I used my Conair HC318R hair clipper for several years. Until its batteries couldn't hold enough charge to last a single cutting session, at which point the blades were pretty worn as well. It was replaced by a Remington HC-920 which was itself retired after several years of service. Tearing down a retired hair clipper will scatter tiny bits of hair all over my workbench, so I'm working through my backlog of three retired clippers all at once.

Going into this second teardown, I expect to find minor execution detail differences between these two broadly similar devices. Previous compare-and-contrast teardowns included two inexpensive coffee makers (Black and Decker DCM600B vs. Mr. Coffee BVMC-SC05BL2-1) and two chop-type coffee grinders. (Hamilton Beach CM04 80344 vs Bodum 11160-3)

I picked up the first major difference from the product label: the Conair listed 4.5V but this Remington only lists its voltage at 3V. This implies two nickel-cadmium battery cells in series instead of three as in the Conair. Theoretically it meant the Remington was less powerful, but if so, the difference wasn't enough for me to notice. This may be because I didn't have a fair back-to-back comparison. I would have been comparing the Conair with worn-out blades and batteries against a new Remington.

Both clippers had two prominent Philips-head screws on the cutting head, allowing easy removal of the outer fixed blade less-easy removal of the inner moving blade. This allows us to clean out hair that may have accumulated between the two blades or against the motor-driven crank seen here. This Remington used machine screws threaded into a piece of metal, which should be more durable and longer-lasting than Conair's approach of using screws that self-tap into plastic. In practice, the longevity was not a problem, though that may be more a commentary on my cleaning frequency (not very) than on mechanical design.

There were two less-prominent screws holding the thing together. One at the base of the handle, and one in the length-adjustment lever. They were recessed but otherwise exposed on the Conair, the Remington added cosmetic covers over them for better aesthetics. Once removed, a metal bracket at the front (what the cutting head machine screws held into) could be slid off, then we can open the enclosure.

Unlike the Conair, Remington has this additional metal strap to hold the motor in place. There's a piece of foam between the strap and the motor to dampen vibration. The strap are held by a pair of Philips-head screws which had this orange material on top. It may just be a thread locking mechanism, but having orange stuff in the fastener head made things more difficult to remove.

As inferred by the 3V DC listed outside, there is a pair of Sanyo-made AA-sized nickel cadmium battery cells inside.

As I lifted the innards, I could see some external signs of failure on this battery cell. Not sure if this is corrosion from leaking chemicals or something else, all I know is I should avoid touching it.

The Remington circuit board is even simpler than Conair's board, showing a slightly different evolution. Here R1 was deemed unnecessary and replaced with a solder bridge.

All disassembled components will meet fates similar to their Conair counterparts. Metal will be recycled, plastic will go into landfill. The battery will be added to a collection of nickel-cadmium batteries that will be turned in for responsible disposal. The charging barrel jack will stay with the AC adapter for potential reuse.

I started removing this shiny brass metal crank from the motor output shaft but changed my mind. First, unlike the Conair motor mount + crank, it didn't trap much hair and could be cleaned up. Second, it was fastened very tightly and would be a lot of effort to remove. Third, I might want to build a reciprocating motion device at some point, and it'd be handy to have this motor already set up ready to go. Fourth, it looks really nice I wouldn't know what else to do with it anyway.

And finally, there's no rush. I already have a nearly identical motor salvaged from the Conair unit, with the plastic crank already removed. I'll worry about removing that piece of brass onceI have an actual need to do so. Right now, I have a third hair clipper to take apart.