Laguna Jointer/Planer motor problem- Please Help

[Peter Aeschliman]

Hi Everyone,

I know almost nothing about motors, but I'm hoping you guys can help me.

I have a Laguna 10" Jointer/Planer/Mortiser machine. The motor specs are:

Leeson
TEFC
2HP
220v
11 Amp
3450 RPM

It's on a dedicated 220v 20 amp circuit.

This machine has given me a good deal of problems (a long story I'm too frustrated to tell right now), but this one is a real show stopper. I was using the slot mortiser for about an hour using a 3/8" mortiser bit. I was cutting mortises in walnut, about 2" deep. I was being really careful to take it easy and go slow because it's a lot of material to hog out.

The machine did fine, the motor didn't seem to bog down or anything. After I was done cutting the mortises, I shut the machine down and switched it over to planer mode to make the tenon stock. About 10 minutes later, I restarted the machine.

The cutterhead came up to speed, but I noticed the motor was making a slightly different sound than it normally does. Tough to describe- it had more of a low pitch hum sound. I paused and listened carefully, and after a few seconds, the breaker popped.

I scratched my head and cursed a few times, reset the breaker and tried again. Every time since then, the motor starts and seems to come up to speed (hard to tell if it's full speed) and trips the breaker after about 5 seconds.

I noticed a slight burning smell. It smelled like a combination of melting plastic and fiberglass resin. I took the cover off the back of the machine and the motor was really really hot... so hot I could only touch it for a few seconds before it started to burn my hand.

I let the motor cool down, but it's still tripping the breaker.

Did I just burn out my motor? The machine probably only has about 4 or 5 hours of use since I bought it a few months ago. Like I said, I know very little about motors. My search of this forum has turned up discussions of start capacitors and wingdings (?).

What do you guys think??

Thanks for your help. I'm really close to calling laguna and asking for my money back- this machine has been an absolute nightmare.

[Dave Beauchesne]

Peter:

Doesn't sound too good for the motor - to be sure, you will have to get it looked at by someone who knows about motors.

Has there been documented history with Laguna? This will help -

Best of luck

Dave Beauchesne

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Peter,

I suspect you just have a motor that went bad prematurely. In discussing this thread in the Moderator's Forum, Bruce Page says he's plunged 3" holes in metal with he 2HP mill. He thinks it's probably a bad motor too.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Thanks guys. No way to know for sure until I talk to Laguna tomorrow. I really don't think I was pushing it too hard- I cut 8 mortises. They were 3/8" by 2.5" deep by 3" long. It took me 45 minutes to an hour to complete them (which includes the time between cuts). So I really wasn't pushing it hard.

The thing that really baffles me is that it performed fine and I was able to complete all of the cuts. It didn't give me trouble until I tried to start it up later...

Another thing that has me scratching my head is the lack of overload protection built in to the motor...

[Kent Chasson]

Sounds like a bad capacitor. If you can get to it, there should be one or two cylinder shaped objects attached to the motor under a cover plate. Remove the cover plate and see if one of them is leaking oil. If that's it, a motor repair/supply place will likely have a replacement. They are usually fairly inexpensive, under $20.

[Phil Thien]

You don't have to wonder if you were over-driving the motor. When it gets fixed, throw an ammeter with max hold on it and you'll know just how much current you were drawing.

[Stephen Cherry]

The thermal overload should be matched up to the motor specs so that overdriving the motor will trip the overload.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Peter, sounds like a failed motor, contact Laguna for a warranty replacement.

You didn't overload the motor, mortising takes far less power than jointing or planing.

Without any specs on the motor, I would expect that the minimum temperature rise would be around 100C, far too hot for you to touch at all. Since you could hold your hand on it for a few seconds it wasn't anywhere near operating temperature.

You simply had an infant mortality type of failure, the most common time for a failure, during the first part of the machine lifespan.

Regards, Rod.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Thanks guys. At first I was thinking that I might just try to fix the motor myself, but I looked it up and the machine is still under warranty.

Is there any way for me to tell if the failed motor has built in overload protection? For example, many of the TEFC motors in my shop have little breakers built into them (look like little red buttons on the outside of the motor cover). I want to make sure that the replacement motor has a feature like that, and if the motor that comes standard on this machine doesn't, I might have to get creative.

Rod, what you said about the load of mortising makes me feel a bit better. my biggest concern is that the machine can't actually handle this type of work, which would be disappointing since it's the main reason I chose this machine over competitors... and it would also mean that a replacement motor will only fail again.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys. I'll update the thread tomorrow after my discussion with Laguna.

[Bill Bukovec]

I wonder if you have a bad cetrifugal/starter switch that doesn't disengage the start windings.

If the start windings are still connected when the motor is at speed, that may cause over heating.

Do you know how to use an ohm meter to check the centrifugal/starter switch?

If not, a motor shop may be your best bet.

Bill

[Chip Lindley]

Bad capacitor; bad centrifugal switch, or fried motor, doesn't matter IF it is under warranty. A premium machine should get premium customer service. Let Laguna do their Thing!

[Peter Aeschliman]

Let Laguna do their Thing!

Indeed... I just got off the phone with Jason at Laguna, who is their customer service manager. I started the conversation by following up on the other issues I've had with the machine in the past (planer beds not feeding workpieces through correctly and pretty bad vibration problems with the spiral cutterhead).

I fixed the planer feeding issue, but I tried his recommendations to fix the vibration at the cutterhead and it didn't work. We both tentatively concluded that either a cutterhead bearing is bad or the spiral cutterhead itself is not properly balanced. As soon I told him the vibration is still pretty bad, he didn't hesitate to say they were going to replace the machine with no cost to me. Mind you, I hadn't even brought up the motor problem.

Better yet, they're going to send me the replacement machine FIRST so that I have the crating material to return the old machine with... and they're going to pay for liftgate services for the new machine and the return of the old machine.

I have to say I'm really happy. Ideally the first machine would've worked perfectly... that would've been the best outcome. But given the circumstances, Laguna has been really good to me. Getting them on the phone was difficult at times, but once I got in contact with Jason they have been fantastic to work with.

They took a bad situation and turned it around for me.

Anyway, no need to talk about the motor problems since I'm getting a new machine. Thanks for your help everyone.

[Van Huskey]

That is indeed above and beyond! Hope you will be back mortising soon!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Glad to hear they are taking care of you. Please update us how things go.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Wow... So I just got off the phone with Jason at Laguna. They're shipping out my replacement machine tomorrow, but he called me to ask my permission to run some boards through the machine to make sure everything is perfect.

He checked the vibration and the pullies and made sure everything was just right.

To say I'm impressed is an understatement. Who knows if this is a "squeaky wheel gets the grease" situation, but this is incredible... I'm really getting white glove service here!