Bandsaw Motor Is Toast

[Olaf Vogel]

The guy at Red's is the guy who said it was toast, Ralph, He also said he couldn't find a replacement. It has integral mounting brackets, making it a tough item to duplicate.

As far as having it rebuilt-- $90? I asked two shops about that budget price and they said it would be $400-500. If it was only the capacitor, maybe $75.

Guess I'm going to buy an original from Grizzly.

Pull the little budgy metal off the side and pull out the capacitor. there will be a number on the side, indicating the specs. Order a new one - these should be less then $20. There's two wires, so easy to swap.
If the windings are toast, then you need to rewind. For small motors like this, its usually not because labor exceeds the value of the motor. However, $4-500 is way out of line.
Keep in mind that most electricians are not that adept at motors. You need a motor shop. They should be able to ID the frame size, which will let you order a new one.

[Paul Engle]

Proprietary stuff is hard to find to replace with otc... I have same problem with all Grizzly tools .. good luck indeed!

[Peter Christensen]

I had a carbide grinder given to me 6 or 8 years ago. It was a 2 speed motor that had one set of windings fried. I took it to an electrical motor repair company and the old guy there took one look at it on the bench and said rewinding would be over $400 at a minimum. He said that rewinding stocks motors under 50 hp wasn't economical anymore due to labour and wire costs. He said that unless a motor was very specific or special, rewinding wasn't worth it. Someday I was going to remove the windings, turn off the armature and put on a pulley, cut the side of the case open and drive it with another motor. I gave up on the idea when we had to move here and scrapped it along with a lot of other someday stuff. If a motor repair shop tells you it ain't worth it then you have to check into alternatives.

[Russell Neyman]

Motor arrived from Grizzly today; $260 including freight. Considering the problems I probably would have encountered fitting the pulley onto a generic, I'd say it was a fair price.

Save me a half hour's worth of thinkering: my bandsaw has two pulley speeds. Which one will work best for cutting blanks?

Logic tells me faster is better for wood.

[Roger Chandler]

Motor arrived from Grizzly today; $260 including freight. Considering the problems I probably would have encountered fitting the pulley onto a generic, I'd say it was a fair price.

Save me a half hour's worth of thinkering: my bandsaw has two pulley speeds. Which one will work best for cutting blanks?

Logic tells me faster is better for wood.

I use the higher speed pulley on my G0555LX, and for thicker blanks the extra speed and a slower feed rate makes for an almost ideal situation for cutting blanks on this saw. Good luck with your new motor.

[david privett]

just remember getting it to hot from to much load repeatedly will take out any electric motor, which could happen from just forcing a dull blade.

[Russell Neyman]

What happened this time was I was cutting wet wood, friction caused the wood to swell, pinching the blade, and -- for whatever reason -- the wire fried and circuit didn't trip.

[Reed Gray]

Russell, that type of binding sounds more like a dull blade, and/or a blade with no set to the teeth. You can get that type of binding with kiln/kill dried wood, but usually that type of dried wood will spring to a concave shape length and/or width wise.

robo hippy

[Russell Neyman]

Russell, that type of binding sounds more like a dull blade, and/or a blade with no set to the teeth.
--robo hippy

Probably a valid analysis. It was an old blade. As woodturners, with all the tight radii we cut in thick wood, we tend to abuse the kerf.

[Curt Harms]

Probably a valid analysis. It was an old blade. As woodturners, with all the tight radii we cut in thick wood, we tend to abuse the kerf.

Are you using a band intended for turning blanks? Here is one example:

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/w...dsawblade.aspx

[Russell Neyman]

Are you using a band intended for turning blanks?

Yep. Of course. Skip tooth all the way.