The Man-Cave is the recipient of a significant baby step. The cabinet that caused me to blow my table saw is completed. I wasted an afternoon with the router trying to make the elegant solution in wood. I finally ruined the piece after three hours, and shut off the lights in frustration. I was finished, It beat me. Tomorrow is another day. Before I exited the cave, I sat on the throne for a few minutes, and thought. The answer for how to hang the cabinet came to me. It was so simple, I couldn’t believe it. I finished my meditation, and immediately turned the shop lights back on. Within thirty minutes I completed the job.
This morning, I removed the plate on the table saw and looked around with a flash light. I found the reason for yesterday’s giant firework display and ka-pow. I had the saw blade tilted to the most extreme angle it would make. Then, I backed the blade down to make a very shallow cut. What I didn’t see was that the saw blade came to rest against the cable connecting the motor to the switch. When I turned on the power, the blade sliced through half the wire and caused a dead short. Twenty amperes were sucked out of the grid in an instant. I am happy to report, that the circuit breaker functioned and killed the circuit.
I will sleep much better tonight.
I think Craftsman (SEARS) deserves to get a letter detailing this failure of their product.
Filed under: Biography, Hobbies, Manufacturing | Tagged: Circuit breaker, Craftsman, Fireworks, Man cave, SEARS, Table Saw |
Its nice when things do the things they are designed to do. Good Luck.
An electrician friend told me that circuit breakers do not work as well as fuses do. The reason the world changed to breakers was for convenience, and to eliminate the abuses that caused overloads. (Like putting a penny under the fuse to increase the load it takes before it blows.) He recommended that I exercise the breakers at least once per year to keep them from oxidizing. So, once a year, I go through the panel and flip all the switches off then back on.
I have often wondered why there are so many house fires caused by electrical failures when we have breakers.