Hi all,
I screwed this thing up the other day and thought I fixed it, but evidently haven't. It's the Harbor Freight version (44991) with the regular cylindrical black motor.
I tried to hog too much steel a couple days ago, which caused what I thought was some sort of overheating protection. The machine was dead, but still getting power (good fuse, power light and exhaust fan active). I tried to let it cool a while, which didn't help, so I pulled the PCB from the rear box to check it (not quite as easy as it sounds). Nothing showed any obvious failure or signs of heat, and the solder joints looked OK. There was a forum post where someone had the main bridge rectifier fail, so I checked that and was getting no continuity (in circuit) on diode checks. I put in a beefier heatsinked one, but somehow the original read OK after I got it out (possibly poor probe contact when I checked it -my fault).
Anyway, all was well. It powered back up and I figured maybe that was it. I did a couple light tasks on it afterward, and went back to my steel dovetails tonight. After a couple decent cuts, it dies again. I wait a while and it still won't start. I give it a light Fonzarelli bump on the side of the control box and it starts, so I'm figuring maybe there's a bad connection I can look for later. I now think that brief rebirth was just coincidence, as it died again during the next couple cuts. No tapping in, or outside the two boxes changed anything, and the connections look solid. Unfortunately, I even pushed the new rectifier's heatsink into the nearby inductor and popped some sparks, so I'm hoping I didn't break anything new.
Any idea what this might be? The stalls and shutoff are clearly happening on strain, and seems likely to have started after that initial overload cut. It also has reached a point where nothing is even warm anymore, and I've popped the top off the motor and looked around, and don't see signs or smells of burning. During the brief times that it was running again, it seemed fine.
Sorry for all the text and any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
PS- I'm guessing that small red LED on the power board is supposed to be lit?
I screwed this thing up the other day and thought I fixed it, but evidently haven't. It's the Harbor Freight version (44991) with the regular cylindrical black motor.
I tried to hog too much steel a couple days ago, which caused what I thought was some sort of overheating protection. The machine was dead, but still getting power (good fuse, power light and exhaust fan active). I tried to let it cool a while, which didn't help, so I pulled the PCB from the rear box to check it (not quite as easy as it sounds). Nothing showed any obvious failure or signs of heat, and the solder joints looked OK. There was a forum post where someone had the main bridge rectifier fail, so I checked that and was getting no continuity (in circuit) on diode checks. I put in a beefier heatsinked one, but somehow the original read OK after I got it out (possibly poor probe contact when I checked it -my fault).
Anyway, all was well. It powered back up and I figured maybe that was it. I did a couple light tasks on it afterward, and went back to my steel dovetails tonight. After a couple decent cuts, it dies again. I wait a while and it still won't start. I give it a light Fonzarelli bump on the side of the control box and it starts, so I'm figuring maybe there's a bad connection I can look for later. I now think that brief rebirth was just coincidence, as it died again during the next couple cuts. No tapping in, or outside the two boxes changed anything, and the connections look solid. Unfortunately, I even pushed the new rectifier's heatsink into the nearby inductor and popped some sparks, so I'm hoping I didn't break anything new.
Any idea what this might be? The stalls and shutoff are clearly happening on strain, and seems likely to have started after that initial overload cut. It also has reached a point where nothing is even warm anymore, and I've popped the top off the motor and looked around, and don't see signs or smells of burning. During the brief times that it was running again, it seemed fine.
Sorry for all the text and any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
PS- I'm guessing that small red LED on the power board is supposed to be lit?