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Repair Craftsman electronic radial arm saw?

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 9:57 am
by tdubnik
I have a Craftsman electronic radial arm saw that I purchased new ~20 years ago. It was my goto saw for crosscuting until about 3 years ago when the lift mechanism quit working.

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This saw has a digital readout, and uses a stepper motor to raise and lower the head. You select the height you want the balde above the table hit an action button and the saw raises or lowers to the selected height. My problem is that this function doesn't work anymore. There is no manual height adjustment so I am stuck where I am.

I am not very electronic savy so I don't know where to start troubleshooting.

I have thought of converting to a manual height adjustment but don't know if normal Craftsman parts would fit.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 8:43 pm
by pennview
tdubnik, I'd expect that most of these radial arm saws are the same. That said, I wish I had something simple to suggest, like compare the parts on my Craftsman radial arm saw from the '80s, model 113.199200/199250, to yours and see if the parts were identical except for the elevating crank mechanism on mine and the motor on yours. Unfortunately, when I looked at the Sears Parts website, I found that a number of the key parts for my elevating crank are no longer available. But, perhaps parts are still available for your model.

Aside from repairing the electronics, your best bet may be to find one in the want ads or craigslist that you could cannibalize for the needed parts or even take an ad there for one to be used for parts. Perhaps someone has one with a bad motor that could be had for cheap.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:57 am
by holsgo
That's a great saw. I'm sure there are parts out there somewhere. I have an old crank model and would never part with it. I can't help diagnose the problem but I'm sure it's occured somewhere else. Have you checked
http://www.ereplacementparts.com/
It doesn't serve craftsman but it has so much info that you may stumble on an idea.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:42 am
by tdubnik
I found the schematics for my saw herebut it seems they don't have any of the electronic parts available. I'll try to troubleshoot a little more over the next few days as time permits.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:01 am
by peterm
I recently disassembled a Ryobi radial arm 8.5" saw and have some parts that you can have for the cost of shipping. If all else fails, some or all of these might be useful if you convert to manual raise-lower.
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The column is 2.75" inside, 3.00" outside diameter.
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The screw allows about 5" of travel and is .622"diameter on the threads. I do not have the crank.
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Let me know later if this desperate opportunity is of interest. :D

Nice gesture

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:21 pm
by jimsjinx
This place anazes me. You guys all ROCK! jimsjinx

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:20 pm
by holsgo
Don't give up on the saw. I bet that saw is made in the USA and is very good quality. You just can't buy it again.

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:34 pm
by larryhrockisland
tdubnik wrote:I found the schematics for my saw herebut it seems they don't have any of the electronic parts available. I'll try to troubleshoot a little more over the next few days as time permits.
Here is a link that may be of some help. About 4 replies down a guy talks about poor connections or loose grounds.
http://www.managemylife.com/mmh/questio ... shooting-1

Also I read somewhere that this was made for Sears by Emerson. Maybe they have some info.

Larry Hargrove

Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 11:00 am
by tdubnik
I appreciate the offers and suggestions so far and will continue to work on the problem. I opened the electronic panel and checked all connections and grounds. I removed and reinstalled each connection to insure good contact. This did not help.

I then removed the lift motor and opened the motor box. The Incoming 120 VAC electrical supply is soldered to the circuit board. I put a voltmeter on the incoming supply and it is correct. I now know that electricity is getting to the circuit board.

It appeared that the brushes and commutator were somewhat burnt. I don't have new replacement brushes at the moment so I cleaned them up as best I could. This didn't seem to help either.

This is as far as I have gotten so far. I need to make sure power is getting to the motor and if so figure out what to do next.

There is not much helpful information on the motor or circuit board that I could find. The only info on the circuit board is a 24V mark. On the motor I found the following:

UM 25-L03B
120 VAC 60 Hz
Chiaphua Ind. Ltd.

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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2011 11:58 am
by anmius
You may be able to find help here:

http://www.chiaphua.com.hk/show.jsp?ppid=15