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here's one that no one has talked about...

K

Kenny

Joined
May 17, 2004
Messages
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Location
Tulare California
Do you keep your lathe plugged in and have the digital light on 24/7 or do you unplug daily. I have been told that you wear down the electronics of anything when you turn it on/ off continually. so I ask you if I keep it on will it be less likely to wear out??? WHAT DO YOU DO...
 
Ken,

Can't speak to your electronics question, but the only time I "de-power" (technical term 😀 ) my lathe is during electrical storms.

M
 
I unplug if I'm not in the shop, since I work for living and invariable the worst storms occur when I'm not there. Thirty some odd years of electrical power engineering experience, I never heard the "wear down the electronics" excuse. 😕
 
I leave my PM3520a plugged in all the time. However I have an inline 220 switch which I installed on the wall just above the power outlet. I turn off the power at the end of each daily turning session. This also insulates the electronics from thunderstorm surges.
 
I guess I do the same as everyone else, more or less. I turn off the lathe at the circuit breaker when I leave. Again mostly for lightening protection. I've lost a TV and stereo in the past. One of my friends lost the electronics to his powermatic when lightening hit.
I've been working in and around electronics all my life and haven't had a problem with turning things off. In fact on the 3520 I would think the first thing to go would be the power switch that you turn on and off a hundred times a day. It probably won't break electrically but mechanically. I've replace hundreds of switches and most fail because of dirt and oil between the contacts. I rarely see electronic switches, such as that on the VFD, go bad. that's just abeen my experience, your mileage may vary or other disclaimers similar.
 
I have a Oneway 1640. I open the circuit breaker as well as unplug. We have some violent storms here in Eastern VA. I was told that if lightening hit the power line the electricity could jump the breaker. Unplugging with a threatening storm just doesn't work for me; it is just too uncertain. Also by following the same routine, I am less likely to forget. Getting up during a storm at 3:00am and driving up to my shop at the other end of the farm is not something I really want to do again. 🙄
 
Ok.

Been hearing about the damage caused by lightning all my life but never actually had an instance happen to myself or anyone else I know in the past 20 years (and I lived in TN for most of that time and had lightning fry many local condensers and hit as close as the other side of our yard). Would think that, if electronics were that vulnerable and power systems that exposed, we'd be looking at constant replacement of audio, computer, appliance, video, etc systems but this doesn't seem to be the case. My understanding is that there are multiply redundant ground systems that will generally prevent all but the most extreme power surges (including lightning) from ever clearing your external junction box.

So am I completely off here or have power systems progressed to relatively safe?

Dietrich
 
One would thinkso

dkulze said:
Ok.

Been hearing about the damage caused by lightning all my life but never actually had an instance happen to myself or anyone else I know in the past 20 years (and I lived in TN for most of that time and had lightning fry many local condensers and hit as close as the other side of our yard). Would think that, if electronics were that vulnerable and power systems that exposed, we'd be looking at constant replacement of audio, computer, appliance, video, etc systems but this doesn't seem to be the case. My understanding is that there are multiply redundant ground systems that will generally prevent all but the most extreme power surges (including lightning) from ever clearing your external junction box.

So am I completely off here or have power systems progressed to relatively safe?

Dietrich
Click to expand...

but I can testify such is not necessarily the case. My house, built 20 yrs. ago is grounded according to National codes, which still apply. Twice in the last twenty yrs I have had damage to my electronics due to lightning. In both instances there was no direct strike to my house although surges from nearby lightning took out a microwave, tv, vcr, and a couple of ground fault recepticals. None of these appliances were on at the time. The surge jumped the internal switching and cooked the circuitry. I'm with Barbara, turn it off and unplug. Its cheap insurance.
 
My case was similar to Jakes. Big bolt provided me with lots of poplar bowl blanks and a ton of splinters when it hit a tree about 50 yards from the house 2 years ago. For weeks I was finding stuff damaged. Four vcrs, 2 tvs, 1 clock radio, 2 stereos, 1 cable tv converter box, electronic control on gas oven, transformer for landscape lights, 1 microwave in shop for bowl drying, 2 shop battery chargers (I'm sure I'm leaving something out). It hit early on Sunday morning. The clock radio was the only thing actually running at the time. I suppose it was a good thing that I didn't own a VFD lathe at the time.

I've spent a long time in electrical engineering. Proper grounding does help tremendously. There are surge protection devices that you can hook up to your incoming power that will help also. But the facts are these:

1.Lightning comes in extremely high voltages, hundreds of thousands of volts are not uncommon.

2.All electricity simply wants to find the shortest and least resistive path to ground.

3.Copper grounding conductors generally provide the path of least resistance. Hence the advantage of proper grounding.

4. (most important) Lightning, at its high voltage levels, simply don't know how to play by the rules.

I've had a shop for 30 plus years, and, to my knowledge had never lost a thing to lighning in the shop or the house until two years ago. Like Deitrich, I've had lightning popping all around me all my life.

Bottom line: You may never have any problem whatsoever. Or, you may get burned tonight. Why not get a little excersize bending over and unplugging.

As for turning breakers off: In a household lighting panel which has 250 volt insulation ratings, if you get surges of a few thousand volts from lightning, The electricity can arc all over the panel, from breaker to breaker (which are separated by only 1" in most cases). Therfore, opening (turning off) a breaker is not as good as unplugging the sensitive electronic device. Turning the breaker off might keep the voltage surge from arcing in the wiring inside the wall or in a receptacle which could start a fire.

Didn't mean to get so verbose. But personal experience has taught me how it feels when you do have a problem. And, insurance never covers it all. 🙂
 
Add me to the unplug after Im done crowd. In addition to the lighting protection, and, granted this is not a perfect deterent, it makes me feel slightly better that if my curious kids were to hit or even bump into the on button-- nothing would happen.

Along those lines, the feds are gonna force us to install trigger locks on our on buttons before long lol
 
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