Spent $80 on a variable speed angle grinder and immediately regretted it

Ngl I thought I was upgrading my game by getting a cheap variable speed grinder from a big box store. Used it once to clean up some welds on a trailer hitch and the speed control board fried after 10 minutes. Called the store and they said no returns on electrical tools after 30 days. Has anyone else had luck fixing one of these boards yourself or is it just a paperweight now?

2 comments

2 Comments

lily_stone7616d ago

Hey did you try checking the solder joints on the board? Sometimes they just crack from heat and you can reflow them with a cheap soldering iron. I had a similar issue with a cheap grinder and it was just a bad connection on the speed pot. If the board itself is fried though, it's probably toast because those parts are usually cheap and hard to find replacements for. Lesson learned for me too, I just buy corded grinders now without the variable speed nonsense unless it's a name brand.

harperp3116d ago

Yeah, you said 'the board itself is fried' and I think that's where people stop looking too soon. I actually had one that looked totally dead but it turned out the thermal paste under the heat sink had dried out and caused the board to overheat and shut down, not die permanently. Cleaning it off and putting fresh paste on got mine working again for a few more months. So before you toss the whole thing, check if there's a heat sink on that board and see if the paste is crusty. It's a long shot but I've been surprised by that fix before.

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