Repairing Tools: Power Cords

A quick chat about electricity and repairing tools...

UNPLUG IT!  DON'T TEST IT WHILE IT'S TAKEN APART!  DON'T DO THIS WHILE YOU ARE DRUNK! 

DON'T BE STUPID!  I'm not responsible if you can't follow those guidelines, or even if you can! 

Depending on your mechanical aptitude, your tool kit may consist of one of those 10in-one screw drivers and a pliers.  On the other end of the spectrum, you may have a full machine shop, wood shop, welding booth and paint booth.  Me, I fall in the middle.  Like most Americans, I have limited funds, which means I have to do with what I have, save until I can afford that next tool or borrow one!  Recently I have been borrowing a table saw, which has been awesome.  But Tuesday night I decided the circular saw I got over 8 years ago for a wedding gift (I have an awesome aunt who picked it out for me) would be faster and easier... unfortunately this allowed me to be careless as well.  About 0.05 seconds in to cutting a board, I felt a quick jerk, similar to a fish grabbing your hook, before my saw stopped working...

Whoopsie!  My saw with the handle taken apart...

As you may have guessed, I cut the power cord about 18" from where it terminates inside the saw.  Being a handy fellow ("Hey, if the women don't find you handsome, at least they'll find you handy!"), I quickly got out my duct tape and... eh, no.  I didn't do that...

As you can see above, I took off part of the handle so I could get to the guts of the saw.  Below is a better picture.

Holding the switch in my hand.

These saws use a trigger switch in the handle to control the flow of electrons to the motor.  The eyelet terminals on the ends of the wires would have to be replicated on the plug end of the power cord if I was going to use this saw again!

Here's what I would have to re-create

In this case, I was very fortunate to have just the supplies on hand!  I originally bought this kit because I wanted to make a Steven Harris battery backup system, but unfortunately never have, due to the cost of the batteries.  But the tool kit that I bought for this is pictured below.  It's a
Neiko® 50413A Wire Terminal and Connection Kit with Crimpers/Wire Stripper | 175 Piece Set.

 

The wire terminal and connection kit, with crimpers!

At roughly $13 (current price), this thing is a must for anyone who repairs anything!  I've used this to repair a laundry dryer for somebody, numerous things around the house and now my circular saw.  I highly recommend you get two of them!

Okay, back to fixing things...

Trimming the remaining cable to square off the ends

You can see in the background of the pictures above that eyelets were installed on the ends of the wire and attached to the switch via screws.  This means I needed to put new eyelets on the remaining power cable.  To do that, I first trimmed the cable flush and peeled back the liner a few inches, matching the length of the white and black wires sticking out to the original. 

Strip the wires...

Slip the eyelet on...

Crimp the eyelet in place...

Slip the cable protector back over the cord...

Screw the power cable back down on the switch...

Let's take a moment here... looking at the above picture, I should have made the black wire a little bit shorter.  I could have cut the eyelet off, trimmed the cord to the right length and put a new eyelet back on, but instead I just decided to fold the wire into the handle frame.  If this saw a lot of movement, I'd be more inclined to do the just described fix, but this should stay in place and I doubt I'll have any problems.  If I do, well I guess I can fix it again!

Everything tucked back in place...

The final picture...

Electricity- If this had been a DC current tool, it would have been extremely important that I put the wires back exactly as I had found them.  In this case, my saw runs on your typical power grid 60hertz alternating current power supply.  It doesn't matter if you swap the white and black wires, it would still work. 

So there you have it, I could have forked out a lot of money to buy a new saw, but instead I burned through a couple cents worth of electrical connectors and an hour of my time.  Learn to fix your own tools, one day you might have no other choice!

Stay safe out there and God Bless!