Awe man! Kids are back to school so I thought I’d take a day off and make some frames. Unfortunately, my router died…
It’s rather disappointing too because I only have maybe 20 hours of use on it. I thought it would last longer than that. It was a Bosch after all. I bought it for myself a couple years ago so I’m sure the warranty has run out but I did contact the company anyway. I wasn’t going to but I told my friend what happened and he forwarded me a link to their page and recommended I send some feedback. I just assumed Bosch made crappy tools but he told me they are actually pretty good.
I was routing out the inside edge of my second frame when my hand started getting really hot. I’ve used this a bit so I thought it was odd but didn’t think much of it. When I do my frames I set the piece in the jig which takes about 2-3 minutes then route the piece which takes about a minute. During the 6th frame piece. The heat started to get unbearable and I could smell a strong mechanical burning smell. It is a unique smell that if you’ve smelt it you will know exactly what I’m talking about. I went to switch it off when I noticed the smoke coming from the top. I switched it off, unplugged it and placed it in the middle of my driveway away from anything flammable. It held the heat for almost an hour.
I removed the bit and looked it over the next day. I tried it again and that was a tremendous mistake. I turned the speed down before flipping the switch, thinking it the safest way to approach it, and it made horrible grinding sounds and immediately started billowing acrid smoke. This, and my friend’s prompting, is what ultimately persuaded me to contact them. I’m really disappointed that it failed after so little use and I’m sure Bosch won’t do anything about it but what can you do? The one thing I am happy about is the fact that I did use this router. Sure it died an untimely death but at least I know if I spend a little extra cash on a better router I know I will use it.