Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 36

Thread: Minimax MM16 Elec Switch problem - Fixed !!!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Waterford, MI
    Posts
    4,673

    Minimax MM16 Elec Switch problem - Fixed !!!

    I just posted this over on Minimax Yahoo user group but thought I ask here too in the hopes that somebody here has any suggestions.

    Last weekend I was doing a few cuts on the MM16 (4 mos old). At one point when I pressed the ON switch the saw started then after gaining full speed it then wound down and stopped. There have been occasions in the past when due to cold hands in the shop I just didn't get the switch depressed all the way and the saw only started up momentarily, although for less time than this instance. Thinking I had another similar case I depressed the switch again and got nothing. After checking for all the normal stuff I popped the doors open and checked the micro switches. Nothing seemed wrong there other than a bit of dust so I vac'ed them out good the pulled the switch box out and vac'ed out a bit of dust in there as well. The breakers weren't tripped and I checked it in another outlet on a different breaker and still got nothing. If I plugged the saw back in, I could hear the relay tripping at the switch so there's power getting to the switch. I also noticed with the switch pulled out of the column that there was a electric buzz that I hadn't noticed before. There's also no way the amount of cutting I was doing should have triggered any sort of saw protection circuitry. I did check the voltage at the outlet with a DVM but turns out I wasn't measuring correctly.

    Contacted Erik Loza @ Minimax on Monday to ask questions. He said the buzz I heard was an indication of low voltage and suggested 2 things to do:
    1) Pull the switch out and remove the white plastic cover then apply some WD40 to the mechanical movement parts of the On button switch
    2) Turn the small white button inside the switch from 30A down to 25A

    So today (another Saturday when MM isn't open) I tried one of the fixes and am still getting nowhere. Thought I'd ask here to see if there's anything anybody can recomment to try this weekend. Here's what I've got:
    1) The voltage at the outlet measure 238V. I'm real reluctant to try turning the setting on the switch from 30A to 25A based on this.
    2) After lubing the switch mechanism
    With the saw unplugged the button seems to have a rough spot when you depress it and I THINK it's supposed to latch and stay depressed. I can only get it to stay in about 25% of the time.
    With the saw plugged in there's supposed to be more resistance, but now it's REAL hard to push in.
    3) The elec buzz sound from the switch is much louder than before with the switch out of the column.

    Any thoughts?? Do I just have a bad switch or ??
    Last edited by Doug Shepard; 02-10-2006 at 7:30 PM.
    Use the fence Luke

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    414
    Doug, I had something very similar happen on my MM16, and what I found was that one of the switches that sense when the doors (upper door in my case) are closed was a little out of adjustment, and when the saw began running it was just enough to kick out the power to the saw! You can check this quickly by putting some tape on the door where the switch makes contact to close the gap between the switch and the door and trying it. If it works, all you have to do is adjust the switch so it's making good contact. I bet you have the same problem! Let me (sorry, us) know what you find! Good luck, this is an easy fix!!!!

    p.s. The buzzing may be caused by the switch being right at the point of being made. I've seen it at my job before.
    "Be true to your work, your word, and your friend." -Henry David Thoreau

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,688
    Doug, do check all the microswitches as they could be out of alignment as Tom suggests...including the one on the foot brake. (A common one) And in the worst case, you could have a bad switch in the column. There have been occasional failures of the particular mag switches used in the past.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Waterford, MI
    Posts
    4,673
    Tom/Jim
    Thanks. I'll try the switch fix scheme and see what happens. The thing that's never made me suspect they're out of alignment though is that the day this started I made 4 or 5 cuts with no problem, then got the problem on the next cut - all with the doors never having been opened in-between. So you'd think there'd be no way for them to change. But I'm desperate enough to try anything at this point.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Pritchard
    ....
    p.s. The buzzing may be caused by the switch being right at the point of being made. I've seen it at my job before.
    I sure hope this isn't the case because the buzzing is with no switches depressed with me over at the outlet inserting the plug. I was going to retry the switch again with it out of the column and the saw plugged in, but after hearing the loud buzz thought I'd better skip it and unplug. There doesn't seem to be any metal in the switch box housing so I don't think it's got anything to do with not grounding of the switch to the saw due to it's being outside the column.
    Use the fence Luke

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Waterford, MI
    Posts
    4,673
    Well I tried the micro switch check with no luck. Looks like I'll have to check back with MM Monday. I'm probably done fooling with it for this weekend. It's been snowing hard for the last hour or so. I had to tidy up the saw and roll it back into the corner so I could get the car into the "shop". Looks like snowblowing and little woodworking will be on the agenda for the rest of the weekend.
    Use the fence Luke

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    414
    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Shepard
    Well I tried the micro switch check with no luck. Looks like I'll have to check back with MM Monday. I'm probably done fooling with it for this weekend. It's been snowing hard for the last hour or so. I had to tidy up the saw and roll it back into the corner so I could get the car into the "shop". Looks like snowblowing and little woodworking will be on the agenda for the rest of the weekend.
    Doug, sorry the switches weren't the problem. The more I think about it, Jim Becker is probably right when he suggested the switch might be bad. One nice thing is that I know MiniMax will work with you until your saw is fixed! They have a wonderful reputation, and that's part of why we buy their saws. Let us know what they say on Monday. Take care.
    "Be true to your work, your word, and your friend." -Henry David Thoreau

  7. #7
    Does the motor turn at all now? If not, you may have tripped the overload protection. Look for a red button somewhere, probably around the controller.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Waterford, MI
    Posts
    4,673
    Well I talked to MM a little bit ago and they're leaning toward thinking I've just got a lemon switch so they're sending me one out tomorrow. Thanks for all the help everyone.
    Use the fence Luke

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Waterford, MI
    Posts
    4,673

    Houston - we have ignition

    The replacement switch showed up today and I just got it installed. The saw now powers up and seems to be working fine. Looks like the old switch was definitely the problem.
    Use the fence Luke

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    West of Ft. Worth, TX
    Posts
    5,815
    Good news, Doug. Forget the Olympics, make some saw dust!! Jim
    Coolmeadow Setters...Exclusively Irish! When Irish Eyes are smiling....They're usually up to something!!
    Home of Irish Setter Rescue of North Texas.
    No, I'm not an electrician. Any information I share is purely what I would do myself. If in doubt, hire an electrician!
    Member of the G0691 fan club!
    At a minimum, I'm Pentatoxic...Most likely I'm a Pentaholic. There seems to be no known cure. Pentatonix, winners of The Sing Off, s3.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Waterford, MI
    Posts
    4,673
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim O'Dell
    Good news, Doug. Forget the Olympics, make some saw dust!! Jim
    I hear that! I've been monkeying with the electrical problem for the last 2 weekends with nothing to show for it. Time to get dirty!
    Use the fence Luke

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Sarasota, Fl
    Posts
    1,916
    Doug, I had the same problem and MiniMax told me to increase the rating on the white dial. I didn't have your other symptom of buzzing but this increase did the trick. Glad to hear all is working well. Why do these switches have to be so sensitive and trouble prone?
    Alan T. Thank God for every pain free day you live.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Waterford, MI
    Posts
    4,673
    Quote Originally Posted by Alan Tolchinsky
    Doug, I had the same problem and MiniMax told me to increase the rating on the white dial. I didn't have your other symptom of buzzing but this increase did the trick. Glad to hear all is working well. Why do these switches have to be so sensitive and trouble prone?
    Well here's the really odd thing. Back when MM thought I had an undervoltage problem they told me to dial it down from 30A to 25A. Once I discovered I had 238V I thought it best to leave it alone so I never looked that closely at the switch or dial. After getting the switch swapped out yesterday I get looking closer and realized the new switch is not the same as the old one. Of course I discover this after MM is once again closed for the weekend so I emailed them. We'll see what they say Monday.

    The old switch has AEG Part Nbr 910-201-211 and says "16..20A" and the dial was set at 20A.
    The new switch has AEG P/N 910-201-212 and says "20..25A". The dial came set at 20A and so far I haven't changed it. The saw now powers up but I haven't done any cutting yet to put it under load with the new switch.
    So based on MM's initial advice I'm wondering if I'm supposed to have a switch that says "25..30A" ??
    Any MM16 owners care to pop the switch cover on theirs and see what AEG P/N and amp range their switch is (and what it's set on)?
    Use the fence Luke

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Sarasota, Fl
    Posts
    1,916
    Hey Doug, I looked at mine and the range of the dial is within the rating of the motor on my saw. My MM16 has 14A stamped on the motor and the switch goes from 10A to 16A. I have it set to 14 since having a problem with it shutting off like yours did. I think originally it was set to lower than that but I don't know the exact setting.

    I think my voltage was too high coming into my house though when I had my problem. We had a power transformer go out the same day my trouble with the saw started. I had just measured the voltage and it had gone up to 250 or so. After they replaced the transformer the voltage is now back to 240. It seems like the higher voltage caused the problem at the lower setting on the switch but I'm speculating here. All I know is I increased the dial setting and all was back to normal.

    Does anybody know if the "A" stands for amps on the plate? All the other ratings are metric so I'm wondering what this really stands for. If I recall, most motors have "amps" in the rating placard so you know what they're talking about. So what's the "A" really mean? Inquiring minds want to know.
    Alan T. Thank God for every pain free day you live.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Sarasota, Fl
    Posts
    1,916
    O.K. I reread your post.

    " The old switch has AEG Part Nbr 910-201-211 and says "16..20A" and the dial was set at 20A.
    The new switch has AEG P/N 910-201-212 and says "20..25A". The dial came set at 20A and so far I haven't changed it. The saw now powers up but I haven't done any cutting yet to put it under load with the new switch"

    Since both switches were set at 20A I think you should be in good shape. It's just that the new switch has a higher rating that they probably use for some of their bigger machines. Make sense? But with the variable "A" switch it can be set to match several of their machines using one part instead of having to stock different ones. I'd still call them to be sure. (My lawyer told me to say that. )
    Alan T. Thank God for every pain free day you live.

Similar Threads

  1. Freud FT2000e Router switch problem.
    By Dave Falkenstein in forum General Woodworking and Power Tools
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: 01-24-2006, 2:59 PM
  2. Unisaw Switch Problem
    By Robert Waddell in forum General Woodworking and Power Tools
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 10-02-2005, 7:32 PM
  3. Delta 6" Jointer On/Off Switch Problem
    By Kurt Aebi in forum General Woodworking and Power Tools
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 11-16-2004, 7:45 AM
  4. Got sound again. Now a problem switch.
    By Don Henthorn Smithville, TX in forum Off Topic Forum
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 06-23-2003, 10:26 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •