First, check the power supply.
If you have no power, you have no electronics. If there is no power, then
the problem lays in the power supply itself or the power cord. Once that
first step is done, you can start to look for problems elsewhere.

One thing I also looked for when dealing with any kind of audio equipment
was switches. When a piece of equipment has several different "modes" you
can easily switch off what you want. So go through all the switches.
Either a switch is turned off or it failed. I replaced a bunch of switches
in my time. And a few power supplies as well.

Another old time trick I used on audio or radio gear was to simply change
out the capacitors. If the equipment was old at all, I assumed that the
capacitors were dying or dead. Putting in all new capacitors sometimes
created a "miracle cure" for any old favorite piece of gear.

It was amazing the number of fixes that were done with just the above steps.

getting' all misty eyed reminiscing here

On Thu, 22 Aug 2013 12:35:34 -0400, "Lee Michaels"
getting' all misty eyed reminiscing here

Condolences. The older I get, the more I reminisce. But, it could be
worse, I might not have much to reminisce about.

In article , ac
says...
On Wed, 21 Aug 2013 17:23:01 -0700 (PDT), "Gramp's shop"
wrote:

While helping my son repair some steps to his deck and drilling some 3/8 holes through the stringers yesterday, my Makita 18v LI drill crapped the bed. Plenty of battery, but it wouldn't drive the bit. I love that drill. So this morning I drove 30 miles to the Makita service center to see if I somehow busted the clutch. Turns out I must have knocked the top as the speed
control was in neutral. Since confession is good for the soul, I never even knew the damn thing had selectable speeds :-)

Larry

Consider yourself more of an intellect than a dummy if it took you
that long in your life to do something like that. Most of us
accomplish a task like that much earlier in life.

I dunno about anyone else but...

....and repeat.

On Thu, 22 Aug 2013 12:35:34 -0400, "Lee Michaels"
leemichaels*nadaspam* at comcast dot net wrote:



"Swingman" wrote

#1 rule of troubleshooting electronics: Check the voltage, first.

Yep, as an old time techie, who went to school to learn this stuff, I am
well acquainted with that rule.

A mantra that was pounded into our heads was, First, check the power supply.
If you have no power, you have no electronics. If there is no power, then
the problem lays in the power supply itself or the power cord. Once that
first step is done, you can start to look for problems elsewhere.

Hell, I design electronics for a living. You'd be surprised how many
of my colleagues don't know that the electronics don't work unless the
power supplies are working. It's always the simple things. When it's
not, blame the programmers. ;-)

One thing I also looked for when dealing with any kind of audio equipment
was switches. When a piece of equipment has several different "modes" you
can easily switch off what you want. So go through all the switches.
Either a switch is turned off or it failed. I replaced a bunch of switches
in my time. And a few power supplies as well.

...or half way between two positions.

Another old time trick I used on audio or radio gear was to simply change
out the capacitors. If the equipment was old at all, I assumed that the
capacitors were dying or dead. Putting in all new capacitors sometimes
created a "miracle cure" for any old favorite piece of gear.

Computer equipment, too. Except that by the time the capacitors have
failed, I don't want the hardware anymore anyway.

This technique doesn't work on the stuff I design, either. The
capacitors are new. If they're bad, I have a much bigger problem. ;-)

It was amazing the number of fixes that were done with just the above steps.

getting' all misty eyed reminiscing here

It's an every day thing.