Need Help

[Richard Gillespie]

Not well schooled in electrical issues regarding repairs. Have two Porter Cable model 333 sanders. They are about 12 years old. One, on the latest project, started varying its speed and now has made a somewhat loud squelching noise. What am I dealing with, bad bearings or brushes? Should I consider repairs or treat them as disposable? They cost less the $40 new and could be replaced by ones on sale at Lowes for $42.

[John A langley]

New ones cannot fix for $40.

[George Heatherly]

I would take the bad sander apart and look at it. You can often spot a problem quite easily. I've had sanders that only needed serious dust removal to work well again. If you don't see something obvious you can go ahead and replace. It only takes a few minutes to check.

[Ray Newman]

See what Geo. H. wrote.

If you have an air compressor, a good habit to develop is at the end of the day, blow out all tools with compressed air. It will greatly improve their longevity.

Also periodically check the brushes. A bit of preventive maintenance goes a long way.

[John TenEyck]

I recently had the same thing happen, and what George said was exactly the problem - sawdust. Cleaned it all out with compressed air and it runs like new now.

[Richard Gillespie]

Thanks to all who took time to reply.

[Dave Zellers]

See what Geo. H. wrote.

If you have an air compressor, a good habit to develop is at the end of the day, blow out all tools with compressed air. It will greatly improve their longevity.

True dat. A good blow usually produces a happy ending.