Yup, I know what you mean by "throwaway tool". Was real disappointed this last weekend. I had a Craftsman drill that I bought in the early '70s that was making a racket and wouldn't start sometimes. Had to turn it by hand and then it would run. Figured it was brushes. Took it apart and one of the contact segments on the armature was sheared off! Brushes were kind of chewed up because of that and I considered (for about 2 seconds) trying to repair the armature before I tossed it into the trash. But man, I liked that drill. Guess I should flame Craftsman for poor quality and making "throwaway tools", eh? :laughing:
i have a B&D reversable / variable that is about 21ys old.. it's chuck and the front bearing / bushing has a problem.. i've got it setting in the parts pile... with a chinese drill that does the same thing for 9$ doing it's job right now.. I may tinker with it one day.. or use it for parts.. or whatever.. maybee when the rice drill breaks in a couple years, see if I can swap chucks, and fashion another bushing..
I have swapped parts on die grinders for years.. got a box of old ones.. about every 5 ys I dig thru.. take em apart and make 2 from 5.. etc...
had an old box store brand drill press that was about 16ys old die.. actually chuck died.. I tossed it inthe scrap pile as i couldn't get the chuck off the quill.. used it's pedistal and vice for a few weeks as a welding table for lil jobs.. then on a whim, decided the motor and everything else on that old press was just too good to be laying there..
went at it some more.. managed to break the lil plastic depth guide collar it was wearing ( never used it.. ) but got the chuck free of the quill.. chuck was locked up.. had remembered seeing similar replacement chucks at harbor freight.. just never could find one in stock to check size.. and didn't want to order a wrong one.. decided to put the old chuck in a glass jar.. added diesel, naptha, a lil acetone and some atf fluid to it.. cappe dit and let it set in the window about 2 weeks in the shop.. fished it out every 3-4 days and just lightly tapped all around it with the pointy tip of a welding chipping hammer.. then toss it back into the soup. the last time I had puleld it out and was tapping.. it kinda loosened up.. so i worked it for a while and got it smooth. dug some gunk out of it that looked like glue and sawdust, and figured the last stuff I had been drilling was laminated plywood, with forestner bits.. and it must have gotten a bunch of dust and glue particles in it that heated up and seized it up..
in the mean time, a week before all that I had picked up a tractor supply sidewalk sale special clearanced drill press for some low price like 39$.. now I got 2 functional ones
So I leave one belted up for metal, and one belted up for wood.
did i mention that you can no longer get the 'oring' style belts for the old one ( new one uses a small vbelt ).. however I found a vacume cleaner rubber 'oring' style belt that was like 1mm different size thickness, and proper length and fit fine in the groove, and is running great.. was like 3$..
soundguy