Thread: Old Tormek SA 250 - motor not working

I had a tormek that had no drive power if the back side of the drive wheel got any oil or honing paste on it, but the motor still turned.

If you have a motor repair shop near you and you're not a motor guy, I'd start there. The drive system on my tormek (long gone now, so can't look) was a small diameter shaft driving off of the leather hone wheel - if it wasn't standard, fixing the actual motor if possible would probably be a lot cheaper than finding a specialty setup to fit.

But I'm not a motor guy, either, other than to recognize that motor issues not due to enormous wear are sometimes not that complicated to fix.

Send your video to tormek (if the aussie response is slow, try tormek itself) and see what they suggest, too. My experience with the american side is if you have something that's failed (I had arbor issues on mine), they aren't particularly generous, but they'll tell you what to buy or upgrade to fix or avoid the problem. Different than someone like LN here who will often replace something, even if the issue isn't their fault.

(I see you're in belgium - disregard comment about aussie service).

At one point in the US when tormek were really popular, the question came up about how often they wore out and the US distributor could think of only one instance - Mike wenzloff, who had modified a tormek to surface/taper grind saw blades. If they (the euro version of same) only help by saying "you should buy a new one", I'd be surprised.

Thanks for your reply D.W. and thanks to the admin for adding the disclaimer on my inital post
I have indeed posted on Tormek forums. We'll see how things go but I posted here more because I find the subjet quite interesting, in particular the fact that for such "wide public" products, there are no spare parts available. Been looking for à replacement motor the whole afternoon and the only thing I could find is smthing in the USA where just the motor costs 340$. At this price, I probably can have a new Tormek T4.
This said, from what I've read on the tormek forums, the EU customer service looks fine and I'd be suprised too if they just suggest buying a new one.

Also, someone suggested that the issue might be the capacitor itself. I'll further investigate this

On the american forum where the american distributor mentioned only having seen one tormek with a worn out motor, or needing replacement, there were a whole bunch of folks with stuff from supergrind all the way up to T-7 coming out at the time. Nobody else had ever worn a motor out, so I'd guess they don't offer spare parts because they're relatively rare, and in the instance someone breaks something, they will likely fix it or make a good recommendation.

The motors on them are geared down so low that they just don't work that hard, and on mine, the drive system never had the grip to use all of the motor power in the first place (making it even easier on the motor- the drive shaft would slip on its contact surface instead. While this would be annoying, it's better than buying a new motor).

Having never had it apart other than to take wheels on and off and browse at it once, I couldn't comment on whether or not the motor was a standard frame, etc.

The T-4 looked kind of low spec, though - low wattage. If you like the tormek, I'd be more inclined to buy a bare bones machine and sell off the parts you don't need (if it comes with an extra wheel, I'm sure you could sell the wheel and the tool bars, etc).

A small feedback.
The problem seems to be the capacitor. It's actually one of the main problems with the Electolux motors.
Someone from Tormek's forum sent my details to tormek.se who already shippded out the capacitor (which seems to be the problem).
Honestly, I've never experienced such a qualitative support from any brand and I was quite surprised.
Well, I haven't yet received the capacitor and I don't know if it will resolve my issue, but still... they didn't advise buying a new product but instead they solutionned it.

Given their experience with it and quick answer, it's probably the issue. Figured they'd know more about it than anyone else (but a motor shop would've probably checked capacitors first, too).

The problem has been indeed solved. They sent the capacitor and now it works like a charm.
I really appreciated the way they handled the issue.
I can now start having fun with it!