Who pays for this?

[larryllix]

I was working on a chest of drawers in my shop for the last 3-4 months. I chose red oak because I prefer the woodgrain. Getting to the final stages I stained all the pieces and was ready for some urethane finish.

Off to HD I go to pick up a can of urethane and just as I am heading to the checkout my phone goes off.
OMG! I just got my first smoke alarm warning via my polISY box!, and it's from inside my shop!!! Quickly paid for the can of urethane and some real fine sandpaper and loaded my ISY mobile app. NO CONNECTION?
hmmmm.. loaded my webcam app and it cannot connect either. Now I am concerned!!

Driving home, attempting to not violate the speed limit too much, I arrive to see a firetruck in my driveway and a few firemen leaving my shop. Apparently a neighbour saw the smoke, knew I wasn't home, and called the fire department.

"What's happening guys? !!"
 

..."well, it seems your table saw motor caught on fire and we had to put it out. Sorry about the door but nobody was home."

"WTF?"

I enter my shop with curiosity and gloom in my heart. There is my table saw, and floor al soaked with water from the fire hoses. Next I see the worst scenario...my freshly (water based) stained chest of drawers soaked in firehose water, stain ruined and wood beginning to swell, complete write-off!

After a few tears I began to surmise what had happened. It seems the OnOff module I was experiementing with on my table saw has somehow turned itself on, but a block wood got caught between the blade and the fence, and stalling the motor, the motor began to smoke. I am sure the sawdust build up didn't help. So much for thermal overload!!! Who tests those thing anyway? The ceiling will need replacing from the smoke damage.

The best part? It seems that the block of wood eventually got loose enough that the saw blade shot the wood across the room and smashed my new WiFi 7 router, explaining why none of my LAN HA toys worked.

Wow!, At least nobody was killed by the flying block of wood. I have heard of this before from another woodworker.

Now after returning the can of urethane for credit, I need to look at new ceiling tiles, a new router, a new door, they had to kick in and bent it in the middle, breaking the glass pane, some trim wood for the doorframe, and misc paint and hole fillers for the door latch hole and trim. $250 charge for the fire truck run.

Table saw: TBD.

I guess my OnOff module on a table saw motor was a complete failure but I will have to investigate to see what went wrong with my new algorithm.

I'll be busy for the next while, once I am done crying!

   

 

Edited Tuesday at 01:24 PM by larryllix

[vbPhil]

That's quite the story. I thought woodworking was dangerous, glad everyone is okay. Can't imagine what that on/off module consisted of. What was wrong with the usual mechanical switch that comes with the saw?

Edited Tuesday at 01:37 PM by vbPhil
typo

[Brian H]

Sorry to read of your experience.

When you get a chance. Was it one of the old 2456S3 or presently sold 2635-222 on off module?

[gregkinney]

It's a story for the children. If something works 99.9% of the time, what happens that one time when it doesn't work as described? If it means that the Christmas lights do not turn on as scheduled, ok no big deal. But if it means a table saw turns on, well, it makes you consider the appropriate use cases for automation.

Most importantly, no one was hurt and entire structures were not lost. Additionally, what an amazing neighbor and fire department you have.

[larryllix]

 You've been had!

April fools!       😁

 

For those of you that got suckered...my apologees!

This has been a public service reminder not to connect dangerous devices to automated systems!


Sent from my SM-S711W using Tapatalk


 

Edited Tuesday at 05:57 PM by larryllix

[vbPhil]

Ha Ha. I thought something wasn't right after reading that. From your online presence over the years I thought you were smarter than that.

[larryllix]

5 minutes ago, vbPhil said:

Ha Ha. I thought something wasn't right after reading that. From your online presence over the years I thought you were smarter than that.

That was the chuckle for me....
Who, in their right mind,  would connect a table saw to an OnOff module?

[gregkinney]

@larryllix You're as bad as my 8 year old daughter 😆. I woke up to this:

 

[larryllix]

2 minutes ago, gregkinney said:

@larryllix You're as bad as my 8 year old daughter 😆. I woke up to this:

 

I would have left about ('aboot' for the Canucks) two layers with melted chocolate stains on it.

Edited Tuesday at 06:02 PM by larryllix

[bpwwer]

21 minutes ago, larryllix said:

That was the chuckle for me....
Who, in their right mind,  would connect a table saw to an OnOff module?

It really sounded legit until I got to that part.  Being a woodworking myself, I can't imagine any reason to automate a table saw.   Now I have tried various X10/Insteon on/off modules with the dust collector.  Most don't last long though.

[larryllix]

9 minutes ago, bpwwer said:

It really sounded legit until I got to that part.  Being a woodworking myself, I can't imagine any reason to automate a table saw.   Now I have tried various X10/Insteon on/off modules with the dust collector.  Most don't last long though.

I had the same problem and burned up a few X10 modules. However I had an old 100A mercury wetted solenoid type contactor I salvaged some  old workplace scrapping. It still burned the contacts together from the inductive coil on that one too. Then the heavy duty MOVs came out and that worked well for several years until I closed up shop and moved into an apartment in the big city.
It sure was nice being able to control the 2 HP dust collector from my mitre saw without walking back and forth the length of my shop.

BTW: Ever have a static problem with your dust collection pipes? Mine put me to my knees before I smartened up. I thought the metal furnace piping would not cause that. Maybe the last flex poly pipe was doing it, metal spring inside and all.  WOW! was I wrong!.

Edited Tuesday at 06:31 PM by larryllix

[bpwwer]

My shop is small, 1/3 of a 3 car garage so walking over to the dust collector isn't a big chore, but I did use it more when the remote control worked.

1 hour ago, larryllix said:

BTW: Ever have a static problem with your dust collection pipes? Mine put me to my knees before I smartened up. I thought the metal furnace piping would not cause that. Maybe the last flex poly pipe was doing it, metal spring inside and all.  WOW! was I wrong!.

I can't recall ever being zapped by the dust collector ductwork, but then I don't typically touch it either.  The one end that can be moved to different machines is plastic so that probably helps.

[Guy Lavoie]

8 hours ago, larryllix said:

 You've been had!

April fools!       😁

 

For those of you that got suckered...my apologees!

This has been a public service reminder not to connect dangerous devices to automated systems!


Sent from my SM-S711W using Tapatalk


 

I did think about that as I got near the end! It just sounded a bit too outlandish when you got to the new router getting hit by a piece of wood. That was one too many!

I'm also a woodworker btw, and I did make my own router table once...

Edited yesterday at 02:15 AM by Guy Lavoie

[larryllix]

30 minutes ago, Guy Lavoie said:

I did think about that as I got near the end! It just sounded a bit too outlandish when you got to the new router getting hit by a piece of wood. That was one too many!

I'm also a woodworker btw, and I did make my own router table once...

Years ago a guy I worked with bought big Forstner bit costing him about $40.

 

He put in an empty plastic peanut butter jar up on a shelf  until he needed it for his cabinet doors.

While trimming the back tips  of the drawers to make them insert more easily he knew he shouldn't do it but he angled his table saw blade and ran the drawers between the blade and the fence.

One drawer bit and the blade shot the small wedge out past him, down the length of his 40 foot long shop and smashed the plastic peanut butter jar and  shattered the carbide tips on his new Forstner bit.

[Guy Lavoie]

10 hours ago, larryllix said:

Years ago a guy I worked with bought big Forstner bit costing him about $40.

 

He put in an empty plastic peanut butter jar up on a shelf  until he needed it for his cabinet doors.

While trimming the back tips  of the drawers to make them insert more easily he knew he shouldn't do it but he angled his table saw blade and ran the drawers between the blade and the fence.

One drawer bit and the blade shot the small wedge out past him, down the length of his 40 foot long shop and smashed the plastic peanut butter jar and  shattered the carbide tips on his new Forstner bit.

Oh yes, table saw kickbacks can be dangerous. Having a short fence (that goes up to about one quarter of the blade's length) greatly helps, along with a proper splitter or riving knife.

The thing that made me doubt your story (and think of April 1st) was having an internet router in a place like a shop or garage 😉

Btw Just last week I upgraded from a 12 year old Netgear N300 router to a eero 6 mesh with two extenders. Quite impressed so far, and easy to set up. 

[larryllix]

My original idea was to "AI" enable a portable rotary saw and have it run around the room, (and maybe across the ceiling ),  cutting all kinds of things in half, and maybe attacking a dog,  but with the guard and the trigger switch, it was getting too far off reality for anybody to believe that one for more than two microseconds.

Maybe next year? LOL!

Wife always finds some way to get me good every year. After I swore and cursed some, she let me in on the joke. I knew it was that day but I still fell for it. She's good.