Bosch 1617 Router woes

[Prashun Patel]

I got this router a couple years ago and the motor is great.

However, the adjustment bites. The dial catches and even after I release the cam on the coarse adjustment, it takes a lot of jiggering and cursing to get it to move up or down. I've taken the sleeve apart and looked for friction points, but I can't find anything.

Head scratchin' here.

Any idea what to check or how to fix 'er?

Fm what I hear, this thing should slide like butta.

[JayStPeter]

Do you have oxidation on metal part of the motor housing?

[Wade Lippman]

Clean off any corrosion with steel wool and put paste wax on it. It helps...

[Prashun Patel]

Nope. It's clean.

[Prashun Patel]

I'll wax it. There's zero corrosion, though. Thx.

[Jeff Booth]

yeah mine got sluggish, I took it apart and waxed it, much better

[Simon Dupay]

The fine adjustment on my 1617 won't even do anything, I know I should call Bosch about it, just haven't got around to it.

[glenn bradley]

Is your's one of the magnesium ones as discussed here?

[Prashun Patel]

Glen, that's it!
Wow, gotta love this forum.

I'm in NJ, but my router's in the basement. Corrosion is the wrong word for it. It's perfectly fine, but there's surface oxidation. It sands off with some elbow grease, but I've removed enough oxidation from copper pipes to know that it comes back pretty quick. I bought my bosch on ebay - new - but in an opened pkg. So I don't know if Bosch'll replace it w an alum base. Will try.

[Ed Brady]

I have two 1617s and three bases - on plunge and two fixed. One is in my router table and one I use mostly in a plunge base. Until recently we lived in San Diego near the water. We are still cleaning mold out of stored clothes and linens but I never had a problem with the routers. I waxed them once in a while. Now that we are in Colorado life is good.

EDB

[Scott Rollins]

My table mounted 1617 had a flaw one day...the circlip in the base side of the leadscrew had gotten loose. This caused the leadscrew to lock up or not adjust depending on the direction of rotation. The only other problem I have is dust in the switch which causes the motor to not start up. A quick removal of the plastic top and then the switch to remove the dust and back going in 5 minutes...terrible engineering on the switch. Despite these flaws I would buy it again.

[Prashun Patel]

Well I sent my router to Bosch with a letter explaining the problem, and within 2 weeks, it's back with a new, aluminum body. What great service. Slides like butter now. We'll see how long it lasts...