Shopsmith Forums

out of no where my SS in tripping the surge protector, breaker, or whatever i plug it into. i turn on the power switch and within 2-3 seconds of the motor starting up it trips the breaker. yes i have tried only plugging the SS in and nothing else. i looked at the wiring on the switch and while old and alittle rattly it was all hooked up and seemed to be correct. im not much into electrical stuff so poking around and shocking myself in a trail and effort way of finding things aint gonna work. any suggestions would be a big help.

seems like the days i have free to do a project i have to end up spending them fixing the tools i was gonna use that day lol

1) Does anything else 'go powerless' when the breaker is tripped(making sure you have eliminated ALL other things which may be controlled by that breaker)?

2) Is that a 15A or 20A breaker?(15A MUST be supplying ONLY the ss)!!!

3) How far away from the breaker panel is the ss?(further the worser!)


4) From your description, do you have a 3/4hp motor? If so are you attempting to start it up while set to a high speed(particularly onerous if a sanding disk is attached). Starting up at slow, greatly decreases the duration of the startup current surge.

5) See previous post by Beeg!!!!






Edit: Went back and looked at your previous thread - no you do Not have a 3/4HP motor, but the 1 1/8HP motor has a larger current surge. All else still is applicable!

I have found with other tool, the GAGE of the extension cord you might me using, can cause breakers to trip. My SS trips once in a while but I am using a whimpy gage cord and until I get a beefyer (what a wonderful word--use that in scrabble) cord I don't feel I can diagnose the problem..again this is in my world:rolleyes:

TH workshop wrote:out of no where my SS in tripping the surge protector, breaker, or whatever i plug it into. i turn on the power switch and within 2-3 seconds of the motor starting up it trips the breaker. yes i have tried only plugging the SS in and nothing else. i looked at the wiring on the switch and while old and alittle rattly it was all hooked up and seemed to be correct. im not much into electrical stuff so poking around and shocking myself in a trail and effort way of finding things aint gonna work. any suggestions would be a big help.

seems like the days i have free to do a project i have to end up spending them fixing the tools i was gonna use that day lol

Get the headstock set to high speed if it is not already. To do this without power, mount the sanding disk and while turning the sanding disk move the speed dial to FAST.

Take the drive belt off of the motor. Make sure it is clear and turn on the Mark V.

Does it start with no load?

Turn the Mark V OFF. Turn the sanding disk by hand. It should move throughout the rotation with the same level of resistance.

Don't forget that the circuit breaker may be approaching its end of expected service life. It isn't uncommon for a circuit brealer's internals to break down for a multitude of reasons.

SS has just been serviced a few weeks ago and has been running perfectly with no problems. have tried it in different outlets in the garage. some with surge protectors and without and just about every combo of things i could think of to get power. just had a tornado come a few miles from where i live so yea that kinda slowed things down as far as trouble shooting right now. will have to mess with it later

its a late 80's - early 90's mark v dont know what motor and all that untill i take the cover off. the set speed right now is about half speed

Circuit breaker could be the problem. You also mention a surge protector. Are you using a surge protector on your ShopSmith? If you are, the surge protector could also be going bad and also causing the breaker to blow.

Could Surge Protector or Circuit Breaker = Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFI/GFCI?) These can cause problems as well.

How old is your house and it's electrical system?

Are you tripping the breaker over at the main box, or the GFI at the outlet you're plugging into. Your description isn't clear to me.

If nothing else, try plugging it into another outlet/circuit and see if the problem follows the machine, or the circuit/outlet.