How do you remove this sprocket

[John K Jordan]

I don’t understand why there is slack in the other sections of chain. (Of course, I’ve never seen this machine!) They must have rotated a little when the chain was removed. Do the four jacks not turn freely (or by hand) and the chain self tighten when pressing the motor sprocket into the chain? If not, and they are tight enough to prevent being turned I suspect you’ll never hear the chain right that way.

Are the clamps positioned such that the chain/sprocket is constrained and can’t be tightened? (BTW, I sometimes use strong magnets to hold things into place when I don’t have enough hands.) Can each jack be turned a little by hand to tighten one section while pushing the motor sprocket into the chain to keep the chain tight while removing the clamps? (Is it practical to tip the whole machine over so you are pushing down instead of horizontally and the chains won’t fall off?) If the other three sections of chain can’t be snugged up it seems the motor can never be aligned properly with the mounting holes.

Another wild guess (again, with no knowledge of the mechanism): can the motor be mounted loosely on just one mounting bolt to act as a pivot (with the chain engaged on the socket) then the motor be levered into place against that pivot by pushing or pulling to hold the chain in place (with the clamps removed) while tensioning?

Four eyes and four hands certainly might help. Is there a woodworking club close with a friendly member who likes to help? Can you hire a mechanic or machinist to make a house call? Even a friend with hands and no mechanical experience might be useful.

[Alan Lightstone]

John:

Some very interesting thoughts...

Imagine that the length of the chain is longer than the peripheral distance around the four jacking screws/sprockets that raise and lower the planer bed. That extra distance is there to permit the motor to be mounted and tightened, pushing in the chain, snugging it into place on all four post sprockets as well as the motor sprocket. When the motor mount was removed, the chain fell down off the 4 outside sprockets, as it was significantly longer than them. I wish I had known of the magnet idea. If I had put magnets on all 4 outside posts keeping the chain in place, then this would have been simple. But Felder didn't suggest this. They said just loosen the chain and remove the motor mount.

Frankly, I never thought of trying to turn individual sprockets to tighten the chain. The problem I could see with that is that they could make the platform no longer parallel to the knives (one side slightly lower than the other. I would think that all four of them have to be on the same relative height on the screws on the posts. But if they can be turned (they must be able to, the chain must turn them when running), I can see that tightening the chain. But I pulled pretty hard on the chain and they didn't move, so, hmmm...

Perhaps the clamps are constraining the chain/sprockets from moving. But without them, the chain just falls down. A second pair of hands could clearly help with that.

Mounting the motor mount loosely on the bolts doesn't work yet. I will once I can get more slack on the chain in the only place I need it - around the motor sprocket.

Trying to find some local help / 2nd pair of hands locally. I'm not connected with any local woodworking presence here - Covid kinda put a serious hold on that. A shame for many reasons. So I'm a one-person operation here.

[Greg Quenneville]

Just out of curiosity did the new motor come with a mounting bracket or did you have to reuse the old one? If the former, maybe verify that they are identical. I have struggled with a similar situation in the past and I know how vexing it can be.

[Alan Lightstone]

Just out of curiosity did the new motor come with a mounting bracket or did you have to reuse the old one? If the former, maybe verify that they are identical. I have struggled with a similar situation in the past and I know how vexing it can be.

Just the motor. Have to use the old bracket. Looked again yesterday, it only mounts one way. No other configuration.

[John K Jordan]

…Perhaps the clamps are constraining the chain/sprockets from moving. But without them, the chain just falls down. A second pair of hands could clearly help with that….

Maybe use tape instead of clamps, if the magnets are unavailable or don't work. Or hold the chain up with fine wire or rubber bands

…Mounting the motor mount loosely on the bolts doesn't work yet. I will once I can get more slack on the chain in the only place I need it - around the motor sprocket….

I meant initially holding the motor with just loose bolt, tight enough to hold it up but loose enough to allow the motor to swivel. Chose a bolt hole on one end of the motor so it could be pivoted a bit away or towards the chain and possibly with increased force. If the geometry or clearances wouldn’t allow this I might still try that technique but with a suitable rod as a pivot (fat phillips screwdriver shaft, longer bolt, etc) instead of one of the original mounting bolts.

The issue of aligning the four shafts is of course a concern. Wonder how they do it at the factory - precision measurement, alignment marks/features on frame, shaft, and/or sprockets, running up or down to a stop? How critical is it - is off by one sprocket too much? Maybe the support person will call you back on Monday.

[Wes Grass]

There has to be a way to adjust that. Even normal wear ('stretching') of the chain is going to throw things out of whack eventually. But likely tiny, a couple thou' at worst? As far as the error of one tooth out, just divide the thread pitch by the number of teeth.

[Alan Lightstone]

Well, the plot thickens. I got two neighbors to come over and the 3 of us were finally able to get the new motor mounted and on all the sprockets. I have no idea how a single person would be able to do it. I powered it up, changed the dimensions to move the table, and got the same ECO error. So, lots of hard work, and now I'm not sure if replacing the motor really was the correct step to repair the error code.

So, I'll be calling Felder tomorrow morning. Who knows when they'll hook me up with someone who can actually answer questions regarding the machine? So far, I'm $400 into this, over a week gone, and no forward progress. Aaaarghhhhh!!!

[Greg Quenneville]

The long time owners on the Felder forum can often be quite helpful for this kind of thing, plus there are electronics experts and mechanical gurus there, and other D951 owners.

[Alan Lightstone]

The long time owners on the Felder forum can often be quite helpful for this kind of thing, plus there are electronics experts and mechanical gurus there, and other D951 owners.

I'll give that a shot too. I thought that with so many woodworkers on this site, with so many varied and large machines, I would naturally run into someone with experience, hopefully with this particular machine. And the suggestions have been very helpful, and enlightening.

[Jerry Bruette]

Something has to tell the encoder where the home position is. Then it starts counting revolutions and partial revolutions. If the encoder doesn't know where it is it will probably throw a fault and the motor won't run.

[Alan Lightstone]

Something has to tell the encoder where the home position is. Then it starts counting revolutions and partial revolutions. If the encoder doesn't know where it is it will probably throw a fault and the motor won't run.

I thought of that, but there's no instructions in the manual to tell it. I always thought the problem was a software one, as the problem started when I typed something on the keypad, like something needs to be reset from a code on the display panel, but not given any instructions how to do that. And tech support told me that there are no service manuals for the machine (which I was pretty skeptical of)...

[Greg Quenneville]

It absolutely pisses me off with Felder documentation. They know that outside of Europe woodworkers are not also trained in machine maintenance, and they know plenty of their machines go to hobbyists. And they note critically important items with a sentence. No emphasis, no caution or warning flags.

You often encounter lubrication and adjustment intervals, but no guidance how to do either.

Encoder errors must have a reset and recalibrate routine. Too bad it seems to be pay to play.

I have a German workshop lift on my bench right now trying to figure out the same issue. Of course there is no documentation. It has what looks to be the same gear motor. And when it comes to electronics I have all the sophistication of one of those cave men in the Far Side cartoons.

[Greg Quenneville]

By the way, can you find any third party identification on that panel Alan? I am positive that would be an off the shelf item from a vendor

[Alan Lightstone]

So the plot thickens some more. On my 3rd phone call today, I reached a really nice, helpful tech at Felder. He ran me through all the display/keyboard methods, and we got nowhere.

I happened to mention that the main motor and conveyor were also not functional. I was never asked if they were. He then had me open the electrical circuit panel (not my favorite thing to do on an energized 230V, 3-Phase machine and use my volt meter for some tests. Then we tested fuses, and found that two were blown.

So, now a hunt for 400mA, small metric fuses. Certainly nothing locally here, likely McMaster-Carr or someone else. Not easy to find those small fuses.

Hopefully that will fix everything, although clearly it will need to be recalibrated. And if that doesn't work, getting a tech here as IWF approaches will be very difficult.

[Robert Hayward]

Check Mouser Electronics for your fuse. I have no clue what package shape or size you require but Mouser shows a bunch of 400ma fuses in different configurations.