Looking for a part

Jeremy Andersen said:

Hey folks

I picked up an older router and while cleaning it up I broke the control cable but sears say the cable is discontinued. It is a craftsman router model 315.17380 control cable or part 65 in the manual. Does anybody know where I can find a replacement or a modification I can make?

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sad news abounds....
parts for older craftsman tools are very very difficult to come by..
if it's any consolation your router was made Ryobie...

I looked at the part but I'm still not sure what it does. Can you illuminate that for us?

It appears to be some type of movable cable. If so could you modify something like a lawnmower throttle cable or a bicycle cable?

it is a moveable cable. The trigger assembly has a return spring that pushes the cable back up the housing. By the brushes the other end of the cable looks to depress a momentary switch to power on and off.

Could I just replace the switch with a new external momentary switch? If so what would be a good candidate?

There are some options. It seems to me I came across a do-it-yourself cable making kit somewhere but I can't remember where. You would cut it length and crimp the connector on the end. The correct ends might still be a problem.

You could also use it with a foot switch. There are both on/off and dead man type switches available. You have to be careful with the on/off type. I have one from Lee Valley and I've found over time that I need to place where I have to reach for it to keep from stepping on it accidentally. If you use a dead man's switch you'll need to bypass the one on the router which shouldn't be that hard.

Even though that router looks very similar to the 315.17470, the 315.17470 has the switch in the handle and a wire going where your cable goes. If you can't repair the cable, I wonder if there's room for a microswitch in the handle that could be activated by the trigger directly. Then run a wire where your cable was.

Try www.ereplacementparts.com as I have found obsolete parts. Now you know why I don't buy Craftsman power tools.

Newest router I have is over 10 years old. I have I think 5, just use one, because it works, and I usually only use one type of bit. I'll keep using it until it dies, toss it, then use one of the others, because they all work. That's my answer to parts availability/non-availability for old routers; get old, working, routers, cheap, and use them as long as you can. For what I do, and how I do it, this works very well for me.

I don't know what your cable looks like but cable comes in many gauges and you can get crip on bead ends. Try HD or the marine supply store. The crimp tools are not expensive. There should be some way to rig up a replacement.

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