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Jointer wiring question

11K views 50 replies 6 participants last post by  bigredc 
#1 ·
Hello all,

this is a repost from the General Forum (I think I should have posted it here in the first place - apologies)

I just bought the Craftsman Professional 6 1/8 1hp jointer at an auction. When I got it home I realized it was wired for 240v (the plug gave it away). I need to get it back to 120 and there are no wiring diagrams on the motor. Can anyone help me make sense of many wires coming out of the motor housing? I tried to call Craftsman and after spending 45 minutes on the phone to various Sears/Craftsman call centers all over the world I finally got a very poor response: they told me to go to one of their repair centers and try and talk to a repair technician...and no, I couldn't call them directly. Very frustrating. All I need is the wiring diagram for this motor.

can anyone out there help me?

Many thanks
 
#28 ·
I'm seeing something very interesting. That link shows the wires grouped different that my book. My book shows, (2,4,5)&(1,3,8) or (2,4,8)&(1,3,5) for 115 volts That link shows (1,4,8)&(2,3,5) or (1,4,5)&(2,3,8) Try switching the wires to the grouping from the link.
My book's diagram is for a split phase motor. Your's is not that. it's a capacitor motor. The information on the link say's they are wired the same, but his diagram is different. Switch it then just bump it. On off real quick. If it groans and doesn't turn or barely turns don't try it again. If it takes off an runs good. Give it another try for like 10 seconds. If it seems good leave it on let it run a bit. Hopefully this is the problem.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Are you going to try to test the capacitor like Tom said? I don't know what else to tell you. Is it feasible to rewire back to 220 and tie it into the panel with a piece of romex or extension cord? If you did that and it still didn't run, then it would probably be the capacitor. You can't just call an electrician the average electrician won't have a clue. You would need to find a motor shop. I have a few around me. You bring them your motor and they test them and rebuild them if they need it. I think it's cheaper to rebuild a motor than buy a new one. If you haven't priced new motors yet you'll be in for a shock.
 
#34 ·
Thanks for all your help. When I have a moment, I'm going to run a string of romex down to the panel in my basement and try it on 240. If that works I'm going to run that 60 amp pony panel out to the garage to run all my tools and my wife's kiln (she's a ceramics artist; aka potter. She's glad I have this problem as she's been asking me to wire up her kiln for a while now).

I'll let you know if I ever get the darn thing working.

Thanks again
 
#35 ·
Guys,

I just want to re-visit the capacitor for a second. Discharge it before you pull the wires off. I like to isolate components before testing. BTW, I only forgot to discharge the capacitor once and I knew it was good without using the meter! The other test you might try is with your meter set on ohms, check the resistance of the start and run windings and then test the windings to the case. The start winding is a higher resistance than the run and there should be no reading at all to the case. When reading to the case, set the ohm meter on the highest scale and hopefully you will see no movement.

Tom
 
#40 ·
I must have missed post 15.
I was still hoping the breaker was tripping because it was 12.5 at 220. I think you going to have to dig into that motor. Coincidently I picked up a belt disc sander for 30 bucks about a month ago. It seemed to work fine. Over the weekend I decided to mount on stand I found, and rewire the switch. I got it all done. When I turned on the switch it made all kinds of noise, stopped. I played with the switch I could get it to run, but something was definitely wrong. I tore into it. I'm going to post pictures of the centrifugal switch so you can see how it works. My motor was full of dirt and saw dust. I just cleaned it up real good. It runs fine now
 
#48 ·
Quick update

Right, well, I feel a bit sheepish now.

I just spent almost $400 (Canadian so that would be...er...$400 US;))on wire, breakers etc. so I can run a 60amp pony panel out to the garage. I have two 15 amp ciruits out there right now that are not well marked in my electrical panel so, to find the correct breakers to disconnect, I thought I would fire up the jointer and pop the breakers (so I could spot them easily). Well, wouldn't you know it, the jointer ran fine! Purred away! It's a bit warmer than when I first tried it...maybe I knocked away some gunk while I was fiddling around with the motor?

Also, now that it's working, I read the manual cover to cover and found a wiring diagram:blink: (in my own defense, it's placed in an odd spot and not listed in the contents.)

Regardless, I now have puh-lenty of power out there (240 and otherwise) and now my wife can fire up her 40amp kiln...so...she's happy (She's a ceramics artist - you and I would call her a potter).

Thanks for all your help bigredC! I'm off to make some sawdust.
 
#51 ·
Welcome to my world. I don't do a lot of industrial service calls anymore, but in the past I have worked on stuff for hours, not found anything wrong, with the customer breathing down my back. Then all of a sudden the machine starts working again. Do I tell the customer, i don't have a clue what i did, or do I puff out my chest and write up the bill. I did the first once or twice then I got good at making up reasons how I fixed it. Anyway good luck, glad I could help. You'll use that electric down the road. You never have to much juice.
 
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