I have a parkside router that is part of the 12 volt range of power tools. I was using it today and found that it got incredibly hot, to the point where it was too hot to touch during use. Is this a sign of a faulty product or am I using it wrong?
1 Answer
I have spent some time using this tool myself and I have found that it does often get very hot if you are pushing it hard. If the cutting bit is deep into the wood and the wood is quite hard, the router is going to have to work very hard in order to cut through this piece of wood. You have to remember that the motor on this router is quite small. It is a fraction of the size of a standard size router. If you are going to be ploughing this thing through pieces of wood, it is more than likely going to cause it to burn out. If you find you need to be cutting through large amounts of timber, then it might be best to invest in a more powerful router, perhaps one with a mains power. This way you do not have to worry about burning it out so fast.
The v12 range is generally for smaller, handy jobs. A quick 5 minute routing job that is needed as a finishing touch rather than something that requires several hours of detailed work.
I am not sure what the project you are working on is but I would suggest you trim off the wood in smaller chunks. Use half the width of the bit rather than the full thing and slowly cut away at the wood. This should stop it having to work so hard to keep on top of wood that is being thrown at it.
