This weekend started like the previous one – lots of snow. The project from the previous weekend was still in pieces, so I wanted to wrap that up. After studying all the parts, I decided that I only needed to purchase new motor brushes, which are little rectangular slabs of carbon. The bearings were in excellent condition, and the bevel gears only required new grease. I grabbed what was left of the carbon brushes and headed to the Torch River Ace Hardware store.
There were 4 boxes of carbon brushes of various sizes to pick from. Not a single brush was an exact fit, so I decided to buy a pair that were slightly larger than what I needed. These carbon brushes can be filed or ground down re-size them very easily. The new brushes were $5.50 each, so my total investment in this tool repair was $11. When I got home, I spent a few minutes at the grinding wheel to reduce the carbon brushes to the size needed, then reassembled the tool.
The Hilti Angle Grinder went together much faster than I expected, but there really weren’t many parts. When it was finished, I plugged it in and pulled the trigger. The tool spun quickly, starting right up with a solid kick. I put on a new cutting wheel and tried it again. It really sounded good, and had a lot of power. This tool will only see occasional use – how many times do you need an angle grinder? Maybe for the next motorbike project this will come in handy. Thanks very much, Ryan!
Kevin, I used to make my own carbon brush’s for my 59 Norton dominator 99. I would saw open AA battery remove the carbon rod cut it in two, they were a pefect fit in my magneto.,it beat having to buy a high priced set from Lucas. Glad the grinder worked out good ,some tools have whats called a thermal overload wired into the armature winding which can be removed it that fails and the two wire ends soldered back together. I did that with a vacuum cleaner. They fall for many reasons, one of which is the overloads are a one time overload, they don’t reset. Keep looking for that next project ! Graham
Thanks for the tips, Graham, and for the great story about the AA battery. (Would love to have that ’59 Norton today. Wow!) Yes, this tool has a thermal overload wired into a voltage regulator, but thankfully that appears to be working. This tool will have an easy retirement life in my garage – it’s not often that I need an angle grinder, but it will be nice to have when I need to cut a hunk of metal off something, or smooth out a weld.