Hitachi M12V Issue

[Mike Kelly]

I just did some maintenance on my M12V that has been in my router table for years. I had removed the springs a long time ago and was having trouble moving it close to the bottom of it's travel. Removed the base which wasn't stuck, but required a lot of effort to remove. While I was removing it a lot of sawdust was also coming out, but I noticed a lot of plastic material was also in it. Attached is a picture of the plastic stuff. I don't think it came from anything I have cut and is possibly coming from the armature or......??223241
Has anyone else experienced this? The reason I ask is that I had a cheap Sears router many years ago that started loosing armature stuff. I chalked that up to buying cheap tools and have tried not to purchase such since then. The M12V was purchased about 1988.

[Guy Belleman]

1988! I hope to get that longevity out of most tools, especially a router. 24 years is very good service.

As for the plastic, think I would investigate further into the router. If that blue color matches the router color, I would very suspicious. If the plastic is coming from the inside, it can't be good. On the other hand, if it is just mixed with the sawdust, the router may very well be fine and just need a good cleaning. A better router dust collection system might be needed though.

[Mike Kelly]

Good news. Thanks Guy, I had the same thoughts. I tore it apart to see. It looks new inside and is real clean now. The plastic chips must have come from something I cut a long time ago. Nothing inside was plastic or that color. I have a 4 inch hole in the rear of my table that gets sucked on by my Onieda system and my fence has a shopvac sucking on it. They both naturally don't get everything and a lot comes down over the top or bit side of the router and gets into every crevice in it eventually. I have had two other routers in the table. A TR12 and a big PC. When I put my PC on my CNC machine I put the M12V in the table since it had variable speed control.