Minimax MM24 bandsaw cuts out after 5 min use

[dirk martin]

My MM24 Bandsaw is about 10 years old....maybe 15.
If I cut nice and lightly on it, it runs and runs just fine.
But, if I push it a bit hard, doing some resawing, it cuts out in about 5 min. of use.
The electrical wall breaker doesn't trip....it acts like some kind of internal breaker trips....and it won't turn on, unless I allow it to rest for about 15 minutes.

Any ideas on what the issue is here?

[Steve Eure]

Your motor probably has a thermal relay inside of it that is going bad. Those are designed to keep from frying your motor in case of problems. They do go bad occasionally though. I used to work on 3 ph. motors in my past life and they would have to be replace sometimes. Not hard to do if you know anything about working on such things, but if your are too leary about braking things down or feel it's past your pay grade, get a electrical motor shop to look at it. The relays are relatively inexpensive, but you will need to know all the parameters of your particular motor.

[Erik Loza]

Dirk, it does sound like thermal overload but I would look at the blade first. How old is it? If it’s dull, you’ll be pushing too hard and putting a lot of heat into the motor. Your main switch (AEG on that age MM24?) has an amperage overload adjustment dial and I recall the factory setting them pretty low. That could be tripping. It “might” be a motor issue but there are lots of other things I would eliminate first. Hope this helps.

Erik

[dirk martin]

Blade is new.

Great memory, Erik.
Yeah, I turned that dial up, ages ago.
Problem is, my local "motor guy" doesn't make house calls, and this 5hp motor looks like a bear to take off....

[Lee Schierer]

I am not familiar with your saw, but some common motor problems are easily rectified. I would start by blowing out the motor with compressed air. You might have an air flow problem in the motor. The other possibility is the centrifugal switch is sticking and not opening like it should so the start windings are staying energized. I would take of the drive belt and check for resistance turning both the motor and the saw by hand and then running the motor by itself for more a period of time.

[Rod Sheridan]

An open run capacitor can cause high motor currents if a single phase capacitor run motor...Rod.

P.S. loose wires on your overload relay can also cause the relay to trip although you didn’t mention that.