Speed changed while not running - help in Chicago?

[dougtallacksen]

Hey all,

My brother recently adjusted the speed on my Mark V 510 while it wasn't running. He simply didn't know that is a no-no.

I tried calling Shopsmith and they advised to check one of two things. The first (easy one) -- the speed control gear wasn't the problem. The second required me opening things up a bit to look inside. I've followed instructions I've found on this site but I simply don't have the deep experience with the Shopsmith to know what things are supposed to be like.

I'm in the North side of Chicago proper and wonder if anyone is willing to come share their experience (and fixit abilities?) with me? If necessary, I could also try to borrow a friend's pickup and bring the machine out to you.

I just want to get my Mark V back up and running (and maybe learn a bit in the process).

I'm glad to pay you something for your time and effort.

Doug

[reible]

Hi,

I live in Aurora but never go into the city. If you want to bring it this far then I will look at it with you. More then likely you can get a better offer then this but if not...

If you have a digital camera you can take out a few screws to take the belt cover off and then take the logo cover off and take some pictures of the inside we may well be able to see what things might be wrong from right here at our computers.

Another option which could work but also might do some damage if things are in a bad way inside is to blindly do the following.

Unplug the head stock.

Put the 12" disk sander on the headstock then hand rotate the shaft to see what happens. You might have gotten lucky and nothing is really wrong. If the shaft is rotating without you having to strong arm it you can then start turning the speed control while turning the shaft with the disk sander towards "slow". Once at "slow" you can try plugging it in and powering up. Keep you finger on the switch and just toggle it on and off and listen for any strange noises. Do that several time and if it sounds good leave it on for a while and then start tuning the speed up. If the dial gets really hard to turn, you hear an odd noise or the shopsmith doesn't speed up then you have a problem and will have to open it up. If you can turn it up to "fast", then turn it back to "slow", and the rpm change as you do then it is most likely still OK. Now you can take a ruler and give your brother's knuckles a wrap with it or use what ever other training method you have to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Ed

[JPG]

First thing(s) first.

Did he turn it towards fast, or slow?

Have you tried turning it on(if you haven't, do not do so 'yet').

If the answer to question 1 is 'fast', there is probably no damage.

If the answer to question #1 is 'slow', have you attempted to turn it back towards 'fast'. If yes and it does not want to turn, do not force it. If yes and it turns, fairly easily, it will probably be ok.

Attach the sanding disk as Ed suggested, but first try going toward fast, after determining attempting to rotate the disk does not expose a binding problem. If it rotates easily, and easily adjusts towards fast, reverse and adjust to slow(continue manually rotating the disk through out).

Once down to slow, try turning it on as Ed suggested.


If the disk does expose a binding condition, the drive belt has probably dropped too far into the control sheave and is 'caught' between the sheave halves. The 'fix' is to remove the drive belt from the motor shaft pulley thus releasing the tension on the belt allowing adjusting the speed control to fast thus opening up the idler pulley sheave halves and releasing the drive belt.

Unless you have tried starting it and either the motor smoked, or metallic grinding/clanging noises resulted there is probably no permanent damage.

I do hope that is the case!:)