Hey @metaltechs,
Was using the Bosch angle grinder yesterday and noticed mid-use electrical sparks flying from the wire at the point it connects to the angle grinder body. Looks like the cables aren’t isolated from each other so I’ve put a do not use sign on it.
Cheers,
Pete
There’s also a dewalt corded grinder that sounds terrible, probably needs new bearings or service. Might be worth decommissioning before it explodes. @metaltechs ?
The Bosch grinder is unfortunate. If it’s just the cable then I can replace it no problem. I can give it a check-over for everything else while I’m doing it.
The DeWalt, assuming it’s the older one, that was sitting on the archive shelf for years without being used as far as I’m aware. In February, I got a new handle and guard for it, and re-died the threads since it looks like someone used it as a hammer in a previous life. The bearings in it were in good condition but the gearbox could probably do with replacement grease. I did a huge rabbit hole dive into what industrial greases come with angle grinders and a like-for-like replacement of a little bit of grease costs as much as the grinder itself so I didn’t bother. If needed, we can trial some angle grinder-unsuitable grease in there?
I looked into all the technical stuff and we need a grease that is equivalent to NLGI grade #00, something like lithium grease (NLGI #2) is too viscous and gets flung off the gears, and doesn’t “liquefy” when heated unlike #00, apparently. Too much or too little grease on the gears can cause overheating/inefficiency.
I’ve fixed the cable on green Bosch today
Nice! Thanks!!!
Krytox’s GPL-205g0 lubricant is very commonly used by mechanical keyboard enthusiasts to lubricate metal-on-plastic and plastic-on-plastic contacts in mechanical key switches. It is inexpensive and sold in small volume containers so you don’t need to buy a bucket of the stuff. It’s grade 0 as the product name suggests but you can on rare occasions find GPL-205g00 available (they manufacture it in grades up to 000).
I’m obviously no expert on industrial lubricants but if it comes to taking a punt at least it’s only one grade out of spec as opposed to three. Assuming of course it meets all other requirements?
Edit: Would this work?
I’ll look into those soon. I don’t know a whole lot about industrial greases either but manufacturers like Milwaukee and DeWalt use greases like Molykote® G-2008 and Nye Rheolube 380 GL1 from the factory, which are very expensive. I’ve read some documentation that they need to be a clay-thickened base grease too or something.
Thanks for the links, I’ll check them out and contact the companies to see if they’re suitable for this application. I just know there’s countless types of greases; from regular linear motion to gearboxes where they’re being compressed and decompressed hundreds/thousands times a second (between the gears). Fascinating stuff anyway.
