How many good tools get thrown away?

[Bryan Berguson]

Sanding a few nights ago with my Bosch RA sander and it cuts out (no power) a couple of times (I thought it might be the cord) and then it finally quit. Dead. Darn it all because I really wanted to get something done.

So, play with the cord a little to no avail and then decide to tear it apart and see what makes it tick. Found a loose wire coming out of the switch. On closer examination, I see the "spade" connector that plugs into the switch has burned off. The sander is about 12 years old.

Next dilema was to get the rest of the connector out of the switch. No room to get needle nose pliers in and nothing much to grab anyways. I was finally able to pry the piece out. Now to find a replacement...

Found the part on toolparts something or another .com for $1.44 (that was for the 5 inch wire with both connectors. $8.99 shipping!!! If it had been $11 bucks with free shipping I might have bought it but for some reason I hate paying $9 bucks for something they could stick in an envelope for .44 cents. Yeah, I know, handling fees too...:rolleyes:

Anyways, I starting searching for a connector on the 'net and was coming up empty. Stopped at a couple of local hardware stores and a Radio Shack - zilch. Finally stopped at an electrical supply house. They didn't have the right part but had one I thought I could make work. I had to flatten it (if was round to begin with) and ended up soldering the wire after I crimped it. A little more flattening and bending with pliers and I was able to "make it fit".

I plugged the rest of the wires back in their correct locations, tightened down the terminal screws for the incoming power cord, put the covers together, plugged it in and gingerly pulled the trigger. It worked!!! Cost me nothing but a little time.

I used it tonight on some maple and it performed just as I expected.

I just wonder how many good tools get thrown away for such little problems.

[Rob Young]

On your next quest for a funny little connector:

www.digikey.com
www.mouser.com
www.newark.com
www.alliedelec.com
www.jameco.com

[Mitchell Andrus]

I once tossed a Mercedes when the wipers became too worn to clear the windscreen to my satisfaction.

Shame, I really loved that car..... Well, toodle-ooo... I'm off to the club.




Answer... lots.
.

[Van Huskey]

30 or so years ago you would open up a tool and poke around to fix it, today tools are built NOT to the repaired, in many ways they are disposable. This is even more true with electronics. I would point out that much of this manufacturing approach is for the bottom line, this is a double edged sword for us, we get tools at much reduced prices, but those of us who use tools enough to wear them out have to buy tools more often.

[Bob Warfield]

Earlier this week a customer saw the Dremel tool I was useing. He asked me how old it was as he haden't seen one like it in years. I told him I couldn't remember for sure but I think I bought this one in the late 70's or early 80's. He thought I didn't use it much but I told him I use it every day. I repair it when it needs it. He looked at me like I was NUTS and said a new one is less than $100.00
I wondered to myself who's really nuts here. I've spent probably $100.00 or less over the years keeping this one in good shape.
Thanks,
Bob Warfield

[Scott Hildenbrand]

Damn the connectors.. Solder the thing on next time.. You'll never ever need to worry about it coming off again.

The ONLY reason for those connectors is to make it easier for people to put them together on an assembly line.

Everything is disposable these days.. After all, how many TV repair shops do you see around?

Not that they can NOT be repaired.. It's just rare that someone ever thinks to have one repaired these days.

Regardless, it's very sad.

[Callan Campbell]

Earlier this week a customer saw the Dremel tool I was useing. He asked me how old it was as he haden't seen one like it in years. I told him I couldn't remember for sure but I think I bought this one in the late 70's or early 80's. He thought I didn't use it much but I told him I use it every day. I repair it when it needs it. He looked at me like I was NUTS and said a new one is less than $100.00
I wondered to myself who's really nuts here. I've spent probably $100.00 or less over the years keeping this one in good shape.
Thanks,
Bob Warfield
He's probably used to paying someone to fix his tools, that's what the look was for, you "exceeded" the repair cost in his eyes when compared to the cost of just a brand new one. And we wonder where the disposable culture comes from.:rolleyes:

[Mike Henderson]

One thing about electronics today is that it doesn't fail like the early TV and radio sets. I worked as a TV technician in high school and we had a LOT of TVs and radios come through the shop. Picture tubes used to only last a couple to four years. They were all tube sets and got really hot from the tubes.

And fixing one of those sets was not cheap. I'm sure some people paid at least their purchase price in repairs, and the sets were fairly expensive.

Those early sets had to be designed to be repaired because they failed so often.

Electronic devices fail today, but most of them do not. We throw them away because they become obsolete and not because of the cost of repairs (like the old TV and radio sets).

Mike

[Joe Jensen]

Earlier this week a customer saw the Dremel tool I was useing. He asked me how old it was as he haden't seen one like it in years. I told him I couldn't remember for sure but I think I bought this one in the late 70's or early 80's. He thought I didn't use it much but I told him I use it every day. I repair it when it needs it. He looked at me like I was NUTS and said a new one is less than $100.00
I wondered to myself who's really nuts here. I've spent probably $100.00 or less over the years keeping this one in good shape.
Thanks,
Bob Warfield

I hate the new disposable tools mentality and world. It's getting harder and harder to buy quality. That's only a real $100 if you don't count your time. If you are pro, and could be billing instead of fixing, might not make sense.

[M Toupin]

Not that they can NOT be repaired.. It's just rare that someone ever thinks to have one repaired these days.

And even rarer for someone to actually repair it themselves... and what's really sad that we've all but lost that mentality AND skill set in this disposable we live in.

Mike

[Rick Moyer]

I think another point on this issue is the relative cost of the tool compared to the cost of labor. If you spend two or three hours of your time (or someone elses), how much does it really cost you to fix something?

I agree with everything that has been said, but I think it's more economics than anything else.

[Rich Tesoroni]

Who'd want to fix an old TV today when the LCD's are getting so cheap? I've got an old 31" Sony sitting in the corner for two years since I haven't gotten anyone to help me move it.

Picked up a Foley 1"x42" belt sander on stand by trash cans driving home one day. Think it was something in the switch that was the problem.

A lot of the newer plastic tools seem pressed together in ways that you can't get them apart without shattering them.

Rich

[Curt Harms]

And even rarer for someone to actually repair it themselves... and what's really sad that we've all but lost that mentality AND skill set in this disposable we live in.

Mike

Mike is right, I think. Most people have no curiosity and/or are afraid to try. They don't watch "How its Made" on TV;). If a piece of equipment is used for a business, economics enter into it as well. I haven't taken a tool to be repaired in ages but assume hourly repair rates are at least $40/hr. probably more. $40 in parts and an hour's labor is most of the way to a new tool in a lot of cases.

[Mitchell Andrus]

One thing about electronics today is that it doesn't fail like the early TV and radio sets. I worked as a TV technician in high school and we had a LOT of TVs and radios come through the shop.

HA! My dad had a monster of a 27" console COLOR TV in the living room. Got it in '71-72.... The B/W portable sitting on top got more viewing time than the console did!!!! Wow, color sets were bad back then.

Anyone remember the techs "De-gausing" the tube???
.

[Pete Shermet]

I'm a firm believer that one mans trash is another mans treasure, (I'M usually the other man) but it is getting harder and harder to get parts for certain things.
Regards
Pete

[Paul Atkins]

I've got 25 bucks into a PC 4" belt sander that was tossed because of a broken gear. A switch replacement got the body grinder going. A bent pulley on the 4" Delta jointer caused it to be thrown out, and the craftsman drill press needed the motor plug replaced. The hinge mortiser needed a roll pin and the pickup I've been driving for 15 years I got for 200 bucks because the pinion gear nut had backed out.

[Dave Lehnert]

Anything with a gas engine (lawn mower, chain saw) that gets tossed is most often a dirty carb. Most often cheaper for a home owner to replace because a shop wants $100 to clean it.

[David Prince]

I have some shelves in the basement of my shop that I use as a "tool graveyard". They don't work, but I hate to just throw them out. Maybe someday when I have endless time I may start tearing them apart and see if I can fix them. Either way, they are resting peacefully at the moment. It just seems un-natural to throw a power tool in the trash even though it isn't working.

[Richard Dragin]

Those of us who fix our tools do so because we are able to. Most people do not have the aptitude or experience to fix power tools and economically it doesn't make sense to pay someone to do it.

[Chip Lindley]

Some of us had the curiosity to try taking things electrical or mechanical apart, then put them back together again. And, they RAN! Switches or bearings are not beyond the aptitude of most, but many are scared of anything electrical. Others tout their cerebreal talents rather than mechanical ability.

Today's disposable society makes things worse by the manufacture of cheap, throw-away power tools, really not worth fixing when they quit. But, old quality power tools are quite another thing. A $10 flea market Porter Cable 100 router needed only new bearings and brushes to run like new!

Some folks have more disposable income than others. If your professional time is worth $200 an hour, don't bother with a $10 router. If you are living on a shoe string, fixing a tool of decent quality might make sense. Others just hate knowing a perfectly good tool is going to waste, when they have the simple means to fix it.

[Jim Rimmer]

Anyone remember the techs "De-gausing" the tube???
.
I always felt like I should be saying, "Hocus Pocus, shazam, shabot" when degaussing. It was really wierd.

[Jack Wilson]

I fix my tools, and too many times on the job site. I spend a small fortune on tools and I make them last as long as I can. I still have most of my tools I bought since when I was 18, now I am 47. While I don't think of myself as a pack rat my wife may, (I hope not), but she does often ask why I keep all these junky tools. The answer is that they aren't junk, I buy expensive professional grade tools, and some of them are old, some are kept for parts scavenging and some I'll get around to fixing ;). I have around 20 nailguns, and I suppose some are so old they don't even sell parts for them any more, maybe those should go away, truth is they don't have the power of my newer guns, but that's another story. And saws, well the switches go on them, for some reason when the switches go they stay ON! So I need to unplug after each cut till I get a replacement switch. And there's more, but this is probably boring. Anyway, no, I don't toss tools, that's shameful. I have enough tools to be fairly well set up on 2 jobsites at once, (almost 3), and some tools are better than others, but they all work, and they can allways be used as backups. Waste not want not. (Actually that's not entirely true, I ALWAYS WANT MORE TOOLS!)

Jack
(and that little 'talking' icon up near the title,... I have no idea how to get rid of it)

[Glen Butler]

I am still kicking myself over a good tool I threw away 5 years ago. It was a nearly new 3 1/4 HP Hitachi router that I loaned to a neighboring framing contractor. (against my better judgement) I could hear him hogging out on the wood and felt I should go retrieve the tool, but figured he must almost be done. It just kept going and going and I was busy with my own work so ignored my better judgement.

When I got it back the brushes were arcing like crazy I took the motor apart and the commutator was blackened and pitted severely. My tool dealer said they has discontinued the router and parts were hard to find, but I have learned more recently that brushes are easy to come by and a commutator can be machined to run smooth again.

[lowell holmes]

Okay,
I have a DW621 router that needs the dust column replaced. I have the new parts.
The problem is that I haven't figured out how to break the router down to the point of being able to change the part out.
I hesitate taking the router completely apart. I have a blow up diagram of the router, but it does not show a disassembly description.

Any Ideas out there? I will not discard the router.

[John alder]

You would not belive the tools and equipment I have garnered from the curb on trash day and from tag and moving sales.When I retired I had a regular route I would follow on trash day.But alas nothing is forever now with any metal being pricy many scrap dealers are paying good money and some have started going around and collecting any metal and electronics before the trash man gets there so my pickings have deminished.Moving sales are still a great source but slower now that the sale of homes has slowed.What next? Did I say I am Frugile?

[Bruce Wrenn]

I don't have many "new" tools in my shop. I like "pre- owned" better. Of all the routers I own (25+), only one was bought new. It was at a store that was going out of business. My first PC 690 came from the junk yard. I have several air compressors that also came from junk yard, that reside in friends shops. My contractor's saw was headed for the dump when I rescued it. Went thru it top to bottom, using almost $400 in new parts. I use it everyday, even though I own a Uni. Was given a Rockwell 13" planer that needed a new motor ($500+ from Delta). Fixing broken wire to switch was a lot cheaper than a new motor. The list could go on and on. A quality tool is worth fixing, a cheap tool isn't worth owning. Only exception to above rule is HF multi tool. My handle is junquecol.

[Billy Trinh]

On occasions, I have good tools that get thrown away. It was good until I dissembled it... :p