Power Tool repair business

I am an unemployed bum and need to get some money together. So I have repaired about 5 drills, my Jackamahammer, two foredom di grinders, sawzall etc. I am a legend in my own mind as far as power tool repair goes. Basically you deal with a cord, brushes, bearings, armature/commutater/switch and if it isn't beat to hell and those aren't the problem the tool is junk. You might have to resolder the armature connections but there isn't a whole lot to power tools.

I started an advert on craigsdork and I got a reply for somethone looking to repair their skill saw with a bad cord. I am thinking of asking 10$ material and 10$ labor to repair it. I have a bunch of cord repair parts, but if I really get into it I need to get cord strain relief parts as that is a major source of cord failure.

Any help or suggestions are appreciated! Anyone need a chemist?

benzbaronDaryn wrote: Anyone need a chemist?

Go Heisenberg

i don't think anyon actually repairs power tools any more- my mom's boyfriend had it in his head to order new brushes for his 10 year old Black and Decker corded drill last year.. once shipping was added in, he had close to $50 into a 10 year old drill that he could replace with a better brand new one for $45..

maybe scoop up people's broken power tools, fix them, and sell them on CL to raise some extra revenue..

this is a chemist..

I used to run a power tool repair shop.

Cheapo tool brands like Ridgid, Ryobi and the B.S. that Sears pulls with their tools have killed the business.

Good tools like Makita, Milwaukee (TTI owns Ridgid, Ryobi and Milwakuee now), DeWalt, Bosch, etc are worth the trouble to repair.

The cheap crap brands arent.

The good thing is that contractors (the good ones anyway) buy good tools and want them repaired well. You won't make any money off joe-blow homeowner though.

You can't get parts breakdowns or repair parts from Sears for their tools, you have to get them repaired by Sears.

Hilti also won't allow any repairs outside of a Hilti service center or it will void the warranty.

The Ridge Tool Company (Ridgid plumbing tools) is not the same as RIDGID power tools (garbage house-brand stuff from Home Depot)

Anything more involved than a tune-up on a lawnmower isn't worth the trouble these days.

Anything that breaks on a Dremel tool will cost more to repair than replacing the tool.

Air tools are usually worth fixing unless it's a homeowner grade tool.

Here's a list of who is who in the tool business:

Delta, Porter-Cable, DeWalt and Black & Decker are all the same company.

Bosch, Skil, Dremel and Roto-Zip are one company.

Metabo and Walter are one company.

Milwaukee, Ridgid and Ryobi are the same company (TTI) but Ridgid and Ryobi are Home Depot's in-house brands.

Craftsman used to be Emerson or Panasonic but now it's whatever factory in China is the cheapest.

Hitachi is just Hitachi.

Makita is just Makita.

Campbell Hausfeld and Speedaire are the same.

You can make some good money if you can learn to overhaul air nailers. We made good coin on those.

I'd say our biggest money makers outside of the rental business was repairs on roto-hammers, concrete breakers, air compressors and air nailers.

That's all I can think of right now. Hope it helps.

Stay away from lawn and garden stuff, there's very little money in it now that a gas string trimmer costs less than $75.00

In reply to Trans_Maro:

I'd say sorry that my choice in tools killed a business, but my Ryobi stuff has held up just as well as any of the supposedly better brands.

I can't knock em, because they've been damn fine tools and it's the only reason I continue to buy them. I can get an entire kit for what it costs just to get a dewalt drill, and my cousins dewalt stuff doesn't drive sheetmetal screws any better than my ryobi does.

I wonder about the viability of rebuilding cordless tool battery packs with new cells? It seems even Chinese replacement packs are nearly as much as the original tool. I'd think you could source individual cells cheaper, and the ones with my Makita look like they come apart.

In reply to Grizz:

If you're a homeowner / weekend warrior, that stuff is probably all you'll ever need. Moreso when you buy the cordless tools because the tool will outlive the battery.

If you need the tool to make a living and can't afford downtime, then buy the good stuff.

You might change your mind about your Ryobi drill when it's down for 6 months waiting for parts (I wish I were kidding but I'm not) and your cousin's DeWalt is back up and running a couple days later.

There's nothing really wrong with the cheaper tools if you're not using them for work. That and the after warranty support for them is awful.

We had to stop servicing Ridgid/Ryobi, Husqvarna and Karcher because of their terrible support. We were a warranty depot for those companies and it would take 6 months at times to get parts from them. The worst part was, we had no trouble getting Milwaukee parts and they're owned by the same folks as Ridgid / Ryobi.

As for the battery thing, we looked into rebuilding the packs but we couldn't source the cells cheaply enough to make it worthwhile.

Shawn

I'll ship you my Makita cordless. If you can fix it, I'll pay you.

The head itself came out of the drill so to speak... like whatever locks it in place unlocked, and now when you run the drill it just unscrews itself.

I was just going to buy a new one...

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Eh, combination of HVAC work and homeowner stuff. Don't do it as much as I used to, but my original drill held up pretty well. As it is right now, the new stuff will tear through a new install with no problem so I'm good there.

Although your parts thing makes me wonder, can I find a bunch of broken Ryobi tools on CL to scavenge spare parts? Because that would be neat.

I'm not going to look on Cragslist for someone to fix a broken $100 drill BUT I'll buy a $100 drill that works and has some scars for $60.

I think if you can lay hands on broken stuff, fix it and sell it you would be better off than trying to market a tool repair business.

Thanks for the replies, we'll see what happens. I am already my biggest/only customer so to hell with the public. It seems almost all of my tools have needed some repair.

The problem I'm seeing is how do I try and sell a metal bodied drill with a new cord, lubed gearbox, cleaned commutator, greased bearings, checked brushes, etc for over 20$. I think the throw away society is what kills this idea, I was thinking people would want to have their trusted tools repaired but there might not be any interest in that. I have cleaned out drills and made them run like new. The old black and decker 3500rpm 1/4" use all ball bearing assembly and are well made. That is one of my favorited drills.

I could just imagine new drills using a plastic/nylon gear somewhere which disintegrates in the presence of the lube. I don't really want to have to track down impossible to find parts. Funny what you say about ryobi, I have a free weedwacker and wanted to get a engine seal kit. Oh boy parts aren't easy to find, don't think they are made to be repaired.

Well thanks for the help and suggestions.

Buy air tools from swap meets and garage sales, particularly the stuck ones.

Usually, someone uses them without oiling them, then tosses them in the toolbox drawer and doesn't pull them out for a year or so.

The water in the air line has caused the air motor to stick. Tear down the air motor, clean the cylinder with some scotchbrite, re-assemble, lube and sell for a profit.

Check the local pawnshops to see if they have any broken or non-working stuff you can buy up cheap.

Buy good, brand-name tools at the flea market and swap meets to re-condition.

Good buys are the Makita 5007 and 5008 series circ saws, 9005 angle grinder and 6013BR 1/2" spade handle drill. Contractors love these tools, there's a ton of them out there and the designs haven't changed for about 20 years so they're well made, easy to make one working tool out of a bunch of broken ones.

The Black & Decker Sawcats are propular with framers, lots of power and still available under the DeWalt brand name, look for their framers saws with ball and socket swivels on the shoe plate. These are the old B&D sawcat in a DeWalt case, parts even interchange.

Don't bother with reconditioning sliding compound mitre saws. The stuff that normally breaks can be really expensive. A bent fence will set you back about $75 - $90 and the saw is no good without it.

Hope that helps.

Shawn

With the cost of Craigslist ads, why not do both.
Market yourself to contractors on being able to repair their high end stuff. Also keep a eye out on CL and yardsales, etc for cheap stuff that can be r/r'd and sold. Market that stuff to higher end home owners.

The toughest part for the pro level repair will be turn around time. Like someone else mentioned, being with out a tool for an extended time can cost them jobs. So finding parts suppliers not necessarily with the lowest price, but also with great service is key. And if their close by so normal shipping gets to you the next day is a plus.

Never though of reconditioning air tools, I figure why not. If I stick with name brands worse comes to worse I end up with a bunch of decent air tools and even if I don't sell them they are useful to me. Especially when I get the damn compressor hooked up.

Thanks Shawn. I've seen makita framing saws for pretty cheap. I figure most people don't do any maintanence on their tools then when the bearings start to whine they wonder what the problem is. I just need to find which type of grease to use in the presence of plastic as I think the regular bearing grease will eat up plastic parts.

We'll see what happens and thanks again.

90% of the problems with the Makita tools are worn out brushes and bad switches. The bearings seem to last forever.

We never had a problem with good old multipurpose grease in power tools. Try to find a light grease so it flows well.

All of the Makita, DeWalt, Milwaukee and Bosch power tool parts breakdowns are available on their websites. You can buy parts from their service centers easy enough.

If you run into a tool with a suspected bad armature or field, the smell test can be pretty accurate, if it smelles like the smoke got let out, it's bad.

Test armatures and fields with a multi-tester, if there's continuity between the metal body and any of the lead wires or commutator segments, it's shorted and gone bad.

Last, there's a tool called a "high-pot tester" these are invaluable, we bought ours on eBay for $45.00.

They are an insulation tester, I think ours did 1500 volts and 5000 volts.

You plug the tool into them, lock the trigger switch on, then hold down the test button. There is a probe that you use, touch the probe to the metal parts that should be insulated like the field frame and armature shaft. If there is a breakdown in the insulation, the tester will shut down and a light will come on indicating a short.

The high pot tester can detect a failing field or armature before the continuity test will.

It helped us drop our comeback rate under 1% You can pick up a bad armature or field that will let go a week or two later with the tester.

We had a 90 day guarantee on our repairs, even for contractors and we had a very low return rate.

Shawn

There is some good information.