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Last night I was cutting a piece of Montana agate and something terrible happened. When I opened the lid it didn't look right. The piece in the vise had shifted and the piece that was cut fell into the oil. I fished out the piece and it was half cut and half broken. I secured the rock back in the vise and tried again. I started it and waited for the saw to start cutting. It didn't. I turned it off and looked inside. The feed had pushed the rock to the blade. Something was very wrong. I closed it and turned it on and I looked through the little window and the blade is not spinning. I was hoping the belt broke and it would be an easy fix. My husband took the belt cover off and the belt is perfectly fine. I think I burned out the motor. I don't know if it can be fixed or if I need to buy a new motor. I hope nothing else was damaged. Not sure where to start. I'm so bummed.
My biggest saw is 10" so it can use water. I gave up on vises, and rigged a brace on one side and just aim it through with my hands. I don't think my rocks are as big as yours, so takes less time.
Good luck with the motor etc. What a bummer.
Are you near a club? Maybe someone from a club could help you out.
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 23, 2016 14:41:43 GMT -5
Ouch. That is a huge bummer. I would take the main belt off and let the motor cool down then plug it in to see if the motor spins. Most motors have an overload protection so when they get too hot they shut down and will not work again till they cool off. If the belt was tight and the rock bound up in the vise then the motor would overload.
Post by jakesrocks on Oct 23, 2016 14:55:23 GMT -5
If the motor will run but your blade isn't turning, check the set screws on both pulleys. If a set screw has loosened, there's your problem. Since your husband is a car guy, he probably has a tube of non hardening Locktite in his tool box. Have him put a dab of Locktite on the setscrew & tighten it down.
Post by QuailRiver on Oct 23, 2016 15:29:02 GMT -5
As Chuck mentioned many motors have a thermal overload protection feature which will automatically shut down a motor if it overheats when a rock shifts in the vise and binds the blade. While this feature on many motors works as Chuck describes where when the motor cools down the thermal protection overload switches back automatically, on some others (including the ones that came on my Lortone 12" and 14" saws) they have a small red reset button on the back that must manually be pushed in order to rest the motor after it cools down. So that might be worth checking into before breaking out the tools or calling Barranca Diamond.
Larry C.
Last Edit: Oct 23, 2016 15:30:39 GMT -5 by QuailRiver
Drummond Island Rocksjakesrocks I turned it on this morning and it doesn't seem like the big motor is running at all. It makes noise but I think it's the feed motor. I don't understand what happened. It looks like the rock may have shifted by the way the cut looks.
As I was typing this my husband told me to come out to the rock room. I turned it on and IT WORKS!!!!! Apparently it has it own breaker and it tripped.....but why would the motor shut down and the feed keep going? Shouldn't the whole thing shut off? Anyway I'm happy happy happy that it's not broken.
Drummond Island Rocksjakesrocks I turned it on this morning and it doesn't seem like the big motor is running at all. It makes noise but I think it's the feed motor. I don't understand what happened. It looks like the rock may have shifted by the way the cut looks.
As I was typing this my husband told me to come out to the rock room. I turned it on and IT WORKS!!!!! Apparently it has it own breaker and it tripped.....but why would the motor shut down and the feed keep going? Shouldn't the whole thing shut off? Anyway I'm happy happy happy that it's not broken.
Here's a pic of the cut.
Congrats on the repair.
Your husband is a lucky man. Those are some nice back scratching nails!
QuailRiver That's exactly what happened. My husband found it at the same time you were typing your post. I had no idea there was a button in the motor.
Post by paulshiroma on Oct 23, 2016 16:49:33 GMT -5
Glad you got the issue solved! Nice that your saw has two separate breakers, or at least, that's what it sounded like. Mine does not so when the opportunity arose to replace the main circuit breaker panel on my house, I upgraded the whole panel, showed the electrician the equipment I work with and he installed dedicated circuits specifically for the lapidary equipment.
Post by Drummond Island Rocks on Oct 23, 2016 20:48:00 GMT -5
If a rock came loose and you did not tweak the blade you got really lucky. I forgot to mention that reset button. Most of my lapidary equipment does not have those but all of my woodworking equipment does.
Sounds like you need to baby sit your saw. I listen to mine the whole time even if I'm away slightly. Always listening for the slightest change for a)a bind or b)the slab is about the fall off. Glad all is well meviva
The feed motor doesn't shut off when the blade stops when you have a seperate feed motor. There might be a way to rewire it to do that but that's beyond my electrical knowledge, like broseph82 said, it's best to stay in earshot of the saw, especially with hard to clamp shapes or with the first cut on any rock. I stopped the blade, burned through the drive belt, and the feed went on to bend the blade with a chunk of bruneau in a slab grabber several years ago.
“If history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.” - Ludwig Von Mises
The blade was delivered today. I want to change the oil before putting the new blade on. I'm trying to figure if I have to take the whole top off like the manual says or if I can just drain it and wipe everything off as best I can.
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Welcome to the Rock Tumbling Hobby Forum where we share a love of rocks and a sense of community as enduring as the stones we polish.
The RTH Forum of www.RockTumbling.com is an Amazon Associate site and we earn money from
qualifying purchases you make after clicking on our links such as this
Rock Tumbling Supplies on Amazon
link for instance, or any of our various product ads and banners. By clicking our links every time you begin your Amazon shopping
experience, you are generating a bit of revenue for the forum which helps us cover our expenses. Thank you for your support!
Now to order a new one. 301 or 303? That is the question.
