problem with table saw motor

[Pete Copeland]

I have a Delta contractors saw (36-678) that is about six years old. A few months back it began having rough starts with vibration for a few seconds then settling down. Eventually it wouldn't settle down and would trip off after perhaps as much as 10-15 seconds. When that happened, in October, I replaced one of the capacitors (the run capacitor ?). With the new capacitor the unit would run but still with the rough vibration at the start.

Two weeks ago the tripping began again and quickly moved to a situation in which the thing just won't start.

I suppose I could pop in another capacitor but is there much point to that? The only one I could find cost me $35 and that's not so much but maybe now that would not be any help.

I've looked for replacement (1.5 HP) motors and they seem to start at about $350, certainly not as much as a new saw, but still a bit of change.

Perhaps this is not enough info but does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do to get me back with a table saw. I'm in Houston, if that helps.

Thanks.

-Pete

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Pete it could be

- failed start capacitor

- inoperative centrifugal switch

- failed start winding

Regards, Rod.

[Larry Browning]

Being in Houston, you should be able to find a motor repair shop that could fix it. Or you could probably find a used motor for far less the $350. You might even be able to find a 2 or 3 hp used motor and upgrade at the same time. I found out long ago that replacing things that I THOUGHT might be bad gets to be real expensive, real quick. So unless I am 100% sure of the fix, I usually take it to someone who is in the business of fixing whatever I have that is broken. It usually is cheaper and faster.

[Don Jarvie]

Open it up and give it a good cleaning and go from there. Sometimes thats all it needs.

[Van Huskey]

Plenty of motor shops in Houston! You should be able to get a 1.5hp NEMA 56 frame motor new from one of the motor surplus places on the web for ~$150 shipped. There are probably a ton of motors that would work on CL in and around Houston as well.

[scott spencer]

Check some online supplies houses...you should be able to find a suitable replacement in the $5-$10 range pretty easily.

[Charles Lent]

I had similar problems. After taking the motor apart several times and replacing the capacitors it was still having problems. After a closer inspection of the centrifugal start switch I discovered that it had a pink silicone boot over the contacts that was mis-shaped and sometimes prevented the switch contacts from closing completely. After several attempts to get it to work correctly I ended up pulling this boot off and throwing it away. The motor has worked perfectly ever since. I'm not worried about the contact arc causing a fire because I blow out the motor frequently.

Charley