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…and the effect that may or may not occur in relation to such.

I made a 6x48 belt/disc sander into an edge sander by mounting it sideways into a complicated 90* table mounted into a homemade bench. It worked great, for about 15 minutes, then it got superheated and died. My 250$ Craigslist sander cost 650$ to render operational once more which at the time I deemed worthwhile because I had more or less designed my shop around that particular tool.

When I took it to the motor repair shop for a rebuild, the tech there said the failure was caused by -insert not truly understood words by others here- ‘relay being used in a direction not designed for’.

I just paid the bill and got back to work but secretly always held the opinion that the guy just said a thing which likely had no basis in reality. I cannot fathom how gravity would have an effect on an electrical relay, which, I cannot say I know what it actually is.

The current reason for this question, is that I’m building a 2hp dust collector with an Oneida cyclone and an impeller from a good old standard issue bag style collector, but the blower is mounted horizontally above the cone rather than vertical as designed.

So… can someone tell me if it makes any difference whatsoever which physical direction an electronic relay is oriented in? Just so I don’t blow my 2hp motor.

Thanks kindly…:)

Ed, I'm a retired Electrical Engineer. Over the years I have designed circuits using hundreds of different types of relays, everything from PCs to 480V three phase power controllers. I never had a relay that had to be installed in a particular orientation. They may exist but I've never seen one. Of all the motors we used we never worried what the orientation was, the only thing I worried about was possible differences in the stresses on the bearings.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks Steve,

I’ve always felt that the previous owner of the belt sander felt it getting super hot and sold it on before it blew out…

Reckon I’ll just put my little dust collector together and carry on then.

Once more this forum comes through!

I'm a wannabe electronics expert, which is to say a dangerously ignorant person who tinkers endlessly with rebuilding the electronics cabinets for my CNC machines, and my opinion is that if you were to find a relay that was affected by it's orientation then that fact would be prominently printed on it somewhere.

I would also think that a physical orientation limitation on such a fundamental electronics component would make it un-sellable on the electronics market.

Another thought: does the motor in question make a noticeable clicking sound after you’ve turned off the power and while it's still spinning down to a stop?

If so then it uses a spring loaded centrifugal switch as part of its starting mechanism. Such a switch may have a preference for the motor axle orientation being vertical in order to function well. My drill press has a motor with that kind of switch and it's vertically oriented, but I don't know if it matters.

It’s a 2hp motor and impeller from a standard bag style dust collection unit that I’m turning into a cyclone…

My father once helped a student make a tube Theramin. It used a couple of large inductors as parts of the HF circuits, and they found that the orientation of those made quite a difference in the sound. Perhaps somebody is generalizing to the much smaller inductors in the relays?

my guess would be the centrifical switch didn't work so you may have had the starter windings not turning off. I burned up a motor that way.
blow them out once in a while dust can be very intrusive.
Never hear a replay having to be in a certain position as well

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it