Charnwood W815 lathe keeps blowing fuses :(

[Esqy]

I bought a Charnwood W815 a few weeks back, and only got around to setting it up last weekend. All was working fine while I was carving up a new piece of wood, learning how to do it all... And it stopped.
Turns out the F5A fuse on the control panel had blown, so I popped a new one in. The lathe fired up and stopped again. This time the fuse had actually exploded. I did hear an odd clicking from the motor, so I popped the brushes out and re-seated them and the clicking went away.... And another fuse exploded.
I disconnected the belt, thinking it might be overloaded... but nope, another exploded fuse, and the 5A fuse in the plug went aswell (Not exploded, just burnt out)

Any ideas for what I can check next?

 

[Blister]

Do you know if 5 Amp is the correct rating ?
How long are the brushes ?
You may have found this allready , If all else fails try contacting them
https://www.machinery4wood.co.uk/extraimages/W815 Owners Manual.pdf

 

[clogs]

try a 13amp fuse..it'll still blow if something is wrong....would take a milli sec longer to blow, thats all......
5 amp is whats in a tooth brush charger or a small food mixer.......

 

[Orraloon]

Its only a 250w motor so 5 amps is likely right. The fact its blowing fuses suggests something is wrong. Best thing is have someone that knows a bit about electric motors take a look at it.
Regards
John

 

[Esqy]

Clogs - The F5A fuse was fine on day 1, I was lathing away for a couple of hours and it turned on each time with no issues.
I did consider putting a regular, non fast-blowing 5 amp fuse in there (and popping a bigger fuse in has been mentioned elsewhere), but I figured that its an F fuse for a reason, and if the glass fuse is physically exploding, something somewhere is pulling more than 5A through it - probably a lot more, and if I put a bigger fuse in, I'd risk damaging whatever part is causing the issue.

Blister - With the fuse, I just replaced like-for-like, as it was working before. No idea about the brush length, but I just re-seated the ones that were already in there. The brushes themselves looked fine.

That's a solid suggestion John - in the meantime (after work), I'll have a go at disconnecting the motor from the control board and firing it up again - Hopefully that will tell me if it's the motor itself or a short on the board. If the former, I'll look into the warranty option to get a new one, and if the latter I'll bust out the multimeter and see if the board has any shorts.

 

[Blister]

The carbon brushes will eventually need changing. This should be carried out when wear is down to a Length of 7mm.

 

[Esqy]

Oh of course, But not after a couple hours work.

So, I've registered the Lathe on the Warranty part of Charnwoods site, and the Amazon seller advised me to call the technical help number - I did earlier, but the chap who I'd need to speak to wasn't in the office.
I'll try again tomorrow. I'll keep this thread updated in case someone searches for the same issue. It's a pet peeve of mine where the final post is just 'Fixed now!' with no explanation!

 

[Orraloon]

Did not realize it was a new lathe. First priority is get them to fix or replace.
Thats what warranty is about. Hope you get things sorted without too much fuss.
Regards
John

 

[Esqy]

After re-reading, You are right - I never mentioned it was new!

 

[Esqy]

Called up the Charnwood tech help line and spoke to a really nice chap (Dave, I think). Spoke through the issue, and he recommended a few tests - namely to disconnect the motor from the control board, replace the fuse and try again. If it pops, Then it's the control board, if not, it's likely the motor.
If the latter I'll call Charnwood back up and see if they'll swap for a new one and if the former I'll mutlimeter it up, and if not fixable, do the same as with the motor.

 

[Alli]

As I have just pulled out some transport bolts from a new washing machine. Just a random thought that would the lathe have anything similar. Are you able to turn the spindle by hand?

 

[Esqy]

Yeah, it was working fine on the first day. Was messing about for a couple of hours

 

[Esqy]

Ok, looks like it's the board.
I disconnected the motor - Bang.
I popped in another fuse-holder I happened to have lying around. Bang.
The switch was still buzzing and stayed on (electromagnetic), so seems like that's working.

I'll give them a call again tomorrow, hopefully they'll replace it on warranty - The chap I spoke to last time seemed cool.

 

[Andy's Shed]

Dave is very helpful, hopefully you'll having it working very soon.

 

[XTiffy]

In your shoes I would insist on a replacement. This machine obviously has an inherent fault. There is no way such a small motor should be blowing fuses in that way.

 

[Peter907]

I bought my first lathe in March and after just minutes of turning had exactly the same problem with blowing fuses.
Here's a link to my post about it on this forum...

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/threads/any-advice-welcome.141836/
My lathe looked almost identical to yours with the same spec but was the Clarke version. I took it back to my local Machine Mart shop and they offered two options, send it away for repair which may take 3 weeks, or a full refund. So I took the money.

After some looking around, I scraped up some extra money and bought the slightly bigger and more powerful Charnwood 824 with Viper chuck bundle. In more than two months of me learning to turn with it, it hasn't missed a beat and I'm really pleased I upgraded from the little Clarke lathe. I'm slowly learning the limitations of the 824, but for now, the lathes biggest limitation is still me, so I'm happy to stick with it for a good while yet before upgrading.

Good luck with getting your lathe sorted soon.

 

[Esqy]

Thanks for the encouraging words, Peter! I'm pretty excited to learn how to make cylindrical stuff and create sawdust in a new and interesting way
Anyhow, I didn't have a lot of time during the week to call up Charnwood, so I sent them an email in an evening. The next morning, I got a call from Dave first thing. I went over what I'd tried so far, and he figured its most likely the the control board, so he's posted one out.

Very helpful guy.

 

[Esqy]

The new control box arrived, and once wired in, fired up first time!
Was shaking off a headache, so didn't actually try turning on it - But yeah, result!

My latest googling has been 'Hardwood offcuts' - gonna try to get a nice selection of different species to see how they differ when it comes to turning. Surprisingly few places do something like this. I got excited when I saw a place called 'KJP select Hardwoods' doing boxes by the kilo, and the guy in the videos had a british accent. Turns out it's a Canadian company.
I see that exotic hardwoods UK do a 1 kilo boxes for £5 each - Anyone here picked up one of those boxes, any good?

 

[Peter907]

The new control box arrived, and once wired in, fired up first time!
Was shaking off a headache, so didn't actually try turning on it - But yeah, result!

My latest googling has been 'Hardwood offcuts' - gonna try to get a nice selection of different species to see how they differ when it comes to turning. Surprisingly few places do something like this. I got excited when I saw a place called 'KJP select Hardwoods' doing boxes by the kilo, and the guy in the videos had a british accent. Turns out it's a Canadian company.
I see that exotic hardwoods UK do a 1 kilo boxes for £5 each - Anyone here picked up one of those boxes, any good?

Glad you're getting it sorted.

I've thought about making a trip to Exotic Hardwoods Ltd. but haven't been yet. I'm nearer to Turners Retreat at Harworth near Doncaster. Marvelous place. They have everything you might ever need for woodturning including a room containing half the worlds remaining rainforests. All sorts of exotic woods mostly ready cut as bowl blanks or spindle blanks. Prices are good, but I need to limit my visits as I always seem to spend double what I budgeted for bringing back far too many nice looking lumps of wood.

 

[Esqy]

I'm in Devon, And lots of the exotic wood places tend to be oop norf which is why I was looking at offcut/selection boxes.
I'm planning to pop into Yandles next time I'm in the area - I head to Taunton once every couple of weeks for weeks - Obviously part of learning woodworking is the joy of wandering around and seeing and feeling different species of wood.

I think it somes from watching stuff on Youtube where the US folk are all like 'So, I got this bit of Maple, and inlaid it with Purpleheart, and made a cherry handle'. I'm like... Pine. With a pine handle.