Domino 500 depth adjustment stuck

[misha]

Hello,

For some reason, the depth adjustment in my domino seems to be stuck. The green piston doesn't snap into the guide. It does lock fine on 12mm and mostly on 15mm, but anything beyond that - nada. What can be causing this?

Thanks!
Misha

 

[Birdhunter]

Just guessing either binding or busted spring.

 

[misha]

I just tinkered with it a bit more. It seems like I can move the lever, but it's very hard to do so. There's some spring action at 12mm - it snaps into place, but anything more than that I have to manually push it in. And the higher the depth, the harder I need to push.

Birdhunter, in either of those scenarios, is this something that is self-fixable, or do I need to send it for service? I bought it used, so hopefully, I can avoid a service.

 

[ChuckM]

Release the body as if you were to install or change a cutter, and put it back to see if it makes any difference.

 

[Birdhunter]

I think ChuckM has a good suggestion. You might call Festool service for advise.

 

[misha]

Thank you for the suggestion ChuckM, but it didn't help.

However, while the fence part was off, I took a more detailed look at that bolt (Adjusting Gate Valve - part 73). When the front is off, the valvue is not spring activated (the spring looks like to be in the fence portion), however, I still struggle to move it. It seems like it's getting stuck when I twist it down. Based on the diagram it looks to be a bolt-like piece with a round plate/washer-like on the front with a pointed pin that is mounted on some rod. When the whole piece is at 12mm it's a bit loose and I can shift it around. As I twist it down it tightens up. Not sure if the round plate on the gate valve doesn't perfectly match the cylinder or the rod that the whole assembly is moving on is not quite straight. It's possible that the tolerance is tighter for some reason and there might be some piece of sawdust or something else lodged there. I'm going to try to shoot some WD40 there and see if I can help move things along. I'll be back with more updates.

 

[misha]

Ok, we have some movement. After spraying with WD40 (I also found Glide Cote in the cabinet so I added that as well) we have some movement. It still is tight, but not as tight as it was before. At least I can move the green lever around (albeit with some difficulty). I now reached the 20mm mark, though I still have to push the knob into place as there's still some friction there. But not nearly as much. Though maybe my fingers just got stronger doing this. I can also twist it down further to 25mm and even 28mm, but moving into place requires considerable force. Though still possible with the fingers.

I'm going to let it all sit overnight and check tomorrow to see how things are progressing.

 

[Paul_HKI]

Misha, it might help if I confirm, when you separate the body from the plunge head and depress the black spring loaded retainer, the green handled adjuster moves very freely, with no resistance at all.  It will 'flop around' in the body. 

If yours doesn't do that, I'd suspect damage from an impact or someone really forcing the lever without knowing what they were doing.  Separate the plunge head from the body and check yours to see if it moves completely freely.  If it doesn't, there's a reason for that and looking at the good condition of that tool, I don't think it's corrosion for example.  What you describe sounds like the shaft on the part you're wetting with WD40 is bent and looking at mine, I could see how that could happen in the wrong hands.

In any case, that part is known as the adjusting gate valve, part 492418 and costs just €6 including sales tax.  It's a 5-10 minute simple replacement, easily done.  I wouldn't mess around and risk ruining the plunge head body, known as the main girder, as it's a lot more work and around €80 just for that part if you bugger that up.  Just swap the gate valve and be done with it. 

 

[misha]

Sorry for a bit of a delay on this. I started a new job, which meant less time to focus on working with tools.

Misha, it might help if I confirm, when you separate the body from the plunge head and depress the black spring loaded retainer, the green handled adjuster moves very freely, with no resistance at all.  It will 'flop around' in the body. 

If yours doesn't do that, I'd suspect damage from an impact or someone really forcing the lever without knowing what they were doing.  Separate the plunge head from the body and check yours to see if it moves completely freely.  If it doesn't, there's a reason for that and looking at the good condition of that tool, I don't think it's corrosion for example.  What you describe sounds like the shaft on the part you're wetting with WD40 is bent and looking at mine, I could see how that could happen in the wrong hands.

Thank you Paul_HKI! I think you are spot on here. The green adjuster does move freely when the plunge base is off. But only to a point. Eventually, as I move it down I start to feel friction.

In any case, that part is known as the adjusting gate valve, part 492418 and costs just €6 including sales tax.  It's a 5-10 minute simple replacement, easily done.  I wouldn't mess around and risk ruining the plunge head body, known as the main girder, as it's a lot more work and around €80 just for that part if you bugger that up.  Just swap the gate valve and be done with it.

I was looking at how I can replace it and it seems like I need to separate the cutter head part from the motor part of the main body. I found 4 screws on the main body. However, when I tried to take the parts apart, they are not bulging. Is there anything else that's holding these together?