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Delta 18" Radial Arm Saw

Started by SlowJoeCrow, March 15, 2017, 04:43:04 PM

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Darrel

1992 LT40HD

If I don't pick myself up by my own bootstraps, nobody else will.

Solomon

I saw a 14 inch delta  RA   for $125.00 on a woodworking forum, I can't remember witch one now but , arm saws are for sale everywhere and cheap,  If it were me, I'd shop around before paying 400 for it.   If you don't absolutely have to have an 18 inch RA, you might do well to shop around and find a 16,14,or 12 inch saw in good working order that's single phase.    Plug and play !! ???
Time and Money,  If you have the one, you rarely have the other.

The Path to Salvation is narrow, and the path to damnnation is wide.

SlowJoeCrow

Yep, I don't need a 18".  Ideally I want a 14" with a single phase motor.  I'm sure I will find one, just a matter of time.  I was bidding on an older Delta Multiplex 40-B a couple of weeks ago that would have been perfect, but I let it slip away on accident...whoops!

SlowJoeCrow

Well, I went smaller, quite a bit smaller.  I just picked up a Delta 12" radial arm saw, a 33-890.  I think it will work for want I want to do with it.  It has the 2 hp 230v motor.  This saw was bought by a lady on recommendation of her live-in boyfriend at the time and then never used.  It might have cut wood like twice.  Maybe three times.  It has the factory delta blade on it (non-carbide teeth) which is still sharp.  The original mdf table and fence has NO SAW KERFS IN IT!

I am currently going through the adjustments and will post some pictures soon.  Eventually the table will need replaced as it is bowed from time but my immediate use for it isn't precision woodworking so I will let it go for a while.  I do have a proper new blade coming for it.  I am anxious to see the power difference between this saw and the 10" craftsmen that I used to own that claimed 2.5 hp (yeah right!)

Darrel

That should be a good saw and will serve you well
1992 LT40HD

If I don't pick myself up by my own bootstraps, nobody else will.

hackberry jake

https://www.facebook.com/TripleTreeWoodworks

EZ Boardwalk Jr. With 20hp Honda, 25' of track, and homemade setworks. 32x18 sawshed. 24x40 insulated shop. 30hp kubota with fel. 1978 Massey ferguson 230.

SlowJoeCrow





Welp, today was a lucky day.  I cant understand why, but while this saw was running, the blade nut on the arbor shaft backed out and the blade dropped off the shaft at full speed, hit the table and came straight towards me.  It hit me right in the hip, glanced off and flew about 25' across the shop.  Very very lucky I didn't get hurt.  My Carhart coat saved me, the blade tore it up instead of my skin.  I think if I didn't have the coat on, it would have went through my shirt and pants and tore me up a bit.
Here is a picture of what it did to my coat.


 
That's not all, after that close call, the start capacitor on the motor is toast all of a sudden.

I am still trying to figure out why the nut backed out and the blade came off.  It doesn't make sense to me.
Stay safe everyone!


SlowJoeCrow

Is anyone familar with the motors on these saws?  The start capacitor is junk all of a sudden, it dumped the electrolite fluid out of it and started smoking bad after I tried to start it up again after the blade flew off.  It will start up but starts to smoke and spits fluid everywhere.  I was wondering if the capacitor went bad while the saw was running and that somehow jolted the motor and made the nut loosen up. 
I don't know much about capacitors, much here is pictures of both capacitors






It's the first one, the Phillips that blew.
Now I am questioning if that is the proper capacitor to begin with.  The saw is 230volt and the capacitor is 125 volt.  Can anyone educate me on this?

Kbeitz

My bet is for some reason the motor locked up.
That's why the nut came off the arbor shaft.
That would also be the reason the capacitor went bad.
The motor was trying to restart with a locked arbor.

Glade you din't get hurt.
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

Larry

I'm not sure what that motor uses, but the centrifugal switch or potential relay cuts the capacitor out of the circuit when running.  Like Kbeitz I think the motor had to come to a sudden stop for the nut to come off. 

Buy a lottery ticket....your lucky and I'm glad it was only a jacket.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Don P

Electric is black magic to me but that's what I was thinking, it almost sounds like it failed, kicked the cap in out of phase, stopped the motor and cooked. It won't matter if the cap is rated for higher voltage, the mfd rating should be the same. Very lucky!

Darrel

I'm thinking that I'd have that motor checked out by a qualified motor guru before I flipped the switch on it again. I'm thinking that the fried capacitor is just a victim of whatever the real problem is as you almost were.
1992 LT40HD

If I don't pick myself up by my own bootstraps, nobody else will.

samandothers

Man, close call.  Glad no blood and only torn material.

muggs

Yea I see lots of 220v motors with 125 v capacitors, you can replace it with a 220v cap. It will probably hold up longer. Like others have said, find out the reason it failed before you replace. A start cap can only be energized for about 3 seconds. A switch must take it out of the circuit. But sometimes they just fail after time.   Muggs

YellowHammer

Jumpin Jehoshaphat!! There were a lot of very bad things that could have happened that didn't.  Very lucky.

On a side note, whenever Lady Luck has shown me some favor, I never tempt her agin, so I have a hard and fast rule that once a machine has tried to terminate me, I terminate it.  After getting almost cut like that, the saw would have a new name, it would be called "On The Trailer and Gone."

Just saying it out loud......
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

21incher

That is scary.  Was the blade guard in place?  :)
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

sawguy21

That was my first question. My dad had an RAS for years, no mishaps but we were well aware of the damage it could cause if improperly used.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

SlowJoeCrow

Thanks for the replies everyone.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this saw yet.  I'm no stranger to RASs, used several different kinds over the years.  The blade guard was not on when the blade came off, that was my fault.  I will fix the motor at least to get it up and running again.

Kbeitz

I think if it was my saw and I had the room that I would drill a hole at the end of the arbor and put a cotter pin.
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

SlowJoeCrow

Good idea K, I like it.  This saw is pristine, it's not wore out, just sat around for a while before I bought it.  I dont think I will get rid of it unless I can find a bigger 3 hp unit down the road.

Brian_Weekley

My radial arm saws are DeWalts--not Deltas so I'm not very familiar with your model.  However, the motor doesn't look right to me--is it original or was it replaced (that fancy aluminum around the capacitors doesn't look like something you'd find on a vintage RAS motor)?  Radial arm saws should have left-handed threads on the arbor.  If someone replaced the motor with one that has right-handed threads, that might explain why the nut spun off.  Does the arbor still freely turn?  What exactly was happening when the blade came off--was it right after startup, was the motor just sitting there running with the blade spinning, or was it under load?
e aho laula

SlowJoeCrow

Everything on this saw including the motor is stock, it's all original.  Don't know the year it was made, but probably in the 1990's or 2000's so it's not what I would call vintage. It's a relatively new RAS. Here's a picture of the cover for the capacitor housing.  I will have to double check the threads, but I am pretty sure that they are left-handed.





The arbor still turns freely, like nothing happened.  Here is what happened:  I fired up the saw and made a few cuts without any issue.  The saw was running under no load while I was preparing for the next cut and I heard a different sound like a new vibration coming from the machine.  Before I could even shut it off to see what was going on, the nut backed out and the blade dropped off.  I powered down asap after recovering from the blade hitting me.  After changing my pants and thanking God, I started the motor up with no blade on it to see if I could figure out what happened.  It spun up and that's when the capacitor started smoking.  Of course I shut it down asap.  So I don't know if the capacitor failed before or after the accident.

Now to help understand, I have the saw set up a little out of the ordinary.  The blade is tilted roughly 58 degrees from vertical and it is quite a bit higher than the table.  Here is a picture of the motor tilted. 





I bought this saw last year and used it a good bit set up just like this with no issues.  This was the first time I had used the saw for several months. 

With that angle, that's how the blade came off so fast, gravity was pulling it down with no nut to hold it in place.  The reason for the odd setup is that I use this saw to put points on wood stakes that I make.  I made a jig to hold the stakes and line them up 10 stakes at a time.  Cut a taper on one side of the row of stakes, flip them over and cut the other taper.  Here is a picture of the jig with stakes on it.  One side has already been cut, the stack flipped over and ready to cut the other taper off the bottom.





Note in this picture the motor is NOT tilted like it would be when cutting the taper.  The taper is cut off the bottom of the stakes and then they are flipped over to cut the other taper. 

It works well and you can point a lot of stakes quickly as long as your blade stays on the machine!

Kbeitz

I can't tell from the pictures but if that motor has brushes and the capacitor shorted
to the run windings it could have worked as regenerative braking and that
would make a left hand nut come off.
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

jsmcauley

I don't know if your Delta uses a potential relay or a centrifugal switch, but I would thoroughly inspect the start circuit on that motor. Something caused the motor to stop suddenly and spin off the blade. Please let us know what you find.

Scott. 

SlowJoeCrow

I believe it has a relay to switch the start capacitor off, not a centrifugal switch but I am not an electrician or motor expert.  That being said, I am going to take the motor in to a shop and have a professional look at it and fix it up right.  I will update this post with what they find but I can't take it in until next week since I will be out of town the rest of this week.

Oh I did double check the arbor, it does have left hand threads.

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