Rikon 10-325 bandsaw issue

[Fred Perreault]

I posted a few weeks ago about my saw starting very slooowly. Then after a few days it wouldn't fire up... it just whined and then tripped the breaker. It was set up for 110v at the time. The suggestions from the Creek and from Rod at Rikon indicated that it was probably the start capacitor. I took the motor to a shop, and they tested the start capacitor (the only capacitor in that motor) and the motor. They both actually passed all tests, but I still put a new capacitor in it, and Rod sent me another one as a spare. I put it back together and it fired up right away, but it would still start erratically sometimes, in that it would still trip the breaker, and the motor got warm quickly from trying to start. I got tired of this situation and today I tried a few things.

I first put the new spare capacitor on, and it made no difference. Then I direct wired a 220v extension to the motor, and it fired up quickly and ran well but of course would not shut off as I was not going through the switch. So, I figured I'd run it on 220 from now on, and made things more permanent and used the factory wiring from the motor to the switch with the 220v config. It would only whine and then trip the breaker.

So, I direct wired the motor with the factory default 110v, and it fired up and ran fine. Then I had a suspicion and reconfigured to the 110v setup and went through the saw's factory switch. It whined and tripped the breaker.

The long and short of it is: can a faulty switch make the unit behave the same way as a faulty start capacitor? Nobody is answering at Rikon today, so I have taken my issue to the 24/7 source with all of the answers...... the Creek.

thanks, Fred

[Michael Mayo]

Sounds to me like you have already answered you own question with your thorough troubleshooting which I commend you on. You did exactly what I would have done to narrow down the problem and it would seem that the switch is your issue. When you wired direct did you wire in the capacitor as well in order to remove it as a possible cause? Another words did you wire it in such a way as to bypass the switch completely and use all of the other components in the power path and did the motor run fine that way? Switches usually are either good or bad and don't normally cause a device/machine to act strangely it will either power it up or not. After re-reading your post it does sound suspiciously like the switch is your issue as you have a new cap in the motor already.

[Curt Harms]

I had a somewhat similar experience when I got my 10-325. It would not start, just trip the breaker. If I carefully spun the wheels to get things moving then hit the switch, it would start and the power seemed fine. It just wouldn't start. I suspected a start cap as well but after talking with Rikon's tech support, they sent me a whole new motor. They said something to the effect of "who knows what else is wrong". It made me wonder if they got a batch of bad motors. That was a few years ago when the 10-325 first came out.

[John Coloccia]

Well, there are a couple of things that can go wrong with switches, but bad contacts are high on the list....dirty, corroded, damaged from arcing, etc. That gives them much higher resistance and can significantly reduce the power going to the motor. If it's so bad that you're motor's not even starting and the breaker is tripping, SOMETHING in that starter must be getting smoking hot because all that energy is getting dumped somewhere.

Unplug it and pop the cover off the starter. Dollars to donuts that you'll find something a bit crispy in there.

[Randy Rizzo]

I had a somewhat similar experience when I got my 10-325. It would not start, just trip the breaker. If I carefully spun the wheels to get things moving then hit the switch, it would start and the power seemed fine. It just wouldn't start. I suspected a start cap as well but after talking with Rikon's tech support, they sent me a whole new motor. They said something to the effect of "who knows what else is wrong". It made me wonder if they got a batch of bad motors. That was a few years ago when the 10-325 first came out.

same here, got a 10-325 a few years ago. Never tripped the breaker, but would not start unless you spun the wheel by hand, then it would run fine. Rikon initially sent me a new cap, but it did not fix the problem, then they replaced the motor, no more problems.

[Fred Perreault]

Thanks for all the replys and suggestions. I talked to Rod this AM and he's sending out a new switch. The switch doesn't smell funky or anything, but the motor warmed (not hot) up pretty quickly when I had tried to start it when it was tripping the breaker. So that I can use the saw, I have it wired directly to the motor, bypassing the switch altogether. The unit starts, sounds and runs fine that way, but it is tedious plugging it into the outlet each time for use..... of course, it is better than the alternative of not having a saw at all. I hope for the best that it is the switch, but it sounds like a new motor is in my future.

thanks all, Fred