DF 700 stopped working

[Craig Caughlan]

After years of excellent service and more than a couple thousand perforations en white oak, my DF 700 stopped working. It was being used for 30 minutes when it smoked and stopped. The motor was not that warm. I waited until it cooled down to see if it would restart. But no. Possibly the brushes after so much use. I'm in Mexico City, Mexico and there are no reppair faciliities for Mexico. I've done some googling to see if I could locate a source for brushes without success. I just wrote to Festool;s Repair Service. Any suggestions would be helpful. I can't imagine sending this tool back to the US for repair.

 

[Ultimate Tools Marketing]

If it smoked, I don't think that the brushes are the cause. If you do inspect the motor brushes however, it will be very clear if they are the issue - a pin will be pushing through the face.

 

[Neil Lickfold]

I would suspect that the armature needs replacing along with the brushes. Those parts should be available. For the 230v models, the motor parts and bearingas are available from partsworls in the UK. Not sure about the 120v version

 

[Craig Caughlan]

The brushes look okay. The armature isn't worn much, maybe 0.5mm. I'm actually surprised they don't show more wear, given the fact that the tool has cut thousands of full-depth 14mmØ holes in the ten years of use. My worker said it didn't smoke, but there was a burnt smell. I have not received an answer from Festool Repair. Any further suggestions would be much appreciated. Especially where that piece of spring steel (pictured left) goes, as it fell out as I removing the unit from the shell.

 

[Cheese]

Actually the electricals look pretty good, I wonder if the armature shorted out?
That extra item appears to be item 83, Festool calls it a catch spring.

 

[Craig Caughlan]

Thanks all for your input.

 

[woodferret]

The brushes look okay.

They kinda look stubby. Item 498697 Push them back in, and note where the wire is in the channel (yours is probably near the bottom). That'd be near the cutoff point and it's safely done so even if there's carbon still left.