Last night when I turned on my drill press, the motor hummed, but didn't turn the spindle, and then white smoke came out of the little connection box cover that attaches to the side of the motor. I opened the box and found the wires that connect the switch to the motor burned and melted its wire nut. I removed the wire nut and found the copper ends of the wires burned black. I've attached a picture. Before I go futzing around with this, does anybody have any guesses as to what might have caused this to happen and where I should concentrate my attention.
This is a bit distressing because I just spent the month of January fixing this machine, replacing its broken rack so that I can actually raise and lower the table, removing all rust, and repainting it. To do all of that, I had to remove the motor and then reconnect it. When I first reconnected it, it hummed and got quite hot but then it worked just fine and has been working normally for the last several weeks.
Drill Press Wires.jpg