1 1/8 hp motor swap

[brianvw]

I have a 1955 SS where the 3/4 hp motor is still running fairly well. I see that Shopsmith has a sale on the 1 1/8 hp motor (516152). Is the upgrade worth it, and how difficult is it to swap out the motors? Thanks

[JPG]

Once the four #3 phillips head screws are out, it is fairly easy.

That said, if it is still running 'strong', why bother?

[retiredsoldier919]

I have a 1955 SS where the 3/4 hp motor is still running fairly well. I see that Shopsmith has a sale on the 1 1/8 hp motor (516152). Is the upgrade worth it, and how difficult is it to swap out the motors? Thanks

If you have an old AO Smith 3/4hp motor, and it's working fine, keep with it. These AO Smiths are much better than the Emerson motors of today.

[dusty]

I have a 1955 SS where the 3/4 hp motor is still running fairly well. I see that Shopsmith has a sale on the 1 1/8 hp motor (516152). Is the upgrade worth it, and how difficult is it to swap out the motors? Thanks

If you have an old AO Smith 3/4hp motor, and it's working fine, keep with it. These AO Smiths are much better than the Emerson motors of today.

Please explain. What is it that you do no like about the Emerson motor. I have been running with one (actually with four) for nearly 25 years and I have had no negative experience with the Emerson. Maybe, just maybe you are fond of the AO Smith for the same reason I prefer Emerson. That is what is in our machines.

I have a friend who was for many years a die hard Ford fan. He remained that way until recently when he inherited (free and clear) an almost new Dodge Ram pickup. Yup, you get the picture. He swapped over.

[billmayo]

My opinion rubbed off on David. I found a ratio of three Emerson motors to one AO Smith motor that had burned or shorted in the non-operating motors I have removed. I have discarded more than a dozen Emersion motors that the windings were cooked or shorted. It appears you can over load and burn the Emersion motor quicker or more easy than the AO Smith motor. Also I could not reverse wire the Emersion motor where as the 1 1/8 HP AO Smith is easy to reverse wire.

[retiredsoldier919]

My opinion rubbed off on David. I found a ratio of three Emerson motors to one AO Smith motor that had burned or shorted in the non-operating motors I have removed. I have discarded more than a dozen Emersion motors that the windings were cooked or shorted. It appears you can over load and burn the Emersion motor quicker or more easy than the AO Smith motor. Also I could not reverse wire the Emersion motor where as the 1 1/8 HP AO Smith is easy to reverse wire.

Well I did not want to speak for Bill, but that's a major part of my view on Emerson motors. Also I've had a 10ER with an old AO Smith motor that has proven to be indestructible up to this day.
My limited exposure to Emerson motors has not been favorable and Bill's opinion fits my view.

[reible]

My opinion rubbed off on David. I found a ratio of three Emerson motors to one AO Smith motor that had burned or shorted in the non-operating motors I have removed. I have discarded more than a dozen Emersion motors that the windings were cooked or shorted. It appears you can over load and burn the Emersion motor quicker or more easy than the AO Smith motor. Also I could not reverse wire the Emersion motor where as the 1 1/8 HP AO Smith is easy to reverse wire.

We are missing a lot of data here to make any logical conclusions from what has been said. Now if and only if half of the machines that were looked at had either the emerson or the smith motor then the fact that the ration of 3 to 1 would mean something.

From my small sample of 4 100% have been emerson and 100% haven't failed. From that I'd have to say that most machines might have emerson with only a limited number having smith......... but only because of my sample.

So before we go off the deep end we need more facts.

Ed

[thunderbirdbat]

I agree about the missing data. How many units have Smith motors? How many have Emerson motors? Is the reason that Bill has repaired/replaced so many Emerson motors because there are three times (or more) as many of them in service? The only data I can see from the info presented; is that he needs to stock three times the amount of repair parts for Emerson versus Smith motors and the Smith motor can be wired for reverse operation.

[dusty]

We know that Shopsmith has used GE, AO Smith and Emerson motors. There may be more. Are these motors spread across all vintages or is there a time frame when each was a supplier? My machines are all real late 80's to early 90s and all have Emerson motors even the power stations and the Crafters Station.

Whose motor is Shopsmith selling right now?

[billmayo]

To make a short story much longer, I believe Shopsmith has used Emerson motors since the mid 80s. Therefore there should be a lot more Emersion motor headstocks operating than AO Smith or GE motor headstocks. I do not believe there is any design faults in the Emerson motors. My situation is unique, I tried to buy all the non-operating Shopsmiths or really cheap ones for 12 years that was listed on Craig's List in Florida. There was 50 to 70 Shopsmiths listed each day on Craig's List with around 10 new listing each week. I telephoned and/or Emailed each of the Shopsmith sellers asking that my information be passed to the new buyer or if the price was reduced, to contact me. I brought around 2% of these Shopsmiths (about 100). I made a trip around Florida every 3 or so months for 8 years picking up 2 to 5 Shopsmiths and sometimes delivering rebuilt Shopsmiths. For 3 years starting in 2009, I really went after the 510s (with Emerson motors) as I had obtained many sets of 520 rails and fences when Shopsmith closed their warehouse. I obtained around 2 dozen 510s with about 10 having bad motors. I brought replacement motors from Ebay sellers.

Now, why do Shopsmith motors overheat and burn sometimes. I believe the 510 table mis-alignment (many Forum posts) may have caused most of the Emerson motor problems that I saw. The saw blade would jam when ripping long boards and the breaker did not trip (20 Amp) when the operator was too slow to turn the motor off but most times it was when the operator tried to restart the headstock with the saw blade still in the board and the saw blade was really slow to get up to speed again. This allows the run and start windings to draw current (18-22 Amps) for a long period of time overheating the motor. This was from talking to several of the sellers.