power surge bummer

[Tin Falcon]

well guys I am a bit bummed out. in the one heck of a storm thread I mentions I lost some compact florescent bulbs as a result of an apparent power surge. we found another one gone today. That light has not been on this week . but that is not the worst of it . it looks like we did indeed get a power surge and it took out the controller board to the mini lathe and possible the mini mill I need to dig into that and check the fuse. they were both off, but plugged into the same power strip. in the same area as the cf s that went belly up.
has anyone here repaired or refurbished a control board ?
we have a tech at work that likes to play with unusual stuff and is pretty good at bench work I will talk with him before ordering new ones . With any luck maybe i can get them repaired for a case of beer.
open to suggestions.
Tin

 

[Cedge]

Jim
I'm a little surprised you're not familiar with Uncle Rabid. He's on several machinist boards and offers repairs to the controllers used on all the sieg machines, form the small power feeds, mini and micro mills, mini lathes.... all the way up to the SX3 boards. He's not very expensive and he can tweak the circuit boards for best performance, if you ask him to.

His web site is located at http://www.unclerabid.com/ . I've spoken with him and he's both knowledgeable and helpful, but he has his own protocol for scheduling work, so follow his instruction on the site...LOL

Steve

 

[Tin Falcon]

well got the lathe board into work today. One of my co-workers looked at it at lunch time. In about 15 minutes time he had the bad part located and plucked out.
When I got home did some research found a spec sheet on the part and a source to purchase. Looks like a $.25 diode will get me back up and running. I want to troubleshoot the board on the mill before ordering parts.
Tin

 

[Tin Falcon]

Well guys
Still no definite diagnosis on the mill board. Busy week at work.
This weekend again started off with a bang. the car refused to start while leaving work Friday evening had to put a in new starter while working in the parking lot at work. in order to get home. FUN!!!! At lease i did not get stranded today on my road trip across the state.
tin

 

[rake60]

Isn't the "replace it, don't repair it" age wonderful?

There is a universal tool to meet the needs of the era Tin.
We call it the "BFH" The last word of that acronym is HAMMER!

It won't fix it, but at least you'll get a little instant gratification
for your efforts!

Rick

 

[sparky961]

Isn't the "replace it, don't repair it" age wonderful?

This bothers me to no end whenever I see instances of it. Even with my own tiny machine shop, various woodworking tools, a welder, and who knows what else, it's often cheaper when you consider my time and the effort it would take just to go and buy a replacement part than to re-engineer a new one because you don't have the custom machine that made the original one in the first place.

It gives me only a little bit of strange satisfaction to know that some day - probably in my lifetime - those guys over in China will start to realize that they too can have large houses and fancy cars. When that time comes, the rest of the "civilized" world is in for a big shock.

"Made in Japan" used to be be the same as "Made in China" is now. Now, you're a lucky person indeed if everything you own was made with the quality, precision, and price that comes from a Japanese factory.

Oh, and I love my own "BFH"

-Brian

 

[Tin Falcon]

I know this is digging up an old thread but figured you guys would like an update.
Things got crazy at work Two out of state road trips in August. One was an overnight trip and we woke up to slashed tires on the van. Uncle rabid was apparently sick for a while causing him to refuse any new work effective 1 august, until he is caught up. Also my electronics buddy at work moved. but to an apartment very close to work.
Well the night before last I finally got together with him at work. we stayed late and fixed the board on the milling machine . I had to run to radio shack for a Bridge rectifier $2.59. Last night young padwan/ apprentice 18 year old son installed the board in the mill for me. The mill is up and running. MRS Falcon was kind enough to order the part needed for the lathe on line so should be here by the end of the week. So thing are finally falling into place to get the shop back up and running.
Tin

 

[wareagle]

Man, it is surprising how much stuff a quick little power surge can screw up! With all of the electronic devices we have these days, it is only going to get worse. Power quality in the future won't improve, and as manufacturers try to squeeze every penny out of their manufacturing process, the components will only get more prone to failure. Don't know what the answer is here, but it sure sucks when it happens.

I have installed lightning and surge suppressors on my electrical service and phone service that come into the house. They seem to be working. People either side of me have lost various electronics and appliances during storms and electrical events, and so far we have only lost a power strip and router.

It does make one wonder if power disconnection should be part of one's shop shut down routine in order to preserve the equipment. Not just turnig it off, but pulling the cords as well!

 

[rake60]

Glad to hear your ready to make chips again Tin!

This is something I never really thought about before you started this thread.
When I ran the wiring circuits to power the machines in my basement shop, it
was all off of a dedicated breaker. There's nothing else on that circuit.
Now the last thing I do when exiting the shop is to throw that breaker off.

A couple years ago I bought a little 120 Volt flux core welder. It also required a
dedicated circuit, so I rewired the garage for a straight shot off a 30 amp breaker
in the main box to a disconnect on the basement wall next to the breaker box.
Of course there is also a breaker box in the garage with 2 breakers in it.
One 15Amp for the lights and a 20Amp for the Welder/Air Compressor.
Once I get my shop moved to the garage I will still be able to disconnect from the
power when I'm not using it.

That's kind of a long winded way of saying, Thanks for the Heads Up Tin!

Rick

 

[Cedge]

Rick
That sure seems like a lot of available power to support the wife's new sewing room....(evil grin)

Steve

 

[jack404]

Had a similar incident a few months ago, no storm involved but a electric hot water system leaked so bad it filled up the area it was in behind the gyprock ( sheet rock ) to about 4-5 feet deep until the weight of the water killed the gyprock. on the way the water got into the electrical conduit and created a dead short.

PC dead
tool room dead

anything on was dead

i had surge protectors on everything but only the el dcheapo Arlec ones actually worked and they where in the kitchen protecting the fridge and freezer

replaced so far

drill press/ mill ( was going to buy the grizzly anyway and got it now)

microwave ( 7 mth old NEC bought a cheapy from Aldi)

14 vlt battery charger for cordless drill

18 vlt charger for Makita XLT tools and the battery that was in it. ( not cheap either)

7 surge protectors ( got Arlec everywhere now )

smoke detector ( hard wired )

Maxtor 320Gb external storage drive ( data recovered Phew!)

still to be replaced

Lathe Motor ( 6 mth old Thomas machine tools one but will get the grizzly mini lathe as its cheaper to replace than repair the Thomas)

PC ( got the data off it from a specialist) will get that after i get the machines sorted, have old laptop i'm using now

Crock pot ( slow cooker had a stew going at the time)

DVD player/ recorder set top box combo ( was on standby)



all the magic smoke was let out of these.. and still cant figure out how to get it back inside..

electricity is great but awful when things go bad.

be careful !!

now i turn everything off and pull the plugs, wish i could put circuit breakers in but i'm in public housing ( RSL Homes) for a while and they are picky what you can and cannot do in them but will when i get my own place

I am lucky i can run my tools as it is..

be careful with electrics do all you can to protect your stuff...

otherwise the smoke gets out

then your really in strife ..

cheers

jack

 

[rake60]

Rick
That sure seems like a lot of available power to support the wife's new sewing room....(evil grin)

Steve

Good Point Steve!
Perhaps I should buy her a pair of Kevlar Gloves!

Seriously, we had a devastating power surge here one early morning.
I had just come home from a 12 hour 2ed shift at 4:00AM and my wife woke up and
came downstairs to see what I was up to. All of the sudden the lights went out then came
back on bursting like old flash bulbs. The wall outlets were arcing with blue sparks and I was
on a dead run to the basement to pull the mains. It was too late for that to do any good, but
instincts do kick in.

Now it became strange.
I called the power company to ask what I needed to do to have my damaged property replaced.
A very pleasent lady told me that they were totally unaware of any such power surge.
6 hours later the power company released a statement.
A 24000 volt supply line had failed and dropped onto a residentail 240 volt line.

They did replace all the damaged equipment, sort of...
A television that I had paid $450 for 3 years prior had depreciated 50% because of it's age.
The refrigerator was 7 years old so I had used up at least half of it's value.
The stereo was only 2 weeks old, but if it had been of a better design it wouldn't have been
as badly damaged.

All in all I made out OK.
They paid their depreciated values to the losses.
I was able to repair everything lost except for the new stereo that actually caught on fire
from the surge.

I'm just glad I decided to work that extra 2 hours that night.
If I had already been in bed sleeping the costs could have been much higher!

Rick

 

[Tin Falcon]

Yea I forgot to mention. the only cost of the repairs besides parts is I need to fabricate the guy a pool table jack he is getting the materials an I will put it together for him .
Tin

 

[rake60]

LOL

The hazards of being a machinist Tin!

Rick

 

[Tin Falcon]

Well the diodes came today. Only two weeks. Now why would a little package take two weeks to come from New York City to South Jersey? The company does Have a NYC office so I figures that is where the parts will come from. Silly me!! The credit card was billed from the NSW Australia office and the parts shipped from the Bangkok Thailand office. Isn't this global economy great?
Well soldered the diode in after supper. Had to repair another connection to the variable resistor that apparently got pulled off while carrying the board and box around.The lathe is also back up and running now.
Tin