Long ranger near disaster for my DC

[Brad Schafer]

realize i'm replying to a very old thread here, but my long ranger III got so hot today that i could not touch the face of the box. it's being used to switch a harbor freight collector that runs just fine if plugged directly into the wall. will call PSI in the morning and see what gives - the unit is less than 2 yrs old.

[John Coloccia]

\ He then followed that up with, “Most likely, it’ll never happen again. But then again, it could happen. These units are made in China.”

I suspect he'll regret having said that, but at least he's honest.

[Brad Schafer]

contacted PSI - orders are to return for inspection and either repair or replacement. wonder if it's really broken or if i'm truly overloading the thing. the HF unit claims 2hp, but majority opinion is that 1.5hp is more accurate for this DC.

[Kevin W Johnson]

How much current is the LR III rated for?

[Carl Beckett]

(wish I had a free/simple 'puter drawing program, and I would doodle up a simple schematic for reference)

For simple drawings there are some out there. I used to use DeltaCAD (as simple as it gets). Or if you just want sketches you can do them in powerpoint

[Brad Schafer]

RE: Kevin ... beats me - no indication on the box.

[Joseph Tarantino]

since the two DCs noted in this thread are/were wired for 120v, it would seem the problems are amperage related. i know someone who uses a LRIII with a HF DC and he's yet to experience a problem. hopefully brad will report back once PSI has reviewed the defective unit. glad i use these instead:

http://www.ivacswitch.com/index.action

[Matt McColley]

I've contemplated a Longranger....

but the price of their 220 volt unit is pretty steep...

Looks like I'll be re-mounting my push button motor starter at a central location in the shop and putting my helpers (kids) to good use.

Kind of like the old fashion TV remote controls :^)

[Don Sundberg]

since the two DCs noted in this thread are/were wired for 120v, it would seem the problems are amperage related. i know someone who uses a LRIII with a HF DC and he's yet to experience a problem. hopefully brad will report back once PSI has reviewed the defective unit. glad i use these instead:

http://www.ivacswitch.com/index.action

Those look pretty sweet. They even have the option of having a real motor contactor in a steel box for your dust collector. Joe, which one do you have and what have you got it hooked up to?

Don

[Joseph Tarantino]

i have 2 of the original ivac switches daisy chained so my DC and shop vac can be activated simultaneously (great for the RAS, router table and TS (shop vac for the blade guard dust collection)). when i got my 220v 50-850 DC, i opted to construct my own contactor for about half the cost of their unit, but ivac's unit is MUCH beefier than what i used. they use a 3pole 30A or 40A contactor to accomodate almost anything you might want to use.

regarding which tools are connected to the ivacs, they all are. i have a double duplex outlet set up that brings multiple dedicted tool outlets into the lead ivac switch. turn on a stationary power tool, on comes the shop vac and DC. turn off the tool, they both go off 10 secs. later. i'm presently working on getting a current sensor to activate a contactor on the 220v tool outlet i installed for the 220v 3hp unisaw and the 220v 2hp rikon 10-340. when i figure out exactly which components to use, a current sensor switch will activate a contactor, which will turn on a 60w bulb which will draw it's power from the 110v tool outlet on the lead ivac switch. so current flow in the 220v tool outlet will, indirectly, activate the 110v ivac switches to activate the 220v DC and 110v shop vac.

the first 3 pics are of my ivac set up. 3 individual circuits (2-110v and 1-220v) provide power. one 110v circuit powers the shop vac and one 110v circuit powers the 110v stationary tools. the 20A, 220v line powers the DC and, for those rare times i use the 3hp unisaw, it powers that also. the next 3 pics ar of the contactor i constructed for the DC. it's the gray box to the left of the canister filter in the last pic.

i think, at this point, i've maxed out the flexibilty of the 2 ivac switches. i am really impresed with their durability and reliability. before my set up got this involved, one of them "went to sleep" and wouldn't wake up, about 2 years after i got it. i called ivac and explained what happened. they noted it sometimes happened to earlier switches and replaced it, gratis. whenever i've called them for information, there isn't a way in the world they could be more helpful. first rate product from a first rate company.

[Brad Schafer]

so, PSI got my unit and put on the bench and (as is typical in the wonderful world of technology) could not reproduce the problem.

they sent me a brand new unit anyway - so kudos to PSI on great (if a little slow) customer service, altho the service mgr claimed they had "never heard of this happening ever before" (uh, sure).

so in thinking about this ...

i did a recent soup-up of the HF unit along the lines of Howard Skillington's setup (cheers to Howard for the idea, and apologies to all for the poor execution). this version of the baffle is a sits-on-top affair, using the HF 5" to double-4" wye as baffle input. in short, it's double 4" to the baffle and full 5" with almost no pipe the rest of the way. (the drill and spare piece of 4" on top of the baffle are not relevant ...)

DC baffle.jpg

I did this to take advantage of having two DC points, as it really cuts down on dust - the unit can simultaneously pull both legs of 4" pretty well (e.g., tablesaw overarm and cabinet DC ports).

however, i wonder if this is effectively running the thing wide-open, and if the increased airflow/reduced impeller resistance is causing the motor to pull higher amperage - ergo, more heat. i have noticed the the power cable (14-3) heating up as well, altho not to the extent of the Long Ranger. however, the motor isn't warm at all.

i did NOT notice any heating before i modified the DC.