I’ve had the X-Carve with the Dewalt 611 and have been using it pretty much trouble free for the past 3 months or so. Last night, however, it seems my Dewalt suddenly went kaput. I had started a carving project in the early evening and then sat down to watch a movie. Unfortunately I fell asleep and woke up several hours later. I went out to the garage to check the project and was perplexed as to why everything was silent (knowing from experience that even if the project was done I’d hear the Dewalt still running). The project was done, the Dewalt had gone back to the “Home” position, the Dewalt light was still on, but it wasn’t running. Switch was still “ON.” Bit wasn’t locked up, it was easily movable by hand. Flipped the Dewalt switch on and off a few times, unplugged it…still the same condition no matter what I try.
Looking around here it seems like this could be a brushes issue? I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t something else to try. If it was brushes it just seems odd that it didn’t die until the end of the project. I think I also always thought the brushes would be a gradual thing rather than somebody suddenly flipping a “kill” switch. A bit frustrating too because I’ve only been using this for about 3 months and I haven’t done a lot of work with it since then. Maybe an average of 4 hours a week over that 3 months.
Anyway, thought I’d check here before I go out and order some new brushes.
Thanks for the response, Phil. I also suspected that it would be odd for it to just up and die with no warning whatsoever. That’s why I was thinking there was the possibility it could be something other than brushes. I’ll pull it apart today and take a look.
it may have given a sign that it was about to go but you were out studying the insides of your eyelids and was not there to see/hear it.
1 Like
Plus the higher RPM the faster it can go out. If you were running it high it could easily have gone out while you were out. I’d say you were very lucky it finished job first! 
Thanks for all the comments. I took it apart and it appears it’s the brushes. I have some on order. Still frustrating that they seem to have gone out so quickly. Four hours a week for three months and they’re already toast? I never run the RPM higher than the #1 setting either. I’ve ordered several extra just in case this happens again.
It seems the lifespan is not consistent. My last router just kept going and going, I just changed the brushes on it yesterday after several months of 6-8 hours of cutting 6 days a week and several on Sunday. But the one I had before lasted like half the time.
But changing the brushes is such a breeze it’s not really that big of a deal.
I have killed 2 Dewalt routers so far in thee months. Someone told me that I didn’t need to be running it full speed. It was wise advise. Whem I start the carve I adjust the router to each project. I seldom go over 1 or 2. By the way the Dewalt DWP611 was $99. I bought a another one for backup.
