custard
Established Member
I bought a Felder CF741 Combination Machine new about ten years ago. It was installed and commissioned by Felder, and it's since been regularly serviced by Felder, the most recent service being just a few months ago.
I was operating the planer/thicknesser when I heard a loud popping noise and the fuses tripped. I re-set the fuses but they tripped again as soon as the machine was started.
At this point I became aware of an acrid smell like burning plastic. I pulled back the sliding table and slid away the cover plate that covers the saw blade. There's a hole, at the bottom of the enclosure, about an inch in diameter, that leads through into the electrical cabinet. It's indicated below by the red arrow. Through this hole I could see the orange glow of flames.
The opening behind the sliding table was just wide enough to allow my dry powder fire extinguisher to fit in, and the extinguisher hose was just the right diameter and length to allow me to direct a burst of dry powder into the electrical cabinet.
This seemed to extinguish the fire, so I now removed the six T30 Torx headed screws that secured the cover plate to the electrical cabinet. I also had to cut through a thick label that was factory pasted over the cover plate, warning that removal invalidated the machine's warranty.
Having gained access to the source of the fire it was clear that it had been fully extinguished. It was also clear that one of the capacitors, the large white one, was burnt and charred. You can see here what the electrical cabinet looked like after I got the cover off. The white powder is the fire extinguisher residue, it's astonishing how much is discharged in a half second burst!
Next day I phoned Felder's service department and they seemed pretty unconcerned about the whole thing, capacitors are a consumable item they said and they only normally last about ten or twelve years. I ordered a replacement capacitor from Felder (they did say it would be quicker and cheaper sourcing one locally but I wanted to stick with an OEM replacement). When the replacement arrived it didn't fix the problem. At this point Felder's service department talked me through a check procedure with a circuit tester, but unfortunately it wasn't conclusive. So I ordered their recommended selection of replacement electrical components, and I'm now waiting for the Felder engineer to arrive to fix the problem and hopefully explain what was the cause of the fire.
I had a narrow escape, this could so easily have been a disaster.
Firstly, it helped that I'd had the machine serviced shortly before this incident, so I'd just vacuumed out the inside of the machine and removed the thin off-cuts that litter underneath the saw. If this had been most other workshops (or to be honest many times in my own workshop), then there would have plenty of kindling inside the machine for the fire to take hold, and I wouldn't have been able to see through the hole to spot the glow of the flames in the electrical cabinet.
Secondly, I was very lucky in having just the right fire extinguisher to deal with the emergency. It wasn't planning it was just blind luck. A larger extinguisher wouldn't have fitted into the cavity, and one without a hose wouldn't have been able to direct the powder through the hole into the electrical cabinet. Without this I'd have had to locate a T30 Torx driver (having first figured out that this was actually what these six screws are) and cut through the warning label that says don't open this cover. By this time the fire may well have been out of control.
Felder have been disappointingly unconcerned about all this, and they can't get an engineer out until January. So it won't be until then that I'll be able to identify what caused this electrical fire in my CF741 combination machine, and understand what I need to do to prevent it happening again.
In the meantime, I'd suggest to any Felder owner (or indeed anyone with any woodworking machinery) that you satisfy yourself that you can quickly access the electrical cabinet on your machine, and within seconds of smelling smoke apply a fire extinguisher to the seat of an electrical fire. In addition it pays to be scrupulously clean and remove any wood shavings or off-cuts from inside, underneath, or around your machine. From what Felder are suggesting a failed capacitor is capable of causing a fire, and capacitors only have a service life of ten or twelve years. I'm not an electrical engineer so I can't validate their opinion, but if true then that's pretty terrifying!
I was operating the planer/thicknesser when I heard a loud popping noise and the fuses tripped. I re-set the fuses but they tripped again as soon as the machine was started.
At this point I became aware of an acrid smell like burning plastic. I pulled back the sliding table and slid away the cover plate that covers the saw blade. There's a hole, at the bottom of the enclosure, about an inch in diameter, that leads through into the electrical cabinet. It's indicated below by the red arrow. Through this hole I could see the orange glow of flames.
The opening behind the sliding table was just wide enough to allow my dry powder fire extinguisher to fit in, and the extinguisher hose was just the right diameter and length to allow me to direct a burst of dry powder into the electrical cabinet.
This seemed to extinguish the fire, so I now removed the six T30 Torx headed screws that secured the cover plate to the electrical cabinet. I also had to cut through a thick label that was factory pasted over the cover plate, warning that removal invalidated the machine's warranty.
Having gained access to the source of the fire it was clear that it had been fully extinguished. It was also clear that one of the capacitors, the large white one, was burnt and charred. You can see here what the electrical cabinet looked like after I got the cover off. The white powder is the fire extinguisher residue, it's astonishing how much is discharged in a half second burst!
Next day I phoned Felder's service department and they seemed pretty unconcerned about the whole thing, capacitors are a consumable item they said and they only normally last about ten or twelve years. I ordered a replacement capacitor from Felder (they did say it would be quicker and cheaper sourcing one locally but I wanted to stick with an OEM replacement). When the replacement arrived it didn't fix the problem. At this point Felder's service department talked me through a check procedure with a circuit tester, but unfortunately it wasn't conclusive. So I ordered their recommended selection of replacement electrical components, and I'm now waiting for the Felder engineer to arrive to fix the problem and hopefully explain what was the cause of the fire.
I had a narrow escape, this could so easily have been a disaster.
Firstly, it helped that I'd had the machine serviced shortly before this incident, so I'd just vacuumed out the inside of the machine and removed the thin off-cuts that litter underneath the saw. If this had been most other workshops (or to be honest many times in my own workshop), then there would have plenty of kindling inside the machine for the fire to take hold, and I wouldn't have been able to see through the hole to spot the glow of the flames in the electrical cabinet.
Secondly, I was very lucky in having just the right fire extinguisher to deal with the emergency. It wasn't planning it was just blind luck. A larger extinguisher wouldn't have fitted into the cavity, and one without a hose wouldn't have been able to direct the powder through the hole into the electrical cabinet. Without this I'd have had to locate a T30 Torx driver (having first figured out that this was actually what these six screws are) and cut through the warning label that says don't open this cover. By this time the fire may well have been out of control.
Felder have been disappointingly unconcerned about all this, and they can't get an engineer out until January. So it won't be until then that I'll be able to identify what caused this electrical fire in my CF741 combination machine, and understand what I need to do to prevent it happening again.
In the meantime, I'd suggest to any Felder owner (or indeed anyone with any woodworking machinery) that you satisfy yourself that you can quickly access the electrical cabinet on your machine, and within seconds of smelling smoke apply a fire extinguisher to the seat of an electrical fire. In addition it pays to be scrupulously clean and remove any wood shavings or off-cuts from inside, underneath, or around your machine. From what Felder are suggesting a failed capacitor is capable of causing a fire, and capacitors only have a service life of ten or twelve years. I'm not an electrical engineer so I can't validate their opinion, but if true then that's pretty terrifying!
