Festool OF 1400 EBQ router faulty or not ?

[vjekob]

I'm writing from Croatia - bought an OF 1400 EBQ 220V-240V router from Germany.
I plugged it in and turned it on for a couple of seconds and then off
for a couple of seconds and saw very slight grey smoke.
I was a bit worried about this, so I looked on the web (maybe even
on this forum) and saw it had to do with some new grease/breaking.
I then ran the machine more and the smoke issue seems to have
disappeared but what I'm now worried about is that the metal housing
gets warm to the touch but the rotor gets hot to the touch (sorry have no
thermometer to be more precise). I presume this is due to the breaking energy
but am not sure if the rotor is supposed to be hot to the touch - I would appreciate
a confirmation from those who have such a router (I have a couple of
other brand routers without breaking functionality and they certainly
do not get hot).

Secondly, I was wondering whether it is easy to just disable the breaking
functionality if the heating is lowering brush and motor life ?

 

[Mario Turcot]

I have an OF 1400 EBQ NA 120v. I usually run it 3-4 minutes max and it never get warm enough to notice.

Mario

 

[vjekob]

Mario, just so that we understand each other - if you run the
machine a few times (even without routing anything) and
after you've switched it off grab the
rotor with two fingers where it exits the housing - is it hot to the touch ?

 

[Mario Turcot]

Mario, just so that we understand each other - if you run the
machine a few times (even without routing anything) and
after you've switched it off grab the
rotor with two fingers where it exits the housing - is it hot to the touch ?

No mine is not even warm. I did a bunch of boring with the LR32 rail plunging the router with my hand over the housing. Boring 5mm holes is nothing to put the router at any challenge level, but the router was in no way hot. i feel that I could do it all day.

Mario

 

[vjekob]

Funny, I got a message back from the place I bought the router
and they indicated they had talked to their Festool contact and that
what I was finding was normal and that I should just use the
router. I will have time to put the router through its paces
in the next few days and see what happens/ whether I get
any more smoke or other issues.

 

[uf2000]

It appears that brand new festool routers need to be used for 1-2 hours to get past friction/overheating issues. It may have something to do with the motor brushes or motor bearings. Search the forum for message thread regarding the 2200 router overheating for more information. Normally the 2200 and 1400 routers will only get warm when running under no load condition.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I never understand these concerns about a power tool getting hot. It's simple physics, something turns around with an incredibly high speed, something gets hot.

The OF 1400 turns at a maximum of 22500 RPM, that means over 350! revolutions per second.

This is INCREDIBLY fast. Now to make sure your rotor doesn't take off into space it is connected to the housing in 2 places, guided by bearings, which -bear- the rotor, so they have to touch somewhere. And at that moment heat is generated through friction with every revolution made.

Just rub your hand over the table, or carpet, whatever. See how many revolutions you can do per second, and then feel your hand warming up. Imagine the heat if you could do this 20 times per second. Then imagine your router doing this 350 times per second.

Yes, it gets hot, it's normal. Nothing to worry about.

 

[justard]

Well I have OF 1400 EBQ NA120V and I don't experience anything like that, Well like they suggested, you can use it for 1-2 hours and see if it will work normal