I recently got a PH3050A but fought with the quick change retainer from day one. I could rarely get the bit in or out, and it was always a fight.
I considered talking to my local truck, but I'd have to chase him down, and more importantly nothing appeared wrong with this retainer so I was very skeptical a replacement would be any better.
I finally took it apart today and indeed nothing appears worn, damaged, missing or otherwise askew.
Operating the slide collar without the spring was very illuminating because I found you pretty much have to retract that collar 100% for all 4 balls to have room to get out of the way, thus allowing the bit to release.
The problem is the spring is very strong, and compressing it this much is difficult, especially to do so in a timely fashion when time is $.
The second problem is that the ID of the collar matches the OD of the spring almost exactly, but the collar tends to slide at a bit of angle. As such the collar catches on the spring coils at the bottom as they stack on one another when compressed.
I fixed it by doing 2 things:
1) I trimmed a small amount off each end of the spring so it's a little easier to compress.
2) I chucked up the retainer and bored a short step in the bottom, allowing a greater tolerance to house compressed, stacked coils. This made a huge difference, it's much easier to use now
I considered talking to my local truck, but I'd have to chase him down, and more importantly nothing appeared wrong with this retainer so I was very skeptical a replacement would be any better.
I finally took it apart today and indeed nothing appears worn, damaged, missing or otherwise askew.
Operating the slide collar without the spring was very illuminating because I found you pretty much have to retract that collar 100% for all 4 balls to have room to get out of the way, thus allowing the bit to release.
The problem is the spring is very strong, and compressing it this much is difficult, especially to do so in a timely fashion when time is $.
The second problem is that the ID of the collar matches the OD of the spring almost exactly, but the collar tends to slide at a bit of angle. As such the collar catches on the spring coils at the bottom as they stack on one another when compressed.
I fixed it by doing 2 things:
1) I trimmed a small amount off each end of the spring so it's a little easier to compress.
2) I chucked up the retainer and bored a short step in the bottom, allowing a greater tolerance to house compressed, stacked coils. This made a huge difference, it's much easier to use now
