M12V Help Needed

[Jim Young]

While routing today my chuck collet came loose. I'm not talking about the portion that holds the bit but the chuck itself. There doesn't seem to be a way to hold the motor shaft fixed while tightening the chuck. Does anyone have any experience here? I thought about removing the electrical bushing and jaming the shaft with a flat tip but am afraid that will hurt the motor. The manual has nothing.

[Allen Bookout]

First let me say that I have no experience with that problem and I do not have an M12V. From what you are saying it must be threaded. If that is the case the threads must be such that the chuck will tighten as the bit turns or it would come off every time. Thinking in these terms--How about this? Put it on as good as you can and put an old bit in and tighten it up. Then put the bit in a vise, grab on tight, and turn on the router two or three times.

Sounds like a good theory to me. But that is all it is, a theory.

Be careful!

[Terry Flowers]

I would call Hitachi for advice.

Terry

[glenn bradley]

I'll vote for calling Hitachi before trying any wierd science as well. There may be an issue that they are aware of but has not warranted notifying owners yet.

[David Rose]

Allen,

I think something would have to give. The torque in a router is pretty high. Have you ever done a climb cut and had it grab? Things happen really fast. I figure the bit would slip in the collet and destroy it. If not, the bit would probably explode. Or maybe you would just eat up the vice jaws instantly. I have a feeling it would be quite a trip however it went.

David

First let me say that I have no experience with that problem and I do not have an M12V. From what you are saying it must be threaded. If that is the case the threads must be such that the chuck will tighten as the bit turns or it would come off every time. Thinking in these terms--How about this? Put it on as good as you can and put an old bit in and tighten it up. Then put the bit in a vise, grab on tight, and turn on the router two or three times.

Sounds like a good theory to me. But that is all it is, a theory.

Be careful!

[Hoa Dinh]

The fix is here.

[Jim Young]

The fix is here.

Awesome - You're the MAN.

[Terry Flowers]

Good find. That is pretty extreme, having to disassemble the whole router. Is this problem common and unique to the M12V?

[glenn bradley]

You gotta love these guys.

[Laurie Brown]

Yeah, really. If I had to disassemble my router to tighten the collet I'd be shopping for a new router. Glad I have a Bosch!

[Hoa Dinh]

Good find. That is pretty extreme, having to disassemble the whole router. Is this problem common and unique to the M12V?

I doesn't really take much time. If you've never operated on the router before, it'll probably take about 1 hr. If you've done it once, or at least have removed the plunge springs, the whole operation will take about 30 minutes (note that the times quoted do not include the time fetching for the plunge springs having shot across the shop ).

I don't know if this is a common problem. But I know of 4 people having it happen to them: the author of the article, the original poster of this thread, myself, and another one I read back during the Badger Pond days.

It happened once to me about 3 or 4 years ago, but has not re-occurred. I guess Lock Tite really works.