Dead Radial Arm Saw

Does the motor have any aroma?

hey they have about 20 shops in my area that rebuild electric motors, not the big ones the size of a human(they have them also), but they dont advertise in the yellow pages.... look in the book and see what you can find.. if you cant find any.. then call around to a/c shop( they use the motor rebuilders) appliance repair places, just tell them that you need it for a saw motor- so they wont think you are trying to beat them out of a service call for parts???

I helped a friend mount a big router on a similar saw a few years ago. Works good for plowing slots in wood. dean s

If you were able to get it to start by hitting the blade then it is likely that the starter contact or the start capacitor is bad. The capacitor is easy to replace. The starter contact on an old motor might be hard to find. If you cannot find a replacement starter contact you can wire in a manual one. This is a switch that you would hold closed momentarily while the motor spun up then you would release it.

Another thing to consider is an external starter relay. These measure the current that rushes into the motor when you first apply power. When the current is high, the relay contact closes the connect to the starter capacitor. When the motor spins up, the current reduces and the starter relay drops out. These are used in some applications where you don't want electrical contacts inside the motor like in air conditioning compressors or deep well water pumps. The starter relay must be matched to the motor. If you can find one for a motor of the same horse power, it should work.

If the windings of the motor are burned out them this won't work. You can then try to rewind the motor your self, it is not too hard.

Pete.

Pete.

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 10:39:11 -0500, Peter Reilley put forth the notion that...

Excellent advice. It's most likely either the cap or the centrifugal switch.

I had one of those. All that was wrong was that a tiny piece of plastic flash came loose INSIDE the starter relay and blocked the contacts. I shook it out of there and it worked fine.

Pete Stanaitis

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Eric Comeau wrote:

A lot of the various modesl fo Crapsman saws use a chepao start switch and its norto9rious for burning contacts or just getting dust or chips inside which prevent the motor from doing anything. I recently acquired yet another Crapsman RAS for next to nothing, and got to use it onbly a couple of times and it left out all that stored up smoke thata they usually pack inside these saws. No one around here will touch it, and no motor is available for it eigher. I may just mount a motor of 3450 rpm on it, and use it strictly for cross cutting or ripping, or just melt it doown and m,ake something usefull out of the aluminum parts Visit my website:

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Many of those are recalled by sears, last I heard they would give you $50.00 for a part off the machine.

here is the link

Geez. I know guards are a good thing but it's getting ridiculous. It's to the point where you can't even see what is being cut for all the guard stuff they have to put on (and all the warning stickers).

Radial arm saws are notorious for eating fingers though..especially when ripping thin stock. I have a 7000 RPM variable speed one that scares the hell out of me when it starts self feeding. Makes a really nice cut though at that speed.

I would personally go with scraping the radial arm, getting a table saw and good miter saw, and convert the radial arm saw to a pin router. By doing a pin router, the router (or pin depending on how you want to do it) would be fixed on the arm so you wouldn't need to monkey with adapting a router to a moving carriage. From there you can bandsaw templates and make part after part off those templates.

Koz

Wayne wrote:

ago >> that

this is the classic failure mode of a dryer motor, caused by failed/failing bearings. the motor shaft does not really give a clue when turned by hand, but there is enough drag that the motor cannot make speed.

a dryer motor does not have a start winding or cap. good luck, --Loren

Peter Reilley wrote: If you were able to get it to start by hitting the blade then it is likely that the starter contact or the start capacitor is bad. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ I thought that radial arm saws generally used brush type (AC/DC) motors. If that is what this is, there would be no starting capacitor. The motor could just need new brushes.

That recal is for a guard assembly. They will either send you a replacement guard, or you send them the yoke of the saw and they reimburse you with a check, so it actually takes that saw that maya have been working fine all these years out of the potential to have it cut someone. The saws that they want parts from to dissable them are basically saws they do not or will not make a replacement blade guard for. Typical sears and emerson electric.

Give you a couple of bucks to disable a product they sold you for a couple of hundred.

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On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 21:33:13 GMT, Leo Lichtman put forth the notion that...

Some of the $100 10" table saws use brushes, because that's about the only way to build one that cheap that has enough power. Radial arms usually have a starting capacitor. All the Craftsman radial arms I've seen had caps.

Only junk saws use universal motors. A real radial arm saw (99.9% of them) uses an induction motor.

GTO(John)

Gang, doesn't the surplus center have saw motors listed in there catalog? don't have one handy but it seem to ring a bell..

Happy Holidays! tt

Good point..... also in radial arm saws, there is a possibility of sawdust buildup in the area of the contacts, preventing closure. I would suggest he simply take the motor apart, blow it out with air from the compressor, look/clean/adjust the centrifugal contacts, reassemble and use for another 28 years. Ken.

Eric, Suggest you simply disassemble the motor (being careful of parts locations) blow the sawdust out of the motor windings, housing, etc. Look at the contacts on the centrifugal switch (you MAY want to short them out with a screwdriver tip before touching them with your hands as the cap may be holding a charge and if the contacts can't close, the cap can't discharge). Clean the contacts, check for alignment, make sure they can close when the motor is stopped and that they open when the centrifugal actuator moves it limited distance. After that, your motor will be good for another 28 years or so (providing you haven't torched the windings by letting it buzz for very long - but your breaker tripped so you will probably be fine). I have one of these saws, and worked the hell out of it since 1970 and no recall would make me take it back. It's been a great saw and have had NO problems with it. Ken.

the "big" radials i have seen, DeWalt, Sears, SawSmith could not be worn out in home use, not in 100yrs. that motor can be brought back, just find the time/interest to do it. there will be nothing "burned out", like a winding, maybe start winding contacts. --Loren