Do NOT take apart your 340 Palm Sander!

[Russ Filtz]

If you read my other thread on sanders, you know I just had to buy a new PC 340 palm sander. The reason for this is my stupidity, and PC's poor assembly design. I'm fairly handy, but this thing had me cussing and squirming for over an hour trying to get the housing back on. In the process I broke wires twice on the brushes, soldered the first back, broke a wire on the switch, fixed it, and finally gave up after the second brush wire.

The problem is that all the "guts" just kind of set there and the two housing halves hold everything together. That's fine, but it's virtually impossible to get the two halves together without something inside shifting. The main problems are the "fan" on the rotor that generates suction and how the brushes are mounted. The brushes just set in an indentation and are not held down by anything or "clicked" in. Then when you try to mount the other housing half you have to force it over the "fan" which levers the rotor up and dislodges the brushes and wiring.

VERY frustrating and poor design if you ask me. It's like they did it on purpose so you'd have to take it in for service just to lube the bearing! Anybody have tips on how to service this thing before my second one needs lubed?

[scott spencer]

Hi Russ - You're not completely alone! Last summer curiosity got the best of me, and I got the best of my Freud router! I was up too early to make noise and took my morning coffee out to the shop to snoop around. Armed with a fresh dose of caffeine, I took apart a perfectly functioning router just because it was the first thing that caught my attention! (:o ...doh!) I had a heck of a time putting it back together....found out the hard way that the brushes are spring loaded, and I made black crumbs out of them in no time.....wasn't even 7:30am yet! :mad: I was able to get new brushes, but it's major surgery getting them back in.....definitely not considered user accessible.

[Andy London]

Same thing happened to me about a year ago, I knew it needed new brushes and I have changed them on other tools with no problems, the second I took the casing apart I knew I was in trouble with this one:)

[Ray Bersch]

Well am I ever richer for this post - on my "to do" list for tomorrow, take the PC ROS apart - sounds like I'd never get to anything else for the entire day - and all because it sounded a little funny today and I assumed brushes were in order - I'll wait, thank you.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I took apart a palm sander once because it wasn't working. It never did work again! Lots of parts on the bench though!