Thunder69
Cave Dweller
Thunder 2000-2015
Member since January 2009
Posts: 3,104
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Post by Thunder69 on Jan 5, 2012 21:00:10 GMT -5
Well I killed the motor on my 10 inch saw....I was cutting some hard agate when I noticed smoke coming from the motor. I was walking around the saw to turn it off when the motor went up in flames ....Actual flames,damn motor was on fire...Ruined my slabbing day to a point....After sitting in the house moping for a bit I decided to break out the workforce ,nearly indestructible, nearly!! ...I would not be denied...Same damn agate same result ...smoke but no fire....I just cleaned everything up and walked away.....Big saw dead ...Little saw on life support....Gonna see if I can get a new heart for the big one tomorrow......Must slab ...must slab...must slab........John
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Post by FrogAndBearCreations on Jan 5, 2012 21:03:50 GMT -5
sorry about your saw woes! you could cab in the meantime
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Post by jakesrocks on Jan 5, 2012 21:11:37 GMT -5
If you were in South Dakota, I've got 1/3 HP motors coming out my ears. I watch for old appliances in the dump and pull the motors and pulleys, and any bearings or other parts that can be reused.
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Thunder69
Cave Dweller
Thunder 2000-2015
Member since January 2009
Posts: 3,104
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Post by Thunder69 on Jan 5, 2012 21:18:46 GMT -5
Yea Frog ..I did get an all in one swaptop for christmas....I will wait a bit to see if it is bad luck or me. HA HA ...John
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Post by Donnie's Rocky Treasures on Jan 5, 2012 21:22:03 GMT -5
That sucks, big time! Must be that darn agate just refusing to be cut!
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Post by FrogAndBearCreations on Jan 5, 2012 21:23:16 GMT -5
makes for expensive agate!
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Thunder69
Cave Dweller
Thunder 2000-2015
Member since January 2009
Posts: 3,104
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Post by Thunder69 on Jan 5, 2012 21:42:35 GMT -5
I hit that S.O.B. with a rock hammer and split it in half LOL....
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brent
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2008
Posts: 1,316
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Post by brent on Jan 5, 2012 22:06:59 GMT -5
I had my motor go on my 10" saw too. It had served me well. I changed it out and that motor went after a few days. Now I have another one on that is working good now. Always good to gave a few motors on hand.
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NDK
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 9,440
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Post by NDK on Jan 6, 2012 1:27:56 GMT -5
I hit that S.O.B. with a rock hammer and split it in half LOL.... ROFL! That was gonna be my reply - always a hammer to finish the job! ;D Nate
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Post by frane on Jan 6, 2012 8:21:22 GMT -5
Some days are just like that! I tried to cut rocks last weekend and I noticed that even trying to do a fired brick, my 10 inch doesn't want to cut well and my tile saw blade cut it's last. It is so rough, I can't hardly hold on to the rocks without them becoming missiles! Put them all away and need to get some blades! my 10 inch saw motor has knocked since the beginning. I just thought it was how they sound. My husband noticed and said that is something wrong with it...Don't know how long it will last. Fran
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Post by Rockoonz on Jan 6, 2012 8:29:22 GMT -5
Fran, a knocking sound is more likely bearings on the arbor. Try running the saw with the drive belt removed, if it still makes noise it's the motor, if not time to replace arbor bearings.
Lee
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LarryS
freely admits to licking rocks
SoCal desert rats
Member since August 2010
Posts: 781
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Post by LarryS on Jan 6, 2012 10:38:29 GMT -5
Frane,
I bought my 10" Covington shortly after you did. The pictures of your pretty new saw sold me! It's had a tough life, cutting very hard jasp-ag and over sized pieces too. To make things worse, I run water & Lube Cool. Running oil is out of the question for me. I use a BD303 blade which is so much better than the stock gold Covington blade. My motor has a "ticking" sound when it's not under a load, always did. Over the past few months the motor heats up and smells a little while under a heavy load. It's loosing torque too. Think it's going to die very soon. Oh well. I'll be ordering a spare motor soon.
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QuailRiver
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since May 2008
Posts: 1,640
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Post by QuailRiver on Jan 10, 2012 2:00:26 GMT -5
I have a 14" Frantom, a 14" Lortone Panther and two 10" Lortones that during warm weather I run 8+ hours a day, six days a week. I have experienced various problems over the years and tried different solutions. Here are a few of my observations. Several things can wear out a saw motor prematurely. A dull blade, the wrong blade for the job, the wrong coolant, a too fast of a feed rate, a misaligned vise carriage, a vee belt having too much tension, too large/hard of a rock, a rock slipping in the vise, or any combination of the former can cause stress on the motor. When cutting very hard materials all of these things are more crucial than when cutting softer materials. Some agates and petrified woods are harder than others. So what works well with Crazy Lace agate might not work well with Brazilian agate. In my opinion for cutting agates the MK 301 is worth the extra money. The notched rim on the MK 301 carries coolant to the rock better than continuous rimmed blades. I used to prefer Raytech blades even though technically they were continuous rimmed blades they still used to have a few notches made around the edge to help carry coolant. But the last 14" Raytech Black Blazer blade I bought (which was made in South Korea) doesn't have any notches. It cut great for a few months but once the kerf started getting worn noticeably thinner it began bogging down when cutting mid sized Kentucky Agates. A close examination or the blade showed the diamonds were pulling out of the metal from the friction. When cutting larger hard agates I find I may have to dress the blade a couple of times a day. Water based coolants and vegetable oils don't work as well for sawing agates either. Especially on saws larger than 10". For hard rocks I use recycled electrical transformer oil which is an industrial grade mineral oil. It seems to lubricate fairly well but not as well as Almag, or Chevron's Diamond 7. The Almag and Diamond 7 oils seem to irritate my upper respiratory system so I compromised on the oil. All of my saws have a fixed feed rate except the Frantom. It has step pulleys but they are directly rigged to the blade speed as well. So if you set it for the fastest blade speed it also speeds up the power feed rate so you get the same blade fpm to power feed ratio regardless of which pulley setting you use so that isn;t really that helpful. Therefore on all of the saws I just have to judge for myself how large of a rock of a given material each saw set-up can handle. Just because a rock can fit in the vise doesn't mean the saw set-up can handle it. I hope this has been of help. And also for those of you needing a new motor, Harbor freight has a 1/2hp 1725 rpm motor ( SKU 67839) on sale right now for $89.99.
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Post by Tonyterner on Jan 11, 2012 20:16:25 GMT -5
Dang I wanna know what kind of agate that was so I can avoid it. Hope you find a cheap motor for the big saw. Don't know what I'd do if my WF died.
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