Dcd996 bites the dust

Well like the title says, guys killed a dcd996 today.  Drilled one hole fine went to drill a second hole and the trigger went dead, nothing not even the light will come on.  Found a new motor and switch assembly on ebay for 1/3 of the price of ereplacementparts.

No shit, did you have it a long time  ? Looks like the older model….if I did that to my drill it would never go back the same, …lol

Bought it December of 2016 so it really only had one year of use but it’s out of warranty.  It’s the 996, it has the new light with selector switch.  That’s the thing with these brushless tools, everything comes as a package already soderd together (motor, trigger, electronics, battery connector) you just lift everything out and set the new one in.  I’ve had to do it on a couple milwaukees it’s pretty easy.  It takes some of the trouble shooting out of it but at the same time you could be paying $100 to replace a faulty $20 trigger.[External image (i.ebayimg.com), not copied]

This is what you get.

Well it did it again, the guys were pushing the drill pretty hard today and it went dead.  No lights nothing. 

Has anyone experienced this with a dcd996? I mean from the little bit I’ve used it, it seems like a solid drill except now the electronics have crapped the bed twice.  The drills only 2 years old and for $70 on ebay I can get a whole electronic assembly but now I’m debating if it’s worth trying to stick another one in the drill or just scrap it and start over with a completely new drill.

I haven’t had any of those issues with my DCD996. I would rather buy a new one just so I can get a new warranty on it.

Biggie wrote:

Well it did it again, the guys were pushing the drill pretty hard today and it went dead.  No lights nothing. 
 
Has anyone experienced this with a dcd996? I mean from the little bit I’ve used it, it seems like a solid drill except now the electronics have crapped the bed twice.  The drills only 2 years old and for $70 on ebay I can get a whole electronic assembly but now I’m debating if it’s worth trying to stick another one in the drill or just scrap it and start over with a completely new drill.

I’ve considered going that route too but my main concern is that the drill isn’t shutting itself down before it destroys itself.  I know a person should be able to figure it out before they destroy it but when it’s hired help and not their tools they get abused.

this kinda thing is why I switched to Milwaukee. Little more money up front than an eBay tool but every time it breaks I send it off and have it back in a week. My drills get beat up so the quick turnaround keeps me going. Last time I took my dewalt drill in they told me 4-6 weeks.  Just a thought since u seem to have to keep working on it. Write the numbers down and compare

We’ve actually already started to switch over to milwaukee but we still have a couple of trucks that have dewalt on them.  To be honest we’ve had pretty good luck with the 20v max stuff and milwaukee while it’s been good, hasn’t been perfect either.   The reality is we’re just hard on tools but like you said the milwaukee warranty does seem to be better.

If my dudes couldn’t keep a top of the line brushless drill running I’d question whether they were trying. 

I wasn’t there either time but the first time they were drilling 1/2″ holes into 3/8″ plate steel and it seems like no matter how many times you try to step up drill bit sizes when you get to that 1/2″ bit there’s always a little piece of metal that you have to pretty much break off.  Which usually means getting the drill up to full speed and trying to ease it into the hole only to have it come to a dead stop at least a few times before it breaks through.  They had 12 holes to drill and it happened somewhere along the way.

The second time they had to do something that required taking a 30′ long 3/8″ cable and running it through a 1/2″ water pipe and letting it hang out the end a couple feet and spin around like a helicopter.  It’s not something we do often and I’ve done it before too but when I did it I used an old piece of crap drill not my best drill.

I know all these things are nothing short of abusing the drill but they are things we’ve done before with multiple other drills.  It just seems like the 996 electronics don’t like the abuse.

Another fun fact the guys brought in a 5.0 battery this morning and said oh yea this was on the drill when it quit working and now it won’t take a charge.

Are you sure the replacement part was from dewalt? Could it have been knockoff? 

I agree those kind of tasks are heavy wear no matter how you stack it

While I can’t say with 100% certainty because the ebay seller isn’t a authorized by dewalt, I am about 99% certain that it was legit.  There would have to be a lot of attention to detail and things like part number stamping for it to be a knock off and at that point I don’t think it would be any cheaper for someone else to make.

Biggie wrote:

I wasn’t there either time but the first time they were drilling 1/2″ holes into 3/8″ plate steel and it seems like no matter how many times you try to step up drill bit sizes when you get to that 1/2″ bit there’s always a little piece of metal that you have to pretty much break off.  Which usually means getting the drill up to full speed and trying to ease it into the hole only to have it come to a dead stop at least a few times before it breaks through.  They had 12 holes to drill and it happened somewhere along the way.

Yea anyone who’s had to knows it’s not ideal nor is it fun but sometimes in the field you do what you have to do to get the job done.  While we don’t do this everyday it does happen and past drills never seemed to have this problem.  

Large steel bits are so much better on low speed, they cut far more efficiently. Running them at high speed kills the bits and the machine!

Slow it down.