Bosch belt sander, it’s poorly:(

[wolfracesonic]

Just tried to use my Bosch PBS 75 belt sander (blue one) and it failed to proceed as well as emitting smoke. Now I don’t think the smoke is connected with a new Pope, so I’m guessing this is terminal? The rollers don’t appear to be jammed brushes don’t seem too bad and nothing seems to be out of place, so time to make an offering to the tool Gods?

[trickywoo]

Could be worth blowing it with compressed air or aerosol contact cleaner.

Ideally you’d disassemble a bit first but maybe not worth it with potential Jesus springs.

I had success with a router doing that cleaning that had similar symptoms.

[wolfracesonic]

Yes, I’ve had it apart and vacuumed all the crud out but no joy

[Peanut Gallery]

How much of the brushes remain? - although the smoke is stored in the windings normally.

If the brushes are worn you might get away with a clean of the commutator and new brushes, (check continuity first). Failing that you may need a bottle of smoke refill, the first one I came across was for positive earth cars only -

[wolfracesonic]

I cleaned the commutator bar(?) with some wet n dry, got it a bit shinier but it didn’t alter anything: I’ve had loads of tools suffer from worn brushes in the past, they usually seem to slowly give up the ghost and and make an arty farty sound, the sander didn’t rotate at all, released the smoke and made a godawful noise. I may swap the brushes as a last shot, that’s about the limit of my electrical knowledge, otherwise it’s £200.00 for a replacement: do Wera make belt sanders I wonder

[JoshSm]

If the motor or the controller has popped there might be a chance of getting one as a spare from Bosch? Only so many things that could have cooked, a sniff or two might track it down as the smells are usually strong and distinctive.

It's a decent unit and repairable so worth a go.

[JoshSm]

Assuming its a GBS 75 (the blue one) not the green PBS, then you can get a whole motor for it for a reasonable price, or just the individual parts of the motor for much less if you know which bit popped. Or the controller/switch which feels like the bit more likely to pop from age/disuse rather than the motor itself?

I'd carefully bench run it & see if volts are getting to the motor first then check the motor itself.

[ferret50]

One of these?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-pbs-75-a-3-electr...

Not woth fiddling with at that price?

[wolfracesonic]

^ That’s the general version but mines the blue professional one, £200.00+

[OutInTheShed]

I think you can get a fixed price repair for out of warranty Bosch tools?

[heisthegaffer]

Oddly my baby Bosch drill caught fire when I was using it at the weekend. Was a bizarre experience.

Only a 12v drill driver, 60 quids worth and it had a good innings.

Hope you get sorted OP.