Palm router too hot to hold

[Rick McQuay]

I bought a Porter Cable laminate trimmer 7301 at a yard sale, old one with square base, and it gets really hot, too hot to hold after a minute or two. I assumed it was bearings so I bought OEM replacements, cleaned out any dust, new bearings. No improvement. I googled and found complaints of the collet getting hot but not the case. You guys think this can be saved? What else could cause so much heat?

[Jamie Buxton]

Since it isn't the bearings, I'd guess it is a partial short in the windings. The fix would require rewinding the motor, which is way more expensive than the cost of a new router.

[Cary Falk]

I would say trash it because it is not worth the trouble because new laminate trimmers are <$100.

[Rick McQuay]

I'll cut my losses then.

[Gregory King]

If I recall the Porter Cable had only a square base supplied. And they were heavy. Grab yourself a Rigid c/w square and round base, light and two wrenches. And the weight is about half.
You won't regret the purchase. If fact I may buy a 2nd one.

[Jerome Stanek]

I have a couple of those routers and they will run hours without getting to hot.

[Marc Donnelly]

I just bought the Makita trim router. And I Love It. Its like a little mighty mouse! Nice soft start. I have no complaints so far.

[Bill Orbine]

Poor wiring connections, bad/dirty switch or bad plug can be the culprit sometimes. Maybe it's worth probing before tossing.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I have multiple 7310's. Offset base, tilt base, and stock base. They used to be the only game in town for laminate work. This changed when Bosch came out with their Colt. Biggest problem with 7310's is base isn't perpendicular to shaft.

[Rick McQuay]

I bought it for a dedicated 1/8 roundover so I'll probably just use it until it smokes and toss it. I only use it for about 2 minutes at a time, run it around to break the edges. I don't want to spend too much time and money on it.

I've been eyeballing the Makita cordless palm router, or maybe the Dewalt 611, as more general purpose palm routers.

[Nathan Johnson]

Wear oven mitts?

[Rick McQuay]

Wear oven mitts?

LOL, actually yeah, I wear a leather glove while using it.

[Michael Pyron]

I had a situation where I had a screw lodged in my router and it tore apart the fan blade on the end (that forces air into the motor to cool it)...it ran hot forever after that...perhaps you are in the same situation?

I've got 4 7310's aged from 25 years to a few years old (got 2 more when they were discontinued) and none of them have ever run hot.

why 4? simply because I get into situations sometimes where for productivity's sake it's best to have one set up for mortising door edges for strikers, door jambs for strikes, another for whatever, etc...point being once set to the perfect depth of a mortise I have the ability to leave one (or more) setup that way until I complete that project

[Geoff Crimmins]

I don't know for sure, but it's possible that a problem with the brushes could cause excessing sparking and heat. You might take a look at them.