Restoration Progress On My 1986 Gray

mickyd · Post by **mickyd** » Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:03 am

heathicus wrote:My little battery charger has been unreliable for electrolysis, so I'm converting a PC power supply into a "lab" power supply and plan to use it. I have quite a few of those PC power supplies laying around that will never be used for anything. Might as well give it a shot and see what happens.

Curious to know what is causing the issue with your charger. What are the symptoms your seeing for you to say it's not reliable? Do you have an amp meter? Even a couple amps works for electrolysis.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:20 am

mickyd wrote:Curious to know what is causing the issue with your charger. What are the symptoms your seeing for you to say it's not reliable? Do you have an amp meter? Even a couple amps works for electrolysis.

The main issue is it doesn't stay on "Charging" very long. After a few minutes, it changes to "Charged" and goes into trickle charging mode which still works but really really slow. Sometimes I can readjust things so it goes back to "charging" but it's pretty hard.

mickyd · Post by **mickyd** » Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:50 am

heathicus wrote:The main issue is it doesn't stay on "Charging" very long. After a few minutes, it changes to "Charged" and goes into trickle charging mode which still works but really really slow. Sometimes I can readjust things so it goes back to "charging" but it's pretty hard.

Do you have an independent amp meter where you could measure the current?

------------------------ · Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:30 am

If you hooked an old discharged car battery into the system, it might help with the charger. I used a crap car "jumper" box to jump start my bath and once my charger got started, I unhooked it and the charger managed to stay at about 6 amps.
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heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:34 am

mickyd wrote:Do you have an independent amp meter where you could measure the current?

Just a cheap multimeter.

mark-b wrote:If you hooked an old discharged car battery into the system, it might help with the charger. I used a crap car "jumper" box to jump start my bath and once my charger got started, I unhooked it and the charger managed to stay at about 6 amps.
[ATTACH]7739[/ATTACH]

I don't have an old discharged battery. Don't have one of those "jumper" things. Don't have a better battery charger. But I do have a half dozen PC power supplies.

heathicus · Post by **heathicus** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 12:32 pm

Got a new question for those of you still reading along.

I was cleaning up my workbench today and happened to take a look at the Shopsmith's electrical cord that I had coiled up and sitting on top of the motor. The thread about the new Shopsmith not working and the cause being a bad crimp job on one of the connectors popped into my head, so I took a closer look at mine to see what mine looked like. I started thinking about some of the later posts in that thread about grounding and which wires run to the switch, etc.

I then noticed that my plug only has 2 prongs, but there are 3 wires in the cord - white, black, and green. I used my multimeter and ensured that the black and white wires connected to each of the prongs, but I don't see where the green wire really connects to anything on the plug end. There is a hole where the 3rd (ground) prong might be, and at first I thought maybe that prong had been cut or broken off. But inside the hole is molded rubber, no prong remnants. I see nothing indicating that it wasn't made that way.

So why would this be? Why would the cord have 3 wires, but only 2 prongs? What is the point of the green wire grounding the motor if the other end is just buried in rubber? Should I replace the electrical cord?

robinson46176 · Post by **robinson46176** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 12:42 pm

heathicus wrote:Got a new question for those of you still reading along.

I was cleaning up my workbench today and happened to take a look at the Shopsmith's electrical cord that I had coiled up and sitting on top of the motor. The thread about the new Shopsmith not working and the cause being a bad crimp job on one of the connectors popped into my head, so I took a closer look at mine to see what mine looked like. I started thinking about some of the later posts in that thread about grounding and which wires run to the switch, etc.

I then noticed that my plug only has 2 prongs, but there are 3 wires in the cord - white, black, and green. I used my multimeter and ensured that the black and white wires connected to each of the prongs, but I don't see where the green wire really connects to anything on the plug end. There is a hole where the 3rd (ground) prong might be, and at first I thought maybe that prong had been cut or broken off. But inside the hole is molded rubber, no prong remnants. I see nothing indicating that it wasn't made that way.

So why would this be? Why would the cord have 3 wires, but only 2 prongs? What is the point of the green wire grounding the motor if the other end is just buried in rubber? Should I replace the electrical cord?

At least replace the plug.
It might be a good time to replace the entire cord with a 12 gauge cord especially if bogging down during a heavy cut is a problem. If you have no loading issues just the plug should do.
The problem with having a green wire connected to the motor/housing and not grounded at the plug is that if you get wire damage in the cord and that shorts to the green wire the current will go directly to the housing and during that time even if only for an instant the entire tool will be hot.
Not a good thing.

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 1:56 pm

heathicus wrote:Got a new question for those of you still reading along.

I was cleaning up my workbench today and happened to take a look at the Shopsmith's electrical cord that I had coiled up and sitting on top of the motor. The thread about the new Shopsmith not working and the cause being a bad crimp job on one of the connectors popped into my head, so I took a closer look at mine to see what mine looked like. I started thinking about some of the later posts in that thread about grounding and which wires run to the switch, etc.

I then noticed that my plug only has 2 prongs, but there are 3 wires in the cord - white, black, and green. I used my multimeter and ensured that the black and white wires connected to each of the prongs, but I don't see where the green wire really connects to anything on the plug end. There is a hole where the 3rd (ground) prong might be, and at first I thought maybe that prong had been cut or broken off. But inside the hole is molded rubber, no prong remnants. I see nothing indicating that it wasn't made that way.

So why would this be? Why would the cord have 3 wires, but only 2 prongs? What is the point of the green wire grounding the motor if the other end is just buried in rubber? Should I replace the electrical cord?

It has been my experience (and I have had this happen several times) that when the ground pin comes off the plug, it "looks" like there is no wire, just molded rubber. Do knot be misled! If there is a "hole" where a ground pin could have been, there was most assuredly one there at one time. Sometimes they have been removed on purpose, sometimes they come off when the plug is pulled from the receptacle, sometimes, ...oh, who knows! Replace the plug with a new one!

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:03 pm

a1gutterman wrote:It has been my experience (and I have had this happen several times) that when the ground pin comes off the plug, it "looks" like there is no wire, just molded rubber. Do knot be misled! If there is a "hole" where a ground pin could have been, there was most assuredly one there at one time. Sometimes they have been removed on purpose, sometimes they come off when the plug is pulled from the receptacle, sometimes, ...oh, who knows! Replace the plug with a new one!

I agree with both Francis and Tim. I am assuming(as are they) that the interior end of the green wire is connected to either the frame of the motor or the chassis. Put a new plug on it!(I assume your receptacles are 3 'prong' grounding type).

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:39 pm

heathicus wrote:Got a new question for those of you still reading along.

I was cleaning up my workbench today and happened to take a look at the Shopsmith's electrical cord that I had coiled up and sitting on top of the motor. The thread about the new Shopsmith not working and the cause being a bad crimp job on one of the connectors popped into my head, so I took a closer look at mine to see what mine looked like. I started thinking about some of the later posts in that thread about grounding and which wires run to the switch, etc.

I then noticed that my plug only has 2 prongs, but there are 3 wires in the cord - white, black, and green. I used my multimeter and ensured that the black and white wires connected to each of the prongs, but I don't see where the green wire really connects to anything on the plug end. There is a hole where the 3rd (ground) prong might be, and at first I thought maybe that prong had been cut or broken off. But inside the hole is molded rubber, no prong remnants. I see nothing indicating that it wasn't made that way.

So why would this be? Why would the cord have 3 wires, but only 2 prongs? What is the point of the green wire grounding the motor if the other end is just buried in rubber? Should I replace the electrical cord?

Use that multimeter and check for connection on the green wire to metal most anywhere on your Shopsmith. If you have continuity, do as JPG said and put a 3-wire plug on the cord.