Shopsmith Forums

Howdy,

I have the very handy remote switch connected to the DCS3300. It works great and saves many steps in the shop.

Last night, we had one heck of a thunderstorm with several power outages. Today, when I went down to the shop, the 3300 was running. The air was nice and clean, but I think I"ll unplug the remote the next time I leave the shop.

Does anyone unplug their shop tools during thunderstorms like we do with computers and electronics?

Best Regards,
mike

Who made the switch, Mike? Was it the one we supply? If so, I can ask the manufacturer about this phenomenon.

With all good wishes,

Howdy Nick,

Indeed, it was number 556021, Wireless On/Off Switch.

Best Regards,
mike

Mike,

I have just made it a habit to unplug my tools when they are not in use.

As for thunderstorms, I have worked through a few with no problems. Any surge big enough to harm the SS would probably blow your breakers first. It's the little surges that can harm a computer.

Hawk

I'm not sure about a remote switch. It probably does not have the security of a cell phone, wireless phone or blackberry. It probably does not have the six pin security of a garage door opener. Thus, a car door opener, a garage opener, or a thunder storm might activate the switch. I'm sort of old fashioned. I use a foot plate to activate the SS dust collector. I have a foot plate for the Dremel. And I have a reostate type foot plate for the pool motor that turns the polisher. I control the SS510 with its own little red switch. I seldom unplug my tools at night. That said, If I know my granddaughter is visiting I unplug the main extensions.
Now for another story. After the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, my house was badly damaged. We turned off the gas, but the electric to the town was cut. Water seeped into the electrical conduit from the many breaks, and when power was restored the house burned down. The fire started in the garage where the rechargers were all plugged in, in a corner. Maybe I should have cut the power at night?
Can't comment on thunder storms. We only have one a decade out here.
Keep on making sawdust. Gary.

kalynzoo wrote:Can't comment on thunder storms. We only have one a decade out here.

Are you serious? One a week here in the spring and summer is considered a good week. I like watching the sky light up at night during a thunderstorm. I can do without the hail and high winds, though, not to mention the occasional tornado. At least we don't have earthquakes, until last week anyway.

I never realized how often we have thunderstorms in iowa until i started working for a power company. It's pretty cool to be able to go back and look through the outage data that we have for the past week/month/year...

Luckily I'm not a lineman though... no 3 am mornings for me!!

You want lightning come to Tampa. I never saw so much lightning in all my life. I worked in computers and our Uninterrupted Power Supplies were kept busy handling the outages. Plus our building had a skelton of copper over it to ground the hits.

We have a cypress swamp behind our house on the other side of a 150 foot wide pond. After nearly every storm I pick wood scrapnel out of my back yard where the trees got hit and blew apart.

I unplug everything and even the monitor from the computer to try to mimimize damage in some storms.
Ed

brown_hawk wrote:Mike,

I have just made it a habit to unplug my tools when they are not in use.

As for thunderstorms, I have worked through a few with no problems. Any surge big enough to harm the SS would probably blow your breakers first. It's the little surges that can harm a computer.

Hawk

Even electric motors have wiring that can "fuse" together given a powerful enough surge, but most electrical devices that DO NOT have "modern" circuitry, i.e., capacitors, diodes, transistors, circuit boards, etc., can withstand pretty good jolts. The trouble is, a lot of things DO have that now]http://www.ridgidforum.com/forum/images ... tongue.gif[/IMG]

I have another solution for your switch turning on by itself: When we have power failures, my touch lamps turn on by themselves, when the power returns.

So you want to know if others have the same problem with remote switches during a thunderstorm and the answer is yes I do. I try to turn my dust collector off now when I leave the shop. I use X10 in my whole house and use their video cams also. The thunders storms drive the wireless system crazy the hard wired switches are not affected. And of course in the shop I have a wireless switch hooked up to the dc so I can turn it on and off during my ss time. It works great I just have to remember to turn it off at the source when I leave I have come home from work several time during a storm to find the DC just running away all by itself.