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Okay, maybe a little more than $15, but not much. First let me say that I am not a rich man. If I could afford it I think I would buy either a Delta 14" bandsaw (if it were made in the US (the newer ones made in the Far East are not as good), or one of those new Laguna 16" bandsaws. My old bandsaw (I have had it a dozen years or more) is a taiwanese import. It has served me well, although the blade guides are not good, the stand is about to fall apart (replacing it is my next job), and the blade drift is tremendous because it is hard to tension. Having said that I have achieved satisfactory results with it for quite some time now.
One major safety issue has been the switch. It came with a cheap switch mounted to the stand. There are two major concerns with it. First, it is totally open to the elements. If you stuck your hand in there the wrong way, you could electrocute yourself. It is also open to dust. Now, sawdust can hold a lot of moisture and this switch experienced a buildup on the contacts that shorted out the switch so that if you were using the saw and tried to shut it off, it would keep on running. You'd have to kick it to get it to stop. Not a safe situation.
The second concern was the position of the switch. It was hard to reach if you needed to stop the saw in a hurry and awkward to get at any other time. The solution? Replace the switch with something that dust can't get into, and move it up onto the support for the upper wheel assembly. No more dust problems - no more awkward reach to shut it off.
I had considered a magnetic switch but didn't want to spend that much money. I tried to find a push button on/off switch but either had no luck or they were more expensive than the mag switch. I decided to go to home depot and fiddle around with parts until I came up with a solution.
Oddly enough, there was a really helpful guy in there who showed me to these Red Dot waterproof outdoor products and that was what I decided to go with. Having had a cord on the machine already (and the cord that goes from the motor to the old switch), I could save myself buying that. Otherwise the list became:
I bought all that for around $15. Then I went throught the following steps:
- Remove old motor to switch cable and throw it away.
- Remove old switch to wall cable. Clean up the end that was attached to the switch then wire it to the motor. Next cut off the plug.
- Decide where on the support you are going to place the switch. Then size the new motor cable from the previous step to reach comfortably to the switch box leaving about 7 to 8 inches of wire extra for inside the box. Cut to length then strip the insulation off of the few inches to go inside the box and strip the ends for connecting to the terminals.
- Decide how you are to mount the switch to the support column. In my case there is a sheet metal cap over the casting to hide it. I used the mounitng brackets that came with the box and screwed it straight to this cover after drilling two holes in it for self tapping screws. Another option would be to drill holes in a couple of hose clamps large enough to go around the support column (you can join more than one together if necessary), and screw the box to the hose clamps. Then hose clamp the box to the column. Make sure you use the hole plugs that come with the box to plug all the holes you aren't going to use before mounting.
- Place the motor wire though one of the cable connectors and feed the cable up through the box (I used the inboard hole for this cable and the outboard hole for the plug wire). Then tighten with a wrench to secure the cable firmly to the box.
- Thread the new extension plug wire through the other cable connector and secure that cable to the box as well. Make sure that the insulation is removed from 7 to 8 inches of this cable too.
- Now that the box is firmly mounted (end with the double hole pointing down of course), and the wires are installed in it, connect both green wires (from both cables), to the box using the green grounding screw provided. See the wiring diagram.
- Next use a Marette or wire nut to join the white neutral wires together. Wrap the nut and wires with electrical tape to ensure they won't pull apart. See the wiring diagram.
- Attach the swith to the swith plate using the screws and spaces as provided. Watch you don't get it upside down the first time like I did.
- Place the gasket over the switch before attaching any wires. Attach each of the black wires to one of the terminals on the switch. See the wiring diagram.
- Mount the switch to the box, making sure the gasket is even.
- Plug it in.
- Turn it on.
Here is a picture of the finished product. And here is a closer look. Now I am going to paint the switch lever itself bright red and highlight the on and off lettering as well. Works like a charm!
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