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I have a Delta tablesaw that I’ve had for over 25 years. A few years ago I had to replace the switch, and a few folks here were kind enough to help me out with that. I now have another problem that I hope someone can help me with.
Having way too many family health and death issues for about 5 years, my shop sat idle. During that time I had solar installed complete with battery and a new electrical panel. Once I got my life in order and headed back out to the shop, when I fired up my table saw, it engaged for about 1/10 of a second, and stopped. I could not get it to start again. I took the motor to a shop, and replaced the switch only to realize that the wires in the plug (wall side) were singed and the white wire had broken. So after replacing everything, the saw worked fine…for a while. It stopped again this weekend, and the wires in the plug are singed once again, and it won’t start. Before I buy another switch (about $90), can someone tell me if the switch is working? After the first failure, an electrician asked me about the part of the switch that the arrow is pointing to in the picture. He told me to press it, but I don’t recall what was supposed to happen. It depressed, but pops right back out. Is that what it is supposed to do? There are no visible wire singes in the switch, it still looks brand new. It’s not the circuit breaker. I always have the dust collector on when the TS is on and both are 220. I’m wondering if when they put the new panel in they didn’t know that that’s what I was doing and didn’t allow for that.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.
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(03-31-2025, 02:34 PM)SheriDi Wrote: I have a Delta tablesaw that I’ve had for over 25 years. A few years ago I had to replace the switch, and a few folks here were kind enough to help me out with that. I now have another problem that I hope someone can help me with.
Having way too many family health and death issues for about 5 years, my shop sat idle. During that time I had solar installed complete with battery and a new electrical panel. Once I got my life in order and headed back out to the shop, when I fired up my table saw, it engaged for about 1/10 of a second, and stopped. I could not get it to start again. I took the motor to a shop, and replaced the switch only to realize that the wires in the plug (wall side) were singed and the white wire had broken. So after replacing everything, the saw worked fine…for a while. It stopped again this weekend, and the wires in the plug are singed once again, and it won’t start. Before I buy another switch (about $90), can someone tell me if the switch is working? After the first failure, an electrician asked me about the part of the switch that the arrow is pointing to in the picture. He told me to press it, but I don’t recall what was supposed to happen. It depressed, but pops right back out. Is that what it is supposed to do? There are no visible wire singes in the switch, it still looks brand new. It’s not the circuit breaker. I always have the dust collector on when the TS is on and both are 220. I’m wondering if when they put the new panel in they didn’t know that that’s what I was doing and didn’t allow for that.
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. Sounds like it is a bad plug, cord and or receptacle as there should not be any burning at that point. If you are starting both the saw and dust collector at the same time it may be too much starting current for the plug,cord, receptacle. After repairing the plug,cord,receptacle try starting one at a time. The part you were told to push in is the contactor itself, if you have power, the saw will start when pressed in, if it does not then you dont have voltage at that point. It will not stay in unless you have voltage. The red reset in lower right will stay in until tripped from overload. Make sure and not use a real cheap plug and socket and have good connections on the terminals. Roly
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03-31-2025, 03:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-31-2025, 03:17 PM by jteneyck.)
If the wires in the plug are singed, then either the plug or the power cord to the saw is too small for the load, or the wires are not connected securely to the terminals in the plug. I see the overload adjust in the contactor is set at 22 amps. The power cord should be 10 gage to carry that many amps. Once you get the plug and cord sorted out, then press the red reset button if it won't start.
The tabs to the left of the arrow could be the start switch. If so, the larger button to the right of the back of the arrow is the stop switch. The buttons on the front of the cover will tell you which is which.
John
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03-31-2025, 03:30 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-31-2025, 03:42 PM by Philip1231.)
A picture of TS nameplate showing electrical specs would be helpful. If it's a UNISAW, IIRC it should be around 12 amps @ 240 Volts: makes me wonder why the overcurrent trip in the switch is set so high? Picture of printing on power cable will tell us gauge of cable and printing on plug will tell us current rating of that as well.
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Thanks all. The power cord is the original and the old plug lasted over 10 years. I bought the most recent plug at Home Depot and it was the only one that had the right configuration for my receptacle. The wires were tight inside the plug.
Nothing inside the shop has changed, just outside.
The red button in the picture is actually the off switch, so I'm not sure why they would label it "Reset".
If the power cord is too small for the load, is there now more "load" coming in through the receptacle for some reason?
Probably too late to ask this question, but does it matter where I put the white and black wires? I know where the ground goes.
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03-31-2025, 04:16 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-31-2025, 04:29 PM by Philip1231.)
So a wild-ash guess on this one would be the following: there is a motor fault (possibly intermittent) that is causing it to draw more than the rated 12.6 amps. The current overprotection device in the switch is set to 22 amps. Until the trip module gets to the point where it wants to trip, you are drawing perhaps 180% of the current you should be drawing. Until the trip actually occurs, the weakest link in the circuit, this case the connection of the power cord to the plug, acts like a toaster.
I could be completely wrong: but thats all I've got. I have an ammeter that clamps on to a power cord to measure the actual current draw and that would be my next step if I were trouble-shooting this in my shop.
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Thanks Philip. I've really got no idea where to go from here.
Is there a way to test the switch?
If I bypass the switch completely and run the motor for just a few seconds, I guess that would tell me that the switch is bad. Could that harm the motor?
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(03-31-2025, 04:03 PM)SheriDi Wrote: Thanks all. The power cord is the original and the old plug lasted over 10 years. I bought the most recent plug at Home Depot and it was the only one that had the right configuration for my receptacle. The wires were tight inside the plug.
Nothing inside the shop has changed, just outside.
The red button in the picture is actually the off switch, so I'm not sure why they would label it "Reset".
If the power cord is too small for the load, is there now more "load" coming in through the receptacle for some reason?
Probably too late to ask this question, but does it matter where I put the white and black wires? I know where the ground goes.
The reset button can't be the off switch; it would not be labeled as the reset if it were. If the power cord is too small for the load, it gets hot from trying to pass through more amps than it can safely handle. That causes problems for both the motor and the connection at both ends. White and black make no difference with 240 V circuits.
The motor is rated at 12.4 amps. The overload (green) button should be set at about 15, about as low as it can go. 12 gage wire is fine for a 3 hp motor. Check the cord for what gage it is.
And check the receptacle. Maybe the wiring inside has a problem.
John
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The "reset" button is directly underneath the "Off" button on the outer case. Maybe if I push it in farther it will reset?
I guess I will attach a new plug, and turn the over protection down and give that a try.
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Is it possible that the switch you pointed to with the yellow arrow in the original post is a safety interlock that prevents anything from working when the cover with the red and green buttons is removed? In other words does putting the cover on cause that switch to be depressed?
So the green button on the cover lines up with the square black “post”, correct? What does the red button on the cover line up with, that red reset button? Or what does the red button on the cover contact when pressed?
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