Powermatic PM2014 No Reverse!

[Jerry Tucker]

I have a 2 month old Powermatic PM2014... twice now after an hour or so of turning, I have no reverse... it just turns in the forward direction regardless of the switch position.
I suspect the switch is not making contact, but would like your opinion or experience with this symptom.
Thanks!

 

[John Walls]

My 3520C now does that every so often. I remove the back and clean it with compressed air as well as blow around the front of the switches. Sometimes I can't see the dust that gets into the switches but this always clears it. I found out about that after it sat in a warranty repair shop for a month. They told me what happened, said it's not a warranty item and charged me for the cleaning. Now I just do it myself, only takes 5 minutes. There's 6 screws on the box back along the edge under the box backing, just peel the corners back a little and about half way down the sides, if it's a control box like mine has. Just make sure the lathe is disconnected from power, don't need to electrocute yourself!

 

[Jerry Tucker]

My 3520C now does that every so often. I remove the back and clean it with compressed air as well as blow around the front of the switches. Sometimes I can't see the dust that gets into the switches but this always clears it. I found out about that after it sat in a warranty repair shop for a month. They told me what happened, said it's not a warranty item and charged me for the cleaning. Now I just do it myself, only takes 5 minutes. There's 6 screws on the box back along the edge under the box backing, just peel the corners back a little and about half way down the sides, if it's a control box like mine has. Just make sure the lathe is disconnected from power, don't need to electrocute yourself!

Yes, you are correct... the guy from Powermatic help desk says that it is usually dust after sanding... he's right. I blew out the switch and it works now... I might look into somehow "dustproofing" the existing switch, or changing it to an actual dust-proof switch.

 

[rkriet]

I bought a PM2014 about 6 months ago and, having frequently read about the “dust in the switches” problem, I enclosed the control box in a medium sized zip lock bag. I cut a small slot for the speed control and left the other controls behind the plastic. It’s not completely dust proof, but it prevents most of the dust from getting into the switch mechanisms. I’ve had no problems with the switches so far.

Having said that, I wish Powermatic would spend a few more bucks and put better quality switches in these machines.

 

[Doug Rasmussen]

Apparently Grizzly has a similar problem with dust on switch contacts, but a different way to solve the problem when the lathe is still under warranty.

A local turner had the dust issue with his newish lathe so Grizzly sent a new VFD, rpm sensor and switches. Problem solved. The guy gave me the delta VFD which works fine except for having the hertz limited to 120 by password. Grizzly does not have the password, they come from Delta preset. There may be a way to reset the parameters to default values, I haven't pursued that though.

I've been told Grizzly has no qualified repair technicians on staff so problems are solved by brute force......replace all possibly related components.