Introduction and question

Hi

Am in my late 50s and have been a DIYer since my childhood, growing up with a father who was an electrical engineer, who designed the electrical components of power stations working for a big utility company in South Africa, but could fix almost anything around the house.
I helped from a young age with motor mechanics, wood working, metal working, making metal components on a lathe, electronic projects (making amplifiers and radios etc). After he passed on, I converted a VW Beatle into a Baja bug at 19 years old. After marrying and settling in Cape Town, I inherited some of his old power tools. I have a small table saw which during our COVID lock down I have been doing a lot with. I added an extension to it, to which I mounted a router and jig saw. On researching for my table saw I was surprised to find only one result on the internet which matched and was amused to discover that my Tauco/Delta table saw was manufactured pre 1939 :surprise: I think my father acquired it in about the 1950s.

This tool is unbelievable. It is still working perfectly, and during this lock down, I have watched tons of videos on table saw setup an usage and that's were I verified that my idea of adding an extension so I could use my accurate table saw fence with my router, was a common YouTube video post. By the way this table saw is interesting in that the arbor does not tilt or move up or down. Raising the blade height involves winding the lever that lowers the table top itself, and cutting bevels involves tilting the table top. Not the easiest of ways to cut bevels I can tell you.

So all was going well until I finally finished my setup of the extension for jig saw and router, and I was taking some photos to show my older brother what I had done with the saw he knew so well. I mounted the jig saw and router, temporarily, under the table and took photos. Later I wanted to use the router but when I turned it on it immediately fell to the concrete floor. :crying: I had forgotten to tighten the clamp when I mounted it just for the photos. It is one of those routers which you rotate in the base to raise or lower it. Since the base was mounted upside down under the table, the torque turned the router out of it's base. I inspected it for damage and not seeing any I mounted it, properly this time, and turned it on to see if it was alright. To my absolute relief it turned on. Relieved I switched it off and went to bed as it was late.

The next time I wanted to use my router to round over a jig base I was making, there were a whole lot of sparks and it tripped our earth leakage system. I then realised that something had indeed been damaged in the fall. :frown::crying::crying::crying:

The router details are:
Rockwell
Model 63458 Type 1
Heavy Duty Router
220v AC-DC 4.0A 850W 22000/min
(See attached photo)

I have now stripped part of the router and found that the on off switch was cracked and I will have to replace it, but that was clearly not where the sparks were coming from, nor the reason that our power tripped. On further inspection I found a broken piece of a "spring".

Looking deeper into this I found it is a brass spring that is circular and attached to a cable and is supposed to be located around the brass inner end of the bush housing. Sorry I cannot post a photo. I am unable to remove the top part of the housing. I have searched high an low on the internet and have found the part but it is not available. The image from internet is a very small low resolution image s per the last attachment. I think I may have to go to a power tool repair specialist to see if they have an alternative part or solution.

In addition to the broken spring connector, there is a green electronic item which I have never seen before and am unable to identify. I am not sure if it is a fuse, a capacitor or some other electronic component. It seems to have some kind of heat damage (the second image) but my multi meter shows there is still continuity. It would be great if anyone on this forum can identify this part. I have attached photos of the front and back of this part.

Thanking you all in advance for any assistance you can offer.


Doug