Post by herchenx on Jan 2, 2016 19:24:12 GMT -5
Well after last night, I'd committed to getting the saw running today. I started out by swapping the blade with a new 301 I bought from John at johnjsgems this summer at the Denver show, and the belt with an adjustable from Harbor Freight. The change was obvious and immediate. The saw ran smooth and quiet, I had to triple check to make sure the blade was turning, I could see the pulley moving but it was very quiet running.
Here is the new blade and the new belt (shroud removed just to make sure things were working)
rockroller Roland messaged me to see if I was around and if I wanted to get together. I closed up the saw and let it run to finish the 12# Laguna I started on my first failed attempt last night. Roland arrived as the saw finished up and I heard the "thunk" of the cut piece in the saw.
I pulled it open and was thrilled to see this:
I've held this thing for a few years in anticipation of the day I had a saw that could cut it, and this was a great moment for me.
Not to be content ending on a positive note, I took one of the rocks Roland brought over and put it in a slab grabber (it had a cut side) and loaded into the saw. First cut was good, so on the second cut we came inside to look at my shelf o' crystals. We came back out to the garage to hear the motor running, but something sounded very off. I could see that the pulley was not moving. Right as I headed to the saw I heard a clunk and everything fell silent.
When I opened the saw the blade was seized in the rock. As we explored to see what else was wrong, I saw that the pulley on the motor had melted (this was DejaVu all over again, I did the same thing with my smaller saw several years ago.)
I flipped the switch off and on a few times, and nothing was working. We checked the breaker (same as last night) and it was fine. I checked the power on the cord and we had juice. I ascertained that the motor must have gone. I started working pulling the old motor off, while Roland got to work pulling a motor off the old air compressor in the corner. We took about 30 minutes in the cold air to get everything switched over. Roland noted that the new motor was twice the speed of the old. Deja Vu again, same issue as I'd encountered on my smaller saw several years ago. I figured I might be able to reuse the pulleys from my small saw once we determined that the wiring on the big saw was still OK.
I flipped the switch again, and nothing. I remembered the night before, and realized the safety lever (to prevent overload) had been tripped again. I flipped it on, Roland reminded me to plug things back in, and when I flipped the switch everything worked. It came to me in that moment that the original motor might be fine, and when we compared the new pulley on the motor we were swapping in, it looked to be the same as the original pulley. Flip-flop, swip-swap (?) and the original motor was back on, with its new pulley. In my rush I grabbed a hot wire right as Roland asked "isn't that still plugged in?" - fortunately I didn't get zapped and safely unplugged the cord before grabbing the wire to disconnect the motor.
We had to use the torch on a nut and on the old pulley, which was exciting because pretty much everything all around me was flammable at that point - no explosions or unintended fires I'm happy to report. I felt bad that Roland had pulled the motor unnecessarily, but we did get a new pulley in place, as well as cleaning out and oiling the original motor in the disassembly/reassembly process.
I found that while the slab grabber had a good grip on Roland's rock, the vice didn't have such a great grip on the slab grabber. I loosened it up and shimmed things a bit and was able to line the blade up nearly perfectly with the original cut, so we saved the slab. We got 2 or 3 more before running out of room, with no more problems.
SO - we did end up on a good note. I'm tickled pink with the saw and the new hardware and service seem to have it in great shape for lots more cutting. Of course I had to take poor Roland with me on my usual "oh oh, that's really bad" trip to get there, but like I said it is great now, and it was great to hang most of the afternoon with a good friend and fellow rocker.
Here is the new blade and the new belt (shroud removed just to make sure things were working)
rockroller Roland messaged me to see if I was around and if I wanted to get together. I closed up the saw and let it run to finish the 12# Laguna I started on my first failed attempt last night. Roland arrived as the saw finished up and I heard the "thunk" of the cut piece in the saw.
I pulled it open and was thrilled to see this:
I've held this thing for a few years in anticipation of the day I had a saw that could cut it, and this was a great moment for me.
Not to be content ending on a positive note, I took one of the rocks Roland brought over and put it in a slab grabber (it had a cut side) and loaded into the saw. First cut was good, so on the second cut we came inside to look at my shelf o' crystals. We came back out to the garage to hear the motor running, but something sounded very off. I could see that the pulley was not moving. Right as I headed to the saw I heard a clunk and everything fell silent.
When I opened the saw the blade was seized in the rock. As we explored to see what else was wrong, I saw that the pulley on the motor had melted (this was DejaVu all over again, I did the same thing with my smaller saw several years ago.)
I flipped the switch off and on a few times, and nothing was working. We checked the breaker (same as last night) and it was fine. I checked the power on the cord and we had juice. I ascertained that the motor must have gone. I started working pulling the old motor off, while Roland got to work pulling a motor off the old air compressor in the corner. We took about 30 minutes in the cold air to get everything switched over. Roland noted that the new motor was twice the speed of the old. Deja Vu again, same issue as I'd encountered on my smaller saw several years ago. I figured I might be able to reuse the pulleys from my small saw once we determined that the wiring on the big saw was still OK.
I flipped the switch again, and nothing. I remembered the night before, and realized the safety lever (to prevent overload) had been tripped again. I flipped it on, Roland reminded me to plug things back in, and when I flipped the switch everything worked. It came to me in that moment that the original motor might be fine, and when we compared the new pulley on the motor we were swapping in, it looked to be the same as the original pulley. Flip-flop, swip-swap (?) and the original motor was back on, with its new pulley. In my rush I grabbed a hot wire right as Roland asked "isn't that still plugged in?" - fortunately I didn't get zapped and safely unplugged the cord before grabbing the wire to disconnect the motor.
We had to use the torch on a nut and on the old pulley, which was exciting because pretty much everything all around me was flammable at that point - no explosions or unintended fires I'm happy to report. I felt bad that Roland had pulled the motor unnecessarily, but we did get a new pulley in place, as well as cleaning out and oiling the original motor in the disassembly/reassembly process.
I found that while the slab grabber had a good grip on Roland's rock, the vice didn't have such a great grip on the slab grabber. I loosened it up and shimmed things a bit and was able to line the blade up nearly perfectly with the original cut, so we saved the slab. We got 2 or 3 more before running out of room, with no more problems.
SO - we did end up on a good note. I'm tickled pink with the saw and the new hardware and service seem to have it in great shape for lots more cutting. Of course I had to take poor Roland with me on my usual "oh oh, that's really bad" trip to get there, but like I said it is great now, and it was great to hang most of the afternoon with a good friend and fellow rocker.
