need HELP!! with a Singer electronic transmitter switch

[cudawantd]

I have an old Industrial Singer Electric Transmitter (motor) with an Electric Transmitter Switch #994647, that has an on/off switch (inside the box with a capacitor) that was broken on my sewing machine. The switch alone (SquareD #2510FO) replacement costs more than the whole motor set-up. I have been unemployed for a year, and have zero money to spend. I am not mechanical or electrical. Years ago when I got the machine, a friend bypassed the broken on/off switch and wired it to come on whenever I plugged it in. It worked for almost 7 years that way-no big deal because it is loud and you wouldn't want it left running anyways. But now, when I plugged it in, some wires started smoking, so I unplugged it & got scared and haven't touched it since. I can't buy a new switch, but I can send pics of everything and I can talk and facetime on my phone and video chat on the computer to try and explain it better to get it fixed. I pulled the melted electrical tape off the wires looking for the source of smoke. Do I just re-wrap the wires or something more serious??? Or if I DO get a switch, which wires go where?? We labelled them 7 yrs ago !! Anyone?????

 

[Bluejets]

You could get yourself (or worse someone else) seriously if not fatally injured playing with mains equipment you do not understand.
Many here will help with most things but this appears to me as "leave it alone" .

 

[cudawantd]

Believe me, I dont even like plugging things in. But after contacting a Square D supplier, and him sending me a book with 58 #2510FO possible replacement switches--I don't even know the one I need. After the switch was bypassed 7 years ago, I never opened the box looking around, only when the smoke was found coming from it and not the motor itself.

 

[Lawrence Wade]

Hi there,

I realize this is an old post, but I actually took the time to register in the hopes that my advice could help you or someone else.

First off, DO NOT PLUG IT IN! You have smoke coming from wires. This always means a huge overcurrent situation, and that's always dangerous.

I have a Singer Electric Transmitter of my own, and I can assure you that it is an *extremely* good quality machine.

But, it's also 60+ years old. Consider:

- Physical damage from drops, water, pulled wires?
- Age - rubber and other materials deteriorating by drying out and/or cracking?
- Then/Now - a car that old wouldn't have seatbelts, things have changed. Is it even grounded?

The wiring you show in your pictures frankly terrifies me. I'm in Canada, we have 120V 15A electrical service to every wall outlet. It runs a circular saw very well. If there's enough power there to run a saw and rip a 2x6, there's enough energy there to kill you.

Noting that you're on a limited budget, try talking to some of the electric motor shops in your area. These need to be the sorts of places which rebuild big electric motors like those used in elevators and stuff. No one bothers to repair consumer-grade electric motors anymore, they come off ships from China, work for 5 years or so, then go to the garbage.

But this thing is special. It's extremely high quality, and it's an antique.

I can offer you no suggestions as to the mechanical fitness of this motor - is the armature free to spin? Are the bearings good? Does the clutch work properly?

1. How is the wiring? I'd fix that before I looked any further.
2. Capacitor? Is it shorted or otherwise bad? It's obviously far newer than the motor itself, is it even the right one for the motor?
3. Windings. Do you have a short between windings inside the motor? Or a short from the windings to the stator?

Let a pro take care of it. You might be best to see if you can find groups of people who collect and restore antique radios and other electronic equipment, guys like us are used to finding and repairing age-related problems, and we usually just fix things because of the love of a piece of our electrical history.

Don't ever just plug it in to see if it works.

Google antique radio clubs in your area - you don't have a radio, but the skills required to test it and repair it are much the same.

Lawrence

 

[cudawantd]

Just an update: You electrical guys will be happy to know that instead of spending $70 bucks for one lousy on/off switch that I didn't know which one to buy or which wires went where for that antique, cast iron, made in the USA, built like an elephant, electric transmitter motor.....I scraped together $130 and bought a brand new, made in China, will only last 5 years, electric "Servo Motor" for my Consew sewing machine.

But now the story keeps going.....since removing the 150 lb motor from my sewing machine (via dropping it onto a rolling pneumatic office chair) it hasn't moved off my sofa because it is too dang heavy.....But just last month I tried to give it away to someone who has the funds to buy that Square D power switch and knows the value of these workhorse motors (not just for sewing but for powering power tools too)

But it seemed that someone had taken it upon themselves to write their own rules and flag a simple Craigslist ad under the free category, saying that "something FREE can't come with any stipulations". I read the rules and it didn't say anything about who I could say could take something that I was giving away for free. As an example....this person was saying that if I give away a car, I can't stipulate that you have to know how to drive a car (or bring someone who does). Well I am not going to drive it nor will it drive itself. So after being flagged and removed twice the final ad said "free electric transmitter, needs switch" and that was it. So without telling any one what I did know about the motor, I was putting the person and their family at risk of being electrocuted or possibly burning down their house.

The motor is in great condition, all except the crack in the on/off switch, from flicking the power on and off or the crack came from someone pushing something into it (a handtruck, a dresser, a filing cabinet, or who knows what--it's 60 years old) and leaving it cracked. The Motor itself works great, wiring looks and feels brand new, has no blemishes in the finish, is mechanically sound. Absolutely zero damage and has another 150 years of service life left in her. But because I can't control the person receiving it won't go to Home Depot and buy a $3 on/off light switch, and kill themselves in the basement trying to wire together something us non-electricians now nothing about. I will be scrapping it for the metal value, which should just about cover the money spent on the gas to drive it there, and forget I even tried to be nice and give it to someone who knew a fraction of what it was good for.

 

[shrtrnd]

You should have tried donating it to the Smithsonian.

 

[cudawantd]

It is still sitting on my sofa, crushing the foam and waiting for someone to move it, take it or carry it to the car for disposal...... and Shrtrnd--Haha funny one....the Smithsonian...hahahaha why would they want it?? it was 1 of 100,000 built, they all last this long.

 

[tinfoilknight]

I just rebuilt one of these to work. I have replaced the original two wire cord with a three wire grounded plug. There is a brass screw at the back of the switch enclosure that can accept grounding and also a brass screw on the back of the motor where the wires enter. The plug end is a standard 16awg three wire electrical cord. The wire jumping from the switch box to the motor is more of the same extension cord with an added ground wire. I taped the green wire in the jumper red so that it could be used to connect to the capacitor.

There are 6 wires on the motor itself.
I have labeled them R1, R2, Y, G, W, B. This is the order the appear in from left to right when looking at the opening where the wires come out. None of these wires are electrically connected to the case. With an ohmmeter I was able to get these readings. From this I was able to puzzle out the way the windings are arranged.

This is a schematic on how I wired the motor.

Note that R1 and R2 are unused and I had to put heat shrink on them because the insulation was brittle.

This is what the wiring looks like:



At this point the motor ran poorly. Turns out that the bearings also needed replacing SKF 6202-2ZJ and SKF 6203-2ZJ. Also the clutch assembly had a small dogs worth of hair and fiber in it.