Current mood:	excited
Current music:	A musical I saw premiere of tonight, "Anne of Green Gables"

Need a motor geek
I'll try to keep this short and sweet.
I love you all.
If anyone has a clue about large ac motors (like for an awesome table saw that I got out of a dumpster) please follow this cut and communicate with me about what the various non-motor parts are and why they work (capacitor, something else that I don't recognize, etc.)

The only problem I have with it is that the motor has no power at all, and can be coerced easily into running backwards or forwards, which tells me (I think) that the capacitor (which I have located in the switch box)) is bad. However, there are a couple of other things in there and I haven't taken the time to look at them closely. If anyone knows what they are likely to be, or a good explanatory site I can go to to learn more, I'd really appreciate it! I'm guessing one of them is a circuit breaker, since there is a "Reset" button. I know which one is the capacitor, and I'll be replacing that automatically, but I'd like to know if there is likely to be anything else I should replace at the same time.

I looked at it more closely, and the circuit is very straightforward. 110v hot line goes to the switch, then to the circuit breaker, and then to ?? (one wire in, two wires out). 1 of those wires goes straight to the motor, the other wire goes to a capacitor, then to the motor. The third motor lead is the other side of the line voltage (ground). I don't see a capacitor value (?? microfarads??), so I'm not really sure how to proceed. It's size is about 4 inches long, one inch in diameter, and I think it's probably electrolytic. So I need help understanding what the ?? is, and what the value of the capacitor replacement should be.

I fully expect to end up with a very powerful motor on a very nice table saw. I won't go into too much detail about how I removed 24+ screws trying to take the entire top off the table, only to find out that access is from the side. I drew neat diagrams of the things I removed, so I'm sure I can put it back together easily. It's been a blast!

Also, I relearned a very important rule. Use penetrating oil. Pre-penetrating oil, nothing wanted to turn. After penetrating oil, I smile at the screw or bolt, and it turns with (almost) zero effort.

Dumpster diving is great fun. More about that in another post.


Peace