Bypassing is probably your best bet. If you need speed control you can go with an external one as long as it doesn’t have soft start and that doesn’t get bypassed too if it does.

 

Welcome to the forum John.

 

It might be because the dust may get accumulated in the inner part but as you said that you clean it then there may be some problem in the internal circuit. Because of the loose connection in the wiring.

 

Ebay might have one. Maybe. Me, I'd likely toss it. My five are all Craftsman (made by Ryobi), newest is somewhere over 10 years old for sure, all work fine. But when/if one dies, it will get tossed.

 

I have 2 10to12 year old Craftsman routers Recently I bought a couple of Canadian Tire max routers with plunge bases on sale . What a surprise , they are identical to the craftsman even the CT plunge bases fit .They were on sale for less than I could buy a plunge base for the Craftsman.

 

Hey, LF: at least we now know you're from up here, N. of 49!
It'd be interesting to knowif you can get replacement cct. bds. for the Max? Maybe they'd work on the Craftsman? 'JohnMorgan' is from the US so getting the part, if it was compatible, might be an issue...

 

Can you get parts for CT tools
Their warranty is good but I have never got parts from them

Rich

 

Good question, LF.
I guess the first step is to find out what repair depot, in your area, handles their warranty issues(?).

 

the control board is here, but at an inflated price. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Controller...-Craftsman-320-27683-Router/323788151428?hash=item4b63471a84:g:EB0AAOSw-o9caup~