Ratchet failing and wearing

[JesseCountertops]

I would like to know why the teeth on the ratchet mechanism on my 2200 routers (I have 2) keep wearing down or kind of rounding over. It's not full of dust and it's always the loosening direction. It's already happening to my newest one and it's only like 3 weeks old. Just wish they would've kept the option to just use 2 wrenches like the old ones or the 1400, extremely frustrating. I need to use my routers a lot but the thing that's supposed to make changing bits faster is making it WAY slower.

 

[guybo]

Hi, welcome to the fog, this has been a problem mention before seems to be a dust problem creating the gear to slip or bind. https://festoolownersgroup.com/thre...g-sticky-ratchet-mechanism.44616/#post-496154

 

[guybo]

That wasnt a great reply, the catch must be worn or slipping

 

[JesseCountertops]

It definitely is chipped but it is pretty much brand new, and has happened to my other festool 2200 2 other times. Main complaint is it's a bad design for what is supposed to be a heavy duty router. The ratchet design is something that in my opinion is hurting the product way more than helping. I'll be returning my new one next time and probably modifying my other one so I can use a wrench or something more solid to remove bits. So frustrating, one of my routers is useless right now because of a stupid design. I have an older festool that in every way is better than the new ones except for the fact that you can't get parts for it because progress?

 

[luvmytoolz]

I'm just curious how many times a day or week you'd be changing router bits, and is it possible you're maybe applying too much pressure when you're tightening them up which might explain the chipping?

It's a pretty simple mechanism design, but you've had it happen 3 times now to 2 different routers?

 

[JesseCountertops]

I'm just curious how many times a day or week you'd be changing router bits, and is it possible you're maybe applying too much pressure when you're tightening them up which might explain the chipping?

It's a pretty simple mechanism design, but you've had it happen 3 times now to 2 different routers?

I change bits maybe 3 times a day, sometimes more sometimes less. I rout a lot of acrylic solid surface and go through bits fairly often, I could be tightening them too much but when I don't the bits tend to start slipping out. The old style routers you can tighten to your hearts desire with no negative outcomes, it makes no sense to change to this style.

 

[luvmytoolz]

That's curious. I have a number of old routers including some ELU MOF177's from the 80's, and on those as you note the tendency is to tighten the absolute crap out of them.

However it's taken me a very long time to get out of that habit with my OF1400 and OF2200, even when using 3 1/2" panel cutters on hardwood, as the routers really do hold the cutters well without overtightening.

If you've had cutters slipping, even though you more or less seem to err on the side of caution and tend to maybe over tighten them, then I would assume the cutters aren't as sharp as they need to be, so that could be wearing/damaging the inside of the collet. It really doesn't take much for this to happen, and once it does the collet's life is over for all practical purposes.

So I'd be looking at how sharp or worn the cutters are, and if you need to be over tightening and it's not a cutter issue, then I'd say the collets worn. What does it look like inside it?