Drill press (was) kicking GFI breaker

DSWalker

David
Corporate Member
A while back my drill press started kicking the GFI breaker immediately when I turned the power on. It did it multiple times and I just put it in the corner and forgot about it because I rarely need it.

Today, I plugged it into a different outlet (same circuit) turned it on and works fine. The Initial outlet is used regularly for other things with no issue.

Thoughts??
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Yes shut the power off for the breaker at the sub panel, then pull the cover then use a flashlight and inspect. It can be a bunch of different things, but hopefully it is nothing more than the outlet has a crack and needs replacing. It could go from that to there is a line short, in which case, you would need to track it down and may need to replace some of the wire. Just got to trace it out.
 
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Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
If it were me, I would check the electrical of the drill press itself. You may have a ground fault pulling close to 5 milliamperes and moving it further down the line is just not enough to trip the GFI.
 

LeftyTom

Tom
Corporate Member
I had a flaky GFCI in the kitchen, which tripped every so often, when the microwave was turned on. I checked that all connections were tight, but intermittent tripping of the GFCI continued. I replaced the GFCI, and issue has not come back.
 

awldune

Sam
User
I had a flaky GFCI in the kitchen, which tripped every so often, when the microwave was turned on. I checked that all connections were tight, but intermittent tripping of the GFCI continued. I replaced the GFCI, and issue has not come back.

I had this same experience, for what it's worth. No issues since replacing the GFCI.
 

DSWalker

David
Corporate Member
If it were me, I would check the electrical of the drill press itself. You may have a ground fault pulling close to 5 milliamperes and moving it further down the line is just not enough to trip the GFI.
I did move it further away from the outlet. May try moving it back closer and seeing what happens to diagnose a bit deeper.

Will also check that original outlet. But I do think Ive used it regularly without further issues on other equip.
 

smallboat

smallboat
Corporate Member
I had an outlet go bad in the garage. Replaced the outlet - no change. Being lazy I just got used to using a different outlet.
But with a little more home time this spring I looked further into it. Another outlet on the same GFCI circuit was the problem.
When I opened it up I found melted wire nuts. I never plug anything into that outlet, its in a hall powder room upstairs. Weird. Cleaned up that mess (replaced) and all seems well. Curious how it got that way.
 

Gotcha6

Dennis
Staff member
Corporate Member
I had an outlet go bad in the garage. Replaced the outlet - no change. Being lazy I just got used to using a different outlet.
But with a little more home time this spring I looked further into it. Another outlet on the same GFCI circuit was the problem.
When I opened it up I found melted wire nuts. I never plug anything into that outlet, its in a hall powder room upstairs. Weird. Cleaned up that mess (replaced) and all seems well. Curious how it got that way.
Possibly a lightning surge. Otherwise, if it's a feet through wired box it could have just been that way from installation and only now started arcing. Found one in my MIL's house that was a feed through that way. The lamp would flicker and I could hear the receptacle popping. It had not been touched since the house was built 50 years ago....................
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
For the life of me I do not see the necessity of using a GFI on any equipment, unless it is in a a wet area or you are running coolant. Hand held tools there is some reasoning for it but, TBH, just overkill...... "shoot a lawyer, go to heaven" ... :p
 

DSWalker

David
Corporate Member
For the life of me I do not see the necessity of using a GFI on any equipment, unless it is in a a wet area or you are running coolant. Hand held tools there is some reasoning for it but, TBH, just overkill...... "shoot a lawyer, go to heaven" ... :p
Mine was required for the inspection. They considered it a wet area even though my shop is fully enclosed, insulated and HVAC controlled.
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
Some states require Arc fault breakers which are 10 times the cost and are thought to do much more than a regular breaker. Doesn't do really much at all.

Bowman stole my line, most of us in those areas always have an extra set breakers so, as soon as the inspector signs off we just go in and replace with standard stuff. If you want improvement in a breaker/ better quality one can just get a better rated AIC rated unit. But that is a different discussion.
 
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