Darius Ferlas
08-24-2009, 10:50 AM
My DC saga is not over it seems. I am trying to determine if the motor of DC I bought a few days ago vibrates too much. It's a Steel City 65200 (http://www.steelcitytoolworks.com/products_tools.cfm?section=2&category=5&tool=65200) and not exactly a discount type of a DC.
I have neither experience, nor a lot of comparison with other DCs. The only other DC I could hear and see in action is a General 1HP DC. It is very quiet and I can feel virtually no vibrations. I am not expecting my 1.5 HP to be as quiet. After all the 87dB rating's gotta be heard. But the vibrations are easily felt, and if you look. In fact, my DC moved away from the wall in my shop by about 4 inches after about 20 minutes of operation. Perhaps it would have gone further but there was a piece of wood that probably stopped it from that. I test run it to observe just that aspect and I could see it move on the casters away from the wall in a swivel sort of mode where the motor part of the base was stationary and the bag/filter part was inching towards me - very slowly but visibly.
Since the DC is advertised as having a precision balanced impeller for noise reduction and to limit the motor's wear I would have expected somewhat less vibes. Especially that there are no belts or any other intermediate connections/drive mechanisms to blame the vibes on. And I'm not sure the impeller chassis is strong enough to hold it in case something inside gives in.
I still have about 10 days to return/exchange but I don't want to appear as a trouble maker and malcontent.
How do I decide that the motor/impeller assembly vibrates excessively?
Is there a "nickel test" for a DC like they sometimes do for table saws?
I have neither experience, nor a lot of comparison with other DCs. The only other DC I could hear and see in action is a General 1HP DC. It is very quiet and I can feel virtually no vibrations. I am not expecting my 1.5 HP to be as quiet. After all the 87dB rating's gotta be heard. But the vibrations are easily felt, and if you look. In fact, my DC moved away from the wall in my shop by about 4 inches after about 20 minutes of operation. Perhaps it would have gone further but there was a piece of wood that probably stopped it from that. I test run it to observe just that aspect and I could see it move on the casters away from the wall in a swivel sort of mode where the motor part of the base was stationary and the bag/filter part was inching towards me - very slowly but visibly.
Since the DC is advertised as having a precision balanced impeller for noise reduction and to limit the motor's wear I would have expected somewhat less vibes. Especially that there are no belts or any other intermediate connections/drive mechanisms to blame the vibes on. And I'm not sure the impeller chassis is strong enough to hold it in case something inside gives in.
I still have about 10 days to return/exchange but I don't want to appear as a trouble maker and malcontent.
How do I decide that the motor/impeller assembly vibrates excessively?
Is there a "nickel test" for a DC like they sometimes do for table saws?