Do you leave your D/C running ???

[Steve Rozmiarek]

You all are missing the forest for the trees... Rick has a serious question, and to this point, no one has answered correctly, so let me take a shot.

Leave the dust collector on, it drowns out that awful country music racket!

J/K, but it is what I'd do...

[Chip Lindley]

I don't think this thread missed the point at all. You ask 50 woodworkers the same Q. you get 35 different A. New Oneida V3000 Owner Rick will just have to make up his own mind! Much information has been presented here as Pros and Cons of constantly flipping that DC switch.

Personally I kinda like the sound of MY Oneida 3hp!! It sounds **Industrial**!! Building a closet for your DC would help the noise level Much! Put your air compressor in there too!

IF you gotta have your C&W, and are now Freaked to turn your Oneida on and off more than the manufacturer recommends, ther ARE those ear protectors with built in AM-FM!! You can even tune in your iPod to a vacant FM freq and listen to your own compilation--COMMERCIAL FREE!! YeeHaw!!

[Rick Potter]

For what it's worth, I turn my 3 HP gorilla on when I need it, and unless I am going to use it within the next few minutes I shut it off. My previous one is still running fine after 10 years of this kind of (ab)use.

Rick Potter

[John Schreiber]

As one of the few people who have not yet expressed an opinion here, I'll give mine.

I understand the reasons why it is bad for a DC motor to be started too frequently. I'd guess that if I start it more frequently than the manufacturer recommends, it will cause some damage. If I start it 100 times per hour, that will cause more damage than if I start it 11 times per hour.

The other factor is why do you want to turn it off at all. If it is very annoying and keeps you from enjoying your music (to me that excludes country music - it's best with the DC and compressor on at the same time), I'd be willing to take some loss in the life of my DC motor, but if I had it in a sound proof closet where it didn't bother me too much, I'd leave it on any time I thought I'd be using it again soon.

It's a cost benefit decision. Long motor life vs. loud annoying noise.

[Chris Padilla]

Personally, I'd like to see a cost-analysis of power of the guise of: leave it on if you plan to use within 10 minutes or shut it off if you plan to use it 11 minutes+.

Being a non-pro, my motor doesn't run all that much and so I'm more concerned about keeping PG&E's spinning wheel at its minimum....

But, yeah, it sure is loud and I don't know if I have the room to quiet it down more by building around it....

[John Hedges]

I think I'm the only one on the forum not on this thread yet (cant let that happen).

One interesting note is that when I was shopping cyclones recently, one of the companies I talked to touted that their Asian Motors were better than Oneida's Baldor's. His reason is because of Oneida's statement to not start and stop the motor more than x times an hour. Needless to say I did not buy from that vendor.

Getting back to the initial question, I don't think any of us hobbiest are going to run into a problem with this, due to our light usage. At least that's how I look at it. I don't think I start and stop it more than 6 times an hour anyway. One of the few advantages to being a slow woodworker I guess.

Oh and if I did have Coutry Music playing in the shop I would definitely keep it on all the time.

[Rick Peek]

Wow,what a bunch of country haters And here I thought all
woodworkers were hillbillys! I think I have my answer though. The
answer is, do whatever the heck you want & live with it. I more or
less leave my current d/c on if I'm going to use it within about 10
minutes. Other than that, I turn it off. It's good to hear that a few
guys do the same with no real affect after many years of service.
Cheers, Rick

[Brian Kincaid]

Bandsaw has inertia but no load on startup - unless you start to cut wood before it reaches speed....

That's my favorite way to trip a breaker.
-Brian

[Mitchell Andrus]

Hence the recommendations of the manufacturers to limit the number of start cycles. This allows the motor to cool between the blasts of heat generated by the high amperage start up current.

It took five years, but I did finally fry my 3 hp Jet DC motor. I took it to a rewind shop and the first question he asked... "How often do you cycle it per hour and per day?"

Heat cooked the starter cap and the motor's windings developed a short. Don't know which came first though. Doesn't matter.
.

[Mitchell Andrus]

I do believe someone would have to be very OCD to flip the switch every 10 or 12 minutes!!

Nope, not OCD. I've got an Ecogate system and the timer is (was) set to turn the DC off 2 minutes after the tool was stopped. So, if I had a few pieces of wood to get from the miter to the jointer, then TS, back to the miter saw, over to the drum sander.... With a 2 minutes pause to check notes, set the cut, etc..... I can easily turn the DC on/off 5 or 6 times in HALF an hour.

My bad, see my other post.

I've now got it set for 15 minutes... but boy, making a 5 second cut turns the DC on for 15 minutes now. Sometimes I turn the Ecogate off to make a quick cut just so the DC isn't pestered.
.

[Greg Portland]

Since we're bringing this thread back from the dead...

I have a 5HP collector. IMO, I'll save more $$$ on my electric bill turning it on/off then I would by having to rebuild the motor every few years. Having said that, most of my operations are continuous (stock prep on the jointer & planer, drum sanding, ripping rails/stiles, etc.) so the DC will be running for long periods of time. Smaller tools (routing, hand sanding, etc.) are connected to the shop vac.

Does anyone have a work pattern than would result in you turning the DC on/off >10 times an hour? It's rare for my work pattern to have 1 cut, wait 10min, 1 cut, wait 5 min, etc. I'm either making a bunch of different cuts with <1 minute between them, running a batch / continuous operation (rip 50 rails, sand 20 doors, etc.), or planning the next set of cuts.

[Keith Outten]

Does anyone have a work pattern than would result in you turning the DC on/off >10 times an hour?

I''m guilty. My DC is used for both my workshop tools like most of you and it serves my laser engraver in my shop office. When I am engraving small projects it isn't uncommon to have to turn the DC on and off every minute or so depending on the job. When the DC is running I can't open the lid on the engravers cabinet and it would cause problems trying to get thin material situated on the engraving table so the DC has to be turned off. Its not uncommon for me to start and stop my DC every 60 to 120 seconds, eight hours per day for jobs that last a month engraving plaques, glass and making wooden business cards.

I use the same DC for my CNC router, it runs intermittently sometimes for a couple of minutes to several hours per session depending on the job. I stop the DC when I change router bits and when I am changing material on the table.

My DC is about 18 years old, if the motor dies tomorrow I wouldn't be surprised. I can't even imagine how many hours it has run just planning lumber through the years. I attribute the life of the DC to the fact that I threw away the bags the first week I got it and built my first chip box. I expect that the start-up load being so low since there are no filters or bags that add resistance has a lot to do with motor life. I must admit that this is just a hunch since I have absolutely no electrical or electronics experience.

For the record my DC is a 1.5hp Grizzly rated at 600 CFM. It has one of those cheap Asian motors that probably won't last more than two decades
.

[Tom Veatch]

... I expect that the start-up load being so low since there are no filters or bags that add resistance has a lot to do with motor life...
.

I know it's counter-intuitive, Keith, but the fact is, high resistance lowers the flow rate which actually reduces the load on the motor. Low flow resistance = high motor load, high flow resistance = low motor load.

Now, if it were a positive displacement pump like an actuated piston compressor or hydraulic pump, the situation would be quite the opposite, and low resistance would reduce the motor load.

[Mitchell Andrus]

For the record my DC is a 1.5hp Grizzly rated at 600 CFM. It has one of those cheap Asian motors that probably won't last more than two decades
.

That's good enough to keep up with a CNC router? I'm surprised. I've always seen much larger units sitting next to the cool tools. Do you have a decent dust skirt at the business end?
.

[Kenneth Whiting]

I'm one of the people that doesn't know/care about the specifics of how/why electric motors work/get destroyed. I figure if Keith can put his DC through what some would consider major abuse for 18 years then you probably don't need to worry too much if that was 5 shots or 6. (Are you feeling lucky punk?)

If you put your DC in a contained area so the noise isn't as bad, would there be a problem with leaving it on most of the day?