@#@#%@*@! I'm dead in the water

[rnt80]

I was using my ETS150 the other day and the sander kept surging periodically.  I switched cords and everything was fine.  Called service the next day and talked to David (quite possibly the nicest guy in the world) and he had me look at the plug on the sander and sure enough one of the posts was black.  David agreed to send me a new cord and a plug for the sander.  I cleaned off the post and was using the sander again today and smelled something burning!!!!  I unplugged the sander and while the post wasn't black the corresponding female part on the cord was melting.  At this point I'm dead in the water which kinda stinks.  I was hoping to finish up some cabinets today so that I could spray tomorrow.  Now I'm gonna have to wait until the parts get here.  I guess that's what I get for buying my stuff online and only having one sander [sad]

 

[score0matic]

Russ can you grab a different cord from one of your other tools?  to get by [crying] 
Craig

 

[rnt80]

The one that started to burn up was the second cord.  Both David and I thought that the first cord was bad but there's obviously something wrong with the sander since it's gone through two cords.

 

[Forrest Anderson]

The one that started to burn up was the second cord.  Both David and I thought that the first cord was bad but there's obviously something wrong with the sander since it's gone through two cords.

I suspect that the problem is that your machine has been infected! To explain...

If a connector in the plug on the first cord was "bad" and didn't make good contact with one of the pins on the sander, then there would have been arcing (resulting in heat build-up and charring) between the connector in the plug and the corresponding pin on the sander. The arcing damages both the connector on the plug and the pin on the sander.

You replace the old cord with a good one, but the pin on the sander still has arcing damage from its encounter with the bad cord.

When you switch the sander on, the damaged pin on the sander then starts arcing with the connector on the new cord, and soon the second cord's connector is damaged too. You could attach a third cord, but the heat-damaged pin on the sander will just "infect" any cord that you care to attach.

In summary, a damaged connector on the cord will damage the pin on the sander, and that damaged pin will then damage any subsequent cord that's connected to it.

To repair, the pins on the sander need to be replaced, and only then can a new cord be used.

Have a look at the thread called Why I HATE the "plug-it" cord! and check out what Rick Christopherson had to say about the Rotex sander which was exhibiting a similar problem.

Forrest

 

[Brice Burrell]

Actually Forrest, it can be ever worse. The culprit or guilty party may have been the first bad Plug-It cord and it could have infected all of the tools it's had recent contact with. This is the downside to the Plug-It system, a bad cord can damage multiple tools before any noticeable damage is detected. I strongly you proceed with caution with the tools that have been used recently with the first damaged Plug-It cord. Truthfully, I'm a bit surprised David wasn't more concerned about the potential of "infected" tools. Maybe he was or maybe I'm way off base with my concern. But in seems to me to if the cord is damaged the potential of the tool(s) also being damaged is there.

 

[rnt80]

Actually Forrest, it can be ever worse. The culprit or guilty party may have been the first bad Plug-It cord and it could have infected all of the tools it's had recent contact with. This is the downside to the Plug-It system, a bad cord can damage multiple tools before any noticeable damage is detected. I strongly you proceed with caution with the tools that have been used recently with the first damaged Plug-It cord. Truthfully, I'm a bit surprised David wasn't more concerned about the potential of "infected" tools. Maybe he was or maybe I'm way off base with my concern. But in seems to me to if the cord is damaged the potential of the tool(s) also being damaged is there.

If what you're saying is true Brice then that's not good.  I've used that cord with my 1010, 1400, domino, ts55, ps300 and ets150 within the last two weeks.  What do I do now if those tools are "infected"?  I'd hate to get out of my 3 year warranty period and then have something happen to the tools that was related to this problem.

 

[peter halle]

Here is the information / explanation posted by Rick in the thread mentioned by both Forrest and Brice earlier in case you don't want to wade thru all the other stuff:

I saw your discussion previously, but didn't respond at the time because other posters had already sent you in the right direction. By the way just as a forewarning, Shane is not part of the service department, so he could only forward you on to service if you called him direct.

You are burning up your cords because you have a poor connection between the tool's inlet and the plug-it connector on the cord. This results in a high resistance connection and possibly even small arcing at the connector, which in turn causes very high heat. Unfortunately, once this occurs even once, it creates a cascading degradation of the connections (that's true for any electrical plug, not just Plug-it).

The leading cause for this occurrence is not fully tightening the twist-lock on the Plug-it cords. This is the reason why I specifically point this out with a full graphic image in all of my Owner's Manuals. I know that this was mentioned previously, but it is an important enough topic that I want to make sure that everyone reading this thread fully understands it. Some Plug-it cord to tool interfaces are snug enough that when the owner turns the twist-lock, they think that they have fully tightened it, but instead, it is just beginning to hit the detent snap position. The most reliable way to ensure the twist-lock is fully engaged is to note that the twist-lock must rotate a full 90-degrees (1/4-turn).

If I recall, you have already stated that you were positive that the twist-lock was fully engaged. So given the assumption the twist-lock is fully engaged yet you are experiencing overheating problems, then it is quite clear that the electrical pins in the inlet of your sander have been damaged from previous occurrences of high heat. What happens is that once the plastic gets hot and soft, the pins no longer fit their shell as tightly as they should, and frequently, this means they will get pushed back inside of the body of the inlet. In essence, the pins are too short (from getting pushed back) to make full contact with the brass sockets in the plug-it's body.

So the bottom line is that even though you were noticing the damage on your plug-it cord(s), and drawing the conclusion that the multiple plug-it cords were the problem, the actual root cause was the inlet on the tool. Regardless what the cause of the original overheating condition, you now appear to have a damaged inlet on the tool.

 

[rnt80]

Thanks for the info Peter.  Not what I wanted to wake up to [unsure].

 

[peter halle]

Thanks for the info Peter.  Not what I wanted to wake up to [unsure].

I wouldn't take this as all bad news for the remainder of your tools.

As Rick points out in his post, the issue on the tools may be as simple as the pins - contacts - on the tools getting loose and pushing back into the tool.  If you have a caliper, you could measure how far the pins stick out of the receptacle base.  I would imagine that the measurement should be very similar between tools that use the same plug it cord.  You could also check to see if there is a difference between those measurements and the tool that is kaput.  Also check to see if the pins wiggle on the bad tool slightly.

Post back if you want me to measure a couple of mine and see if the measurements come close.

None of this will make kaput better - but it might alleviate worry.  Armed with this information, you will be able to provide Festool with additional information tomorrow.

Let me know if I can help.

Peter

 

[rnt80]

Thanks again Peter.  I'll take some measurements later today and let you know what I find out.

 

[Brice Burrell]

I feel an apology is in order. I'm going to go back and edit on first post in this tread. It undermines David's expertise and I have shouldn't have posted that. I don't know the all the details so it's unfair of me to second guess. Sorry to David and to rnt80 for causing what may be unnecessary alarm.

 

[peter halle]

I / we didn't hear any more.  I measured my tools, and with the tools that use the standard plug it cord like the sanders, where the plastic pin meets the tool is 11.75 to 12 mm from the top of the tool.  The top of the pin is 2.45 to 2.40 mm from the same spot at the top of the tool receptacle.  I had no wiggle in my pins.

Hope all worked out.

Peter

 

[rnt80]

I haven't taken any measurements but I cleaned up the pin on my sander and used a new cord which promptly burnt up.  David is sending new pins for the sander and they were supposed to be here today, I've got to call him right now to get a tracking number.  I spoke with him yesterday and he said that as long as the pins on my other tools are shiny and sturdy I've got no reason for concern.