Bosch Colt .. The final solution ..

[Rick Fisher]

I have one of those Bosch Colt routers which had the shoulders on the collet lock round off. I had a crappy little thin wrench for changing bits, but lost it somewhere in the shop.. Since its failure, I have really come to loathe it either way ..

So I wanted the bit that was in the colt, for another router.. Truth is I never use the colt any more, with the exception of flush trimming .. After taking another look for the special bosch bit .. which should never have existed, I gave up and decided that the Freud bit was going to come out of that little router, one way or another ..



Before taking the pipe wrench to the armature .. which by the way made removing the bit very simple, I noticed this ..



Not sure why those divots would be there .. Cant be over use, the router became somewhat useless within a year of purchase.. Meh ..

Anyway .. I got my flush trim bit back .. And thats what this post is really all about ..

[mickey cassiba]

Those divots were cut during the manufacturing process to balance the armature.

[Rick Fisher]

Ah .. thanks Mickey .. makes sense ..

[lowell holmes]

You need to say how you really feel about the Colt.



I use mine frequently.

[John McClanahan]

Now you need to decide on a bit that you can put in it and just leave it.

John

[Tom Ewell]

The self locking on the Colt is one of the worst I've run across.

I've had to grind down the sides of a wrench to fit the flats on the shaft and use two wrenches for the collet.

It is a handy little router so I'm not ready to give it up just yet and there are a lot of alternatives in the shop.

[Thomas Hotchkin]

Rick
If you don't want your Bosch Colt any more sent it to me COD. I love the two that I have now. Tom

[Mike Henderson]

If you want a very thin wrench, go to a bicycle shop and get a wrench that's designed for adjusting the cones on wheel axles. They can't be more than a couple of mm thick and they're plenty strong. Back when I was riding a lot, I had a bunch of those but I don't remember what sizes they came in. Looks like they'd be about the size of the router shaft.

Mike

[Mike Wilkins]

This is one of the reasons I have more than one laminate trimmer. 6 to be exact. Extreme I know; but like many I am a tool junkie. There, I admitted it.

[glenn bradley]

The collet lock was always the weak spot on these. It was mentioned in almost every early review I ever read before buying one. Sure enough, mine failed. Took is to the repair depot and had it back in 2 days, repaired and with the extra wrench that Bosch was supplying free as a fix. I wasn't expecting the free wrench and so, as Mike points out, had already gone to a bike shop and bought one. Now I have a spare. I guess having it fixed was really just for the exercise as I have never used the collet lock since. All my other routers are 2-wrench routers, which I prefer, so the "fix" was perfect for me. I use the heck outta the Colt and it always performs admirably. I'm after the plunge base as soon as it becomes available.

[Rick Fisher]

My new goal is to get at the collet lock and repair it .. Seems like the front bearing is holding it all together..

[Matt Meiser]

Wish I could remember who bought a Colt off me that didn't have a working spindle lock. He took it apart and was able to fix it. Hopefully he'll see this.'

That one stripped about the 2nd time I used it and I just used a cheap wrench I ground to fit.

[Rick Fisher]

I got the spindle lock out .. Its worn at one edge, but not much .. pretty surprising how little it takes to cause this problem ..







Looking at it .. the spindle of the motor is pretty ground up .. Hard to believe, but I think the steel on the arbor is softer than the steel on the lock .. lol