Shopsmith Forums

The motor (1 1/8 HP) on my Mark V recently failed. During usage when I switched on the motor just buzzed. My first thought was sawdust build up and. as I do not have an airline I used a photo compressed air canister to blow out what dust I could, without success. I then thought that failure of the capacitor could be the problem so I took it to a local electric motor repair shop. A couple of days later I had a phone call to say that there was no fault with my motor. Before working on it they had blown it out thoroughly with an airline and when they switched it on it worked perfectly. It is obvious that removal of a dust build up can need a considerable air pressure. (OK I know that my maintenance program has not been sufficient to prevent this - I'll try harder in future!!)

rayjack wrote:The motor (1 1/8 HP) on my Mark V recently failed. During usage when I switched on the motor just buzzed. My first thought was sawdust build up and. as I do not have an airline I used a photo compressed air canister to blow out what dust I could, without success. I then thought that failure of the capacitor could be the problem so I took it to a local electric motor repair shop. A couple of days later I had a phone call to say that there was no fault with my motor. Before working on it they had blown it out thoroughly with an airline and when they switched it on it worked perfectly. It is obvious that removal of a dust build up can need a considerable air pressure. (OK I know that my maintenance program has not been sufficient to prevent this - I'll try harder in future!!)

Be thankful that your motor shop is guided by an honest merchant. I believe many people are taken advantage of in situations like this.

Read Bill Mayo's comments regarding this subject. He has made the point several times that sawdust in the centrifugal switch is often the cause of this set of symptoms. The motor is attempting to start (the buzz) without the benefit of the increased startup current produced by the start capacitor which is not in the circuit if the centrifugal switch is loaded up with sawdust.

That's how I got my $40 dust collector. The owner said it just hummed and he was getting out of the hobby anyways. Sucked some sawdust out and it fired right up. Still/will drag it back out of the basement and blow it out with the compressor.

Glad to hear your back in business.

HURRAY!!!!! Glad u r back in business. As Dusty said, u r luckey to have gone to the right motor shop!

BTW FWIW computer compressed air attempt was similar to urinating in the pacific ocean. The air in a can is intended to blow DUST(enie menie tinie pieces of lint). Sawdust is bigger and heavier. The volume of airflow was also feeble for the task.

Give ya credit for original innovation attempt though!