Shopsmith Forums

For about three days now, I have been experiencing times when my Mark V would not turn on. This is always momentarily a frightening experience. It could always be the motor.

I opened it up and cleaned out all the saw dust and then applied the compressed air. Great. It works. Must have been dust in the centrifugal switch. Relief. It is not the motor.

Back to work.

Oops. It doesn't work. Same symptoms.

Plug it into another wall outlet. Aah, there is goes. Might have a worn out wall outlet. Plan: Finish my wood working tasks and then change the receptacle.

Changed out the receptacle. It's back working plugged in where I normally do. Seems to work okay. Call it a day.

Next morning I'm just curious. Plug in the Shopsmith to make sure yesterdays work was a success. WHAT! It doesn't start.

Played with the Mark V power cord and switch. Switch is good but I changed the wires over to the unused side of the switch (just to eliminate the switch). With an ohmmeter, the connection still seems to be a bit flakey. By twisting and squeezing the power cord I occasionally see a change in the resistance readings.

Open up the plug with a plan to cut off a few inches of the cord and rebuild that connection. At the bench, with the plug and about eight inches of cord attached, I went to work dismantling the plug.

Oh no. Could this have been my problem all along. It felt like the screw that secures the hot lead ways not secure. The wire just fell out. Don't know if I loosened the screw that much or not.

Got the power cord all rebuilt and everything seems to be working.

Did I fix the intermittent problem or not. Only time will tell. Was my only problem from the very beginning nothing more than a loose screw in the Mark V power plug.

I don't know if I hope so or not.

Dusty
The nature of intermittents is that they are "intermittent" However the fix is sometimes also as intermittent as the original problem. More than one problem?
Bill V

I had to go to the hardware store and while I was there I bought a new 25' 14/3 extension cord and a new plug for the extension cord.

I debated with myself about getting a 12 gauge extension cord but decided against it. In my opinion, the Mark V just does not warrant a 12 gauge cord. I have been running much too long on a 14ga/15amp service and a 14 gauge power cord to need more and not know it.

If it would have run better by feeding it on 12ga/20amp service, I'll never know.

Right now, the Shopsmith is plugged into that extension cord and I am going to operate that way for a short while. I want to see if that longer cord has any adverse effect on startup and operation.

After this test period, the extension cord will become the new Mark V power cord. From that 25' extension I should also end up with about a 10' extension cord.

dusty wrote: I don't know if I hope so or not.

IIWM, I would be thankful it is 'fixed'.

Just chalk it up to 'not looking for the obvious' and remember the next time.

Ignore the 'ego' hit!:D

[quote="JPG40504"]IIWM, I would be thankful it is 'fixed'.

Just chalk it up to 'not looking for the obvious' and remember the next time.]

I will be thankful when I "know" that it is actually fixed. Since this first began, I have thought it was fixed three times.

As for an ego, I shed my ego on matters like this many years ago. I think I was laying in the belly of an aircraft trying to fix a navigational system when that happened. My ego got fried.

dusty wrote:I will be thankful when I "know" that it is actually fixed. Since this first began, I have thought it was fixed three times.

As for an ego, I shed my ego on matters like this many years ago. I think I was laying in the belly of an aircraft trying to fix a navigational system when that happened. My ego got fried.

I may have read too much into the hope so or not comment.

So were you on your belly or your back when 'it' was fried?:D

I had the same problem a two years ago (Model 510). I replaced the power switch and havn't had a problem since.

I went all through the same problem on my 1981 Model 500 Shopsmith a month ago. Replaced the switch and cleaned the motor up. It turned out to be a bad chord right next to the plug (all original). So I cut off 6" of chord and the original plug and just put a new heavy duty plug on and problem solved. But I found the problem by turning on the Shopsmith when it didn't start and wiggling the wire all the way from the motor to the wall and discovered that it started up when I wiggled the wire at the receptacle. I use it every day now and no problems starting.

mountain4don wrote:I went all through the same problem on my 1981 Model 500 Shopsmith a month ago. Replaced the switch and cleaned the motor up. It turned out to be a bad chord right next to the plug (all original). So I cut off 6" of chord and the original plug and just put a new heavy duty plug on and problem solved. But I found the problem by turning on the Shopsmith when it didn't start and wiggling the wire all the way from the motor to the wall and discovered that it started up when I wiggled the wire at the receptacle. I use it every day now and no problems starting.

So, was this caused by years of unplugging by pulling on the cord at an angle rather than grasping the plug itself.

bduemig wrote:I had the same problem a two years ago (Model 510). I replaced the power switch and havn't had a problem since.

DITTO!!!!!! In fact, I swaped the DC3300 switch with the one in the headstock. Then ordered a new switch. Problem FIXED!!!

Can you count the number of times the power switch has been thrown off and on? Things wear out!