Shopsmith Forums

Shop_Smith_Poppi wrote:today I was going to start tearing down my and getting it ready for the restoration process. But Jim my friend had other ideas.

He wanted to build some small boxes to put nuts and bolts in. We had a piece of plywood already and so we laid out the pieces and set up the table saw. It cut great.

When I was done cutting I found the entire machine was covered in sawdust. This brought a smile to my face and I had made five 8"x12"x4" boxes. They were not exceptional works of art but simple wood trays with butt corners that were glued and nailed.

But it was fun to use the ER for the first time. It makes me want to get the restoration started up and finished. So I can get some real projects going.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures for this one.


One thing I did note was when the ER was running if you looked into the motor you could see a small blue spark. And you could hear a noise coming form the motor every now and then, it did not seem to effect the rpm's of the saw. Jim said he thought it was dirty brushes on the motor.

Anyone have any idea what it might be if not that. I plan to check the motor out thoroughly and replace all the bearings on the entire machine.

The motors that were normally used with the 10E/ER do not have brushes. Sparks are not something I would want to see in an induction motor like I have on my 10ER. You might want to investigate.

Shop_Smith_Poppi wrote:One thing I did note was when the ER was running if you looked into the motor you could see a small blue spark. And you could hear a noise coming form the motor every now and then, it did not seem to effect the rpm's of the saw.

anmius wrote:I suspect what you saw was were the brushes rubbing on the spinning commutator. I doubt they were dirty since the working surface is constantly being abraded by rubbing. But they do wear down and occasionally need replacement. But since I don't have a 10ER, I can't be absolutely sure, but this is my best guess.