Found a decent foot switch for my scroll saw

[redmoorphil]

Hi guys,
After the disappointment of the Proxxon foot switch I have been looking for something good but not ridiculously expensive for my Hegner.
I finally decided on this one from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Momentary-Conta ... oot+switch
I expected it to take about a month to arrive from our friends in the Far East but it actually arrived in just under a fortnight.
It is one solid beast and a lot bigger than i thought it would be, I'm really pleased with it.
Wired it up without any problems last night and it works like a charm.
The only issue I would mention is that the the connecting terminals appear to be designed by somebody who isn't too hot on safety.
They are positioned on the top of the switch, and the lid is metal, so there is very little clearance between the live terminals and a metal casing.
Their idea of sorting this out is to fit a piece of paper which folds over the top of the terminals! How the Chinese are so populous without having electrocuted themselves is beyond me.
This is easily solved by putting some insulating tape over the terminals or fitting a thin piece of rubber into the screw on lid of the casing and it is also worth soldering some circular terminals onto your wires so that they safely stay where they are meant to.
you also need to fasten your earth leads to the casing by attaching them to one of the screws holding in the switch as there is no dedicated earth terminal.
Oh God, I'm making it sound awful but it really isn't that bad.
For under £12.50 its a fantastic bargain, and I'll add a wiring diagram later in case anybody wants one.
Phil

 

[powertools]

Thanks for posting this. I assume that I could fit a plug and a trailing socket to this so I could use it on more than 1 machine.
I would be interested in the wiring diagram before I buy one.

 

[martinka]

It does look a substantial piece of kit, Phil. What sort of switch is it inside? Does the switch itself look as though it will last? Let us know how you go on with it.

I know what you mean about the Chinese electrics. I once bought a charger on Ebay and it rattled quite loudly, so I took it apart rather than send it back to Shenzhen. There was a large piece of solder loose inside which could have easily shorted out the electrics. Good job I decided to check it before using it.

Martin.

 

[Tetraman]

Great stuff Phil, just what I was after. I'll check the wiring too, thanks for the tip posting.php?mode=reply&f=19&t=70311#

 

[WandrinAndy]

... I assume that I could fit a plug and a trailing socket to this so I could use it on more than 1 machine. .........

I've just bought two different types off eBay as I'm pretty sure I can find some productive use for both, and it looks like the second one is designed to fit a plug and a trailing socket. The first looks to be the same as Phil's one. But will only know the quality when they arrive....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321057005001 = +- £12 = TFS-402 250V 15A Green Metal Case Foot Pedal Switch
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310570640056 = +- £13 = Hands Free NO NC Non Latching Pedal Treadle Foot Switch AC 250V Ue 10-15A

Andy

 

[redmoorphil]

Hi guys,
Here is the wiring diagram.
The switch looks pretty substantial and I'm sure it will last just fine.
I cut up a cheap rubber car mat to fit perfectly into the lid and I'm sure that I wont get electrocuted by it :shock:
You should be fine to fit a trailing socket as the switch is rated at 15 amps.
Andy - the first one is exactly the same as mine but i opted for a purchase through Amazon as I thought it safer when dealing with HK supplied goods.

 

[powertools]

Thanks for coming back on this. I have just ordered mine, the guy in China will be wondering what's kickin off in the UK.

 

[ChrisR]

Hi Guys.

Don’t want to pee on the fire, but a single pole switch is not really suitable for remote machinery switching, it really needs to be double pole.

The reason for this, if by chance the supply is not the correct polarity, and unfortunately this is the case more often than you might think, then you would have a permanent live feed to your machine, as you would be just switching the neutral.

So if you are going to use single pole remote switching, make sure you check the polarity of your supply , is correct.

Please take the above as it is meant, friendly advice/information, and not as unnecessary scare tactics.

Take care.

Chris R.

 

[redmoorphil]

Thanks for the advice Chris.
I recently had a new CU fitted and have a smaller CU in the workshop and all of the wiring was checked so I know I am ok, but definitely worth checking out. I fell foul to this whilst changing a switch many years ago and it hurt!
Phil

 

[powertools]

Hi Guys.

Don’t want to pee on the fire, but a single pole switch is not really suitable for remote machinery switching, it really needs to be double pole.

The reason for this, if by chance the supply is not the correct polarity, and unfortunately this is the case more often than you might think, then you would have a permanent live feed to your machine, as you would be just switching the neutral.

So if you are going to use single pole remote switching, make sure you check the polarity of your supply , is correct.

Please take the above as it is meant, friendly advice/information, and not as unnecessary scare tactics.

Take care.

Chris R.

That is a good point but I would have thought that anybody running a workshop with machines and power tools would have had electric supply checked if not for a few £ they would be well advised to buy one of those plugs with led lights to check the polarity of the sockets themselves.

 

[Gary Morris]

sorry for being a bit dim, is a polarity test - checking the brown is live (the one by the fuse) and the blue neutral (the one on the left) on all of your plugs?

 

[ChrisR]

It is important to get your plug top connections correct.

But if the supply polarity is not correct (ie) live/neutral reversed, any single pole switching will only be switching the neutral line, leaving a permanent live to the connected equipment.

If you want to check this yourself, and are not confident to check out your supply any other way, then there is a simple tester which can be obtained from most DIY stores, which is in the form of a plug top, you simply plug it into any socket, via led lights it will tell you if the polarity is correct, also it will show if the earth connection is good.

Hope this is of help.

Chris R.

PS. I worked with the man that invented the plug top tester, this was back in the early sixties. He was a Department of the Environment (DOE) electrical engineer, who had to show on a regular biases that the supply was of correct polarity in (RAF) married quarters, during march in/march out change over, of new occupants.
You can deduct from the above that I am an old git.

 

[Gary Morris]

Thanks Chris, yes it did help, I'll get a tester I think as I know next to nothing about electrics, thanks again Chris.

Gary

 

[John51]

I'll look out for one of those testers. Gets to be a pain jamming something in the earth socket so the electricians screwdriver can test for live.

 

[martinka]

I bought one of those testers last year because I had problems with my MIG welder, and everything tested OK and put my mind at ease. On the other hand, I almost wish it had found a problem, because if I use my MIG welder on my main bench, which is mostly steel, and earth through the bench, the welder always blows a transistor. I do all my welding on a wooden bench now and make sure the job is earthed direct.

Martin.

 

[ChrisR]

Martin.

At one of the sites where I was the electrical engineer, I was called to the welding shop because they had lost all power, including lighting.

On checking/testing, I found that most off the wiring within the supply conduit had melted/fused together, why did this happen. After a few questions, all became clear, one of the engineers had a bad habit of fixing the welder earth clamp to the leg of the steel welding table, instead of the work piece. This was ok until a particular work piece was to big for that table, so he moved the work to the larger table, but did not move the earth clamp, which meant the full welding current was carried by the supply protection earth, ouch. :shock:

It had also melted the earth bonding between the tables. Both tables were then bonded together with two heavy copper bus bars, a bit over kill, but safe. :wink:

Take care.

Chris R.

 

[martinka]

Chris, we had a strange happening in the workshop at one pit I worked at. I worked in the washer as a welder and in the cabin we had a steel bench the length of the workshop, and close to it was a table we used at snap times. The table was a metal frame with a wooden top, as were the benches. There was a pile of 'donkey' jackets on the table with the welding tongs from a 300 amp stick welding set on top of those. The earth clamp was on the floor. I was at at the other side of the cabin, about 15ft away when the end of the welding rod in the tongs began arcing through the jackets and burnt a hole all the way through. I had to leave the cabin to get to isolate the welder and when I came back it was full of smoke. We never did find out how it happened, and as far as anyone could see, it shouldn't have happened. I always wondered if it was damp that caused it as there was water everywhere in that building, though the jackets and table should have been dry. It was one of those 'Twilight Zone' moments.

Martin

 

[martinka]

Well, I decided on one of these switches about a month ago, and today it packed up after not much use at all. The internal switch has failed and won't switch on, so it looks like a trip to Maplins for a proper microswitch. The original is more of a maximicroswitch and built big to take some punishment, but failed at its task. It's probably not worth sending it back to Hong Kong, though I have emailed the seller to see if he is willing to send another microswitch. I suspect he'll ask for this one to be returned, knowing that it's not worth it.

Martin.

 

[martinka]

I'm up and running again, with a 2 quid Maplin microswitch in place. It was a fiddly job making a new bracket so that the switch was in just the right place as there isn't much movement in the lever, but I got there in the end.

The original switch won't be going back as my inquisitiveness took over and I attacked it with a chisel to open it to find out why it wouldn't work.

Martin.

edit: I just received an email from the company I bought the switch off and they have offered to send a new footswitch with no need to return the old one. It restores my faith in online buying.
The sellers are called 'sourcingmap' and sell on Ebay and Amazon and probably other places. When I was looking through my records for their name, I found that I have bought from them on two previous occasions.

 

[powertools]

I have to say that mine is still working and I am very pleased with it and I am grateful to the OP for the heads up and the wiring diagram.
It is good to know that if the switch does fail a replacement is readily available.
I think that the housing alone is worth far more than I paid for the whole unit.
I did modify the housing on mine as the cable I used was too thick for 2 lengths to fit through the gland nut so I drilled another 20mm hole in the housing and fitted another gland nut so that I only had 1 cable passing through each.