dead angle grinder

SDE

Well-known Member
The pinion gear is stripped. The gear that drives the spindle. The motor is ok and even the drive gear is good. But SEARS does not have the repair part. What possible good can I use this motor for?
Thank you
Sde
 
It's a shame, Sears used to be such a good name, and parts for everything. Now it's just china crap with a fancy name on it. Go to HF and buy 2 for $20, you will be better off!
 
Sometimes you can figure out who actually made it and go to them for parts. I bought a Harbor Freight one a couple of years ago with the idea I could throw it away when it broke. After a lot of hard use it is still going. I guess I got a good one.
 
Hate to agree with the "just replace it" crowd, but saw new Porter Cable at Lowe's for under $30 over the weekend.
 
It's pretty common for the weakest part in a power tool to become unavailable. I had a very nice commercial-grade B&D drill motor I had to pitch because I broke a tooth off one of the gears. You can still get every other part for that drill except for the one gear. It was only about twenty years old when I broke it.
 

I had that happen to one. I have a repair shop no too far away, and they gave me a price to repair that was as much as new.
 
I think that sears and most try to anticipate what will be needed to repair the appliance or tool for 5 years after a production run is ended and make the parts for that. It is just that sometimes they misread the failure rate and run out of parts too soon. The other parts would eventually fail but since the tool died without being repaired we don't know which part would be second to run out of supply. The sad thing is they will have all of these other parts on hand that will never be needed because a key part in the system failed often and the supply ran out.
 
That 5" Makita will hang in there ! I'm on my second one & it'll see me out. You wouldn't believe the punishment my first one took - actually it still runs but the comm is rough and the brushes 'bounce'- lots of arcing, the rest of it is pretty worn too. If you use yours hard, you might want to keep a spare switch around, that, I had to replace at least three times. Nice thing about Makita, parts were available. Milwaukee parts were available too -anything else seemed to be a crapshoot about parts.
 
Keeping a supply of every part for every tool ever made forever is an unsustainable business model. Sears tried it. It backfired in the 1980's when cheaper foreign alternatives starting showing up at other stores, and we became a throw-away society. They've been circling the toilet ever since.

It's either operate like everyone else, or close the doors. Then you won't be able to get your free replacement screwdriver, Chinese or American made...
 
I just buy the under $20 grinders at HF. Get a couple years or more out of each one. Keep a spare handy.
 
I bought 2 Makita angle grinders for our shop with the 1st one about a year old now. Hard service (foundry) and they are holding up.

I see no sense in buying cheap tools and repeatedly replacing them. I think the last one was around $75.00
 
I buy new a one about every 6 to 12 months. So far I have gotten 13 months out of a METABO. Nothing else even comes close and I've tried them all. I buy grinding wheels 100 at a time and flap wheels 25 at a time. Grinders get a lot of use at my place.Probably got 15 junkers laying around.
 
Same thing here with my ~5 year old Craftsman 18Volt 1/2" Drill / Driver. Light duty occasional use, but when I went to use it, the gears were stripped. No repair parts, and no response to repair requests sent to Sears. No outside shop will work on it as they too can not get parts.

I bought a DeWalt 18Volt 1/2" as a replacement. On-sale at ~$100.00, and another $50 off if I applied for one of their credit cards.

No brainer to me, but everyone's mileage will probably vary!

p.s.: What do I do with the Craftsman carcass & batteries?
 
A few years ago we had one of those traveling tool wholesalers come into town with their semi trailer loaded with tools. Waited till the last day of their sale and offered to buy all of their broken, non-functioning angle grinders. Got a large box with about 20 angle grinders in it - only paid $5.00 (that's right, FIVE DOLLARS) for the entire box load. Got them home and started switching & swapping parts until I ended up with seven good working angle grinders, plus a whole lot of spare parts. Can't beat that. LOL!

Doc
 
Yep, Sears and their no support policy...they taught me 25 years ago not to buy from them if I was looking for longevity. Can't remember the last time I was in their store.
 

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