Rikon Sander Switch

rcarmac

Board of Directors, Secretary
Robert
Staff member
Corporate Member
I think the switch on my Rikon sander went out. It starts right up now when you plug it in. Not affect moving the switch to the on/off position. Sander just keeps running till I unplug it. Checked the wires to the switch and everything looked good and connected.

Thoughts?

I have been looking online for a switch with not much luck. Rikon parts say the switch for that model is out of stock. Wondering if it is out of stock or they don’t make it anymore.

Any other places to look for a switch.
 

booz11

New User
Jon
If you’re sure there is no visible short between the wires/connectors, then an internal mechanism in switch could have gone bad and shorted itself out. Whats the switch look like?
 

Stuart Kent

Stuart
Senior User
Rikon, like all big international machine companies, are legitimately struggling with ongoing shipping logistics. It's a real problem. So my suggestions are:

1. call Rikon, ask for support, tell them what's going on and ask if they can find a replacement for you. If they cannot help you then

2. take the machine to a local electric motor shop and have them bench test it. They will know what is wrong (switch, motor, capacitor...) in a matter of minutes and they can fix it. This is typically a much cheaper option than calling an electrician. If you are anywhere near Greenville, NC, we have an excellent electric motor shop; Electric Motor Sales & Services that can fix you up!
 

ScottM

Scott
Staff member
Corporate Member
Try ereplacementparts.com. If you can get the number of the switch check on eBay.
 

rcarmac

Board of Directors, Secretary
Robert
Staff member
Corporate Member
If you’re sure there is no visible short between the wires/connectors, then an internal mechanism in switch could have gone bad and shorted itself out. Whats the switch look like?
Here is a picture of the switch.

I checked the wiring and everything seems good. Note, the sander runs and runs fine. It’s usable. I have just lost the ability to shut it off by the switch. I have to unplug it. If it was an issue with the wiring, then I would suspect that it would start at all. Am I wrong on that.
 

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Jim Roche

New User
jim
I'd pull the switch off, open it up and blow it out with compressed air. If that doesn't work, you could probably wire up a toggle switch to use for it. It looks like it's only a 1/2HP motor. They're readily available at the big box stores for under $10.
You wouldn't probably be able to use the plastic housing from the original switch but could use a small piece of metal or a thin piece of wood and drill a hole to accommodate the toggle switch and drill the 4 holes to mount the plate where the original one went.
Won't look as good as the original but will be functional.

Good luck.

Jim
 

Mrfixit71

Board of Directors, Treasurer
Rich
Staff member
Corporate Member
I had the same problem with my Rikon drill press. Rikon replaced the switch once under warrantee. When it happened again, I took the old one apart and found that the contacts had fused under the rocker. I cleaned them and reassembled, and it worked for a couple years without problems. It seems to happen when the drill press runs for long periods of time.
 

booz11

New User
Jon
I had the same problem with my Rikon drill press. Rikon replaced the switch once under warrantee. When it happened again, I took the old one apart and found that the contacts had fused under the rocker. I cleaned them and reassembled, and it worked for a couple years without problems. It seems to happen when the drill press runs for long periods of time.
This is more or less what I thought in my probably poorly worded response
 

booz11

New User
Jon
Here is a picture of the switch.

I checked the wiring and everything seems good. Note, the sander runs and runs fine. It’s usable. I have just lost the ability to shut it off by the switch. I have to unplug it. If it was an issue with the wiring, then I would suspect that it would start at all. Am I wrong on that.
I was agreeing that something was going on with your switch, although probably internally like mrfixit said
 

rcarmac

Board of Directors, Secretary
Robert
Staff member
Corporate Member
I had the same problem with my Rikon drill press. Rikon replaced the switch once under warrantee. When it happened again, I took the old one apart and found that the contacts had fused under the rocker. I cleaned them and reassembled, and it worked for a couple years without problems. It seems to happen when the drill press runs for long periods of time.
Thank you for your help. Could you expand on this a little. Dumb it down for me. The rocker is going to be at the top of the switch under the red plastic part?
 

Mrfixit71

Board of Directors, Treasurer
Rich
Staff member
Corporate Member
Robert, take the switch out of the sander. Mine looks like this. Pry the plastic legs open enough to separate the top from the bottom.switch.jpg
Swtich separated.jpg

Look into the bottom and you should see a metal rocker ( at top of photo).
switch inside.jpg


Remove the metal piece, clean/smooth both the contacts on the rocker and in the base of the switch.
switch contacts.jpg


Reassemble. Make sure that you don't reverse the orientation of the rocker or the bottom/top or the switch will not work.
 

rcarmac

Board of Directors, Secretary
Robert
Staff member
Corporate Member
Thanks Rich. So this is what just what I did. I did find a little piece of sawdust that had worked its way down at the pivot point. So i get that cleared out. For some reason, the rocker arm was slightly fused to the connection point, keep the circuit closed and thus running. It didnt take anything to get it unstuck. that freed the rocker arm. Put it back together and thought i might have it. Plugged it in, nothing. So i took the switch back apart and cleaned the connection ends. Put the switch back together and manually tried it. I didnt like how the switch was moving the rocker arm, like it was slightly out of adjustment. So i took the rocker arm out a did a little manual adjustment, bending, to the actually rocker arm piece. Put everything back together and puff, working like it should.

Thanks for everyone's help. Switch is back working like it should.
 

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