Fix for Kobalt Router Surging?

LowRider CNC Troubleshooting
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I have 2 Kobalt routers and they both suffered from the surging issue. The one on my LowRider hasn’t been too bad lately but noticed it again on a recent project. I did some googling and saw some mention that the speed adjustment slider may use a potentiometer and it could be an issue with the contacts on it. So, I tried it on my main Kobalt to move the slider quite a bit to hopefully clean off the contacts. It seemed to work so I tried it on my spare. It seems to also work there. We’ll have to see if this is a permanent fix but it seems promising.

Here’s a video on my spare where you can see the issue initially, then I try my fix, and it then stops surging.

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Nice. Cheers for the tip!

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Oh, thanks for this! Mine seems to be behaving the more I use it, but still freaks out a bit when I change speeds. Will give it a shot!

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Thanks, that’s a great tip.

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I’ve found that I still get some surging after awhile but it’s not as bad as it used to be. If I do it again, it seems to improve again. So, it’s not a permanent fix but it still helps.

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@jeyeager I just went out to the garage and tried this. It totally worked! When I started up the router, I set it to 2.5 and it started to pulse maniacally. Turned it off, did the “insane DJ” speed knob scratch-off, turned it back on, and every setting was smooth and even.
Thanks a ton!

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they must have gotten a batch of potentistats that sat on the ship too long during covid… just break them in and they work ok?

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Seems that way.

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I will now forever refer to this as the “insane DJ” fix. :joy:

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