Wiring a Rockwell Delta Radial Arm Saw

Nov 03, 2009 7 Replies

I just overhauled a nice 12" Rockwell Delta Radial Arm saw (Model L-40C or revised model 33-527).I had to repair a broken casting but the weld is holding nicely.



What ISN'T so nice is the motor is running backward! The motor is a Rockwell model 438-02-314-0017 dual voltage single phase 2 HP motor. I have it set up for 230V (rather than 115V). The input wiring seems straight forward: 3 wires (2 hot; 1 neutral). There is a wiring diagram on the motor's coverplate but it says nothing about reversing the rotation - just how to change the voltage.



How do I get this motor to rotate the other way?


Gary



Just for to make sure, if you're facing the saw arbor the rotation is now CCW?

If so, you there should be a start winding lead on the start switch and the other end on one of the caps, reversing their positions will reverse the motor. The polarity of the start winding has to be reversed to gain the other rotation.

The problem is that motors come in thousands of connection choices and configurations and not all are reversible and there's no consistent numbering/labeling of terminals. :(

My suggestion would be to try Delta directly--if you're _really_ lucky there may be a better diagram online, if not perhaps you can get some technical support guru.

Just as examples, here are a couple sample connection diagrams that probably won't help but give an idea of the disparities... :(

Sorry can't be more help...

I'm sure the motor is indeed running backwards. But just in case, the blade should be turning clockwise as you are looking at the arbor nut side of the blade. Some have been known to mount the blade backwards.

Or to put it less ambiguously, the blade should be rotating so that the teeth at the bottom are moving away from the operator and toward the fence, forcing the stock into the fence.

Assuming the saw is set up for a cross cut and not a molding, rip, planer, or horizonal boring procedure.

The most common method is to reverse the start windings

dpb wrote: ...

...

And, if this is the motor that came w/ the saw, it would seem highly unlikely it would have been supplied as "changeable rotation direction enabled" since one would never want the blade spinning the other direction--which makes one highly suspect that it was swapped or somehow reassembled/wired incorrectly or...???

_IF_ (the proverbial "big if" :) ) it really is running backwards (CCW instead of CW) and otherwise seems ok and you can't decipher where the connections outlined earlier are fubar'ed, you could try taking it to a local motor shop and see if they can decipher it and/or cobble it to run in correct rotation.

--

Another issue--one presumes that the carriage is adjusted so that the blade is on the operator's left. If not then it should be--most RAS allow it to be turned all the way around.

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