I bought a used Swan Si-100e with a foot pedal. When I lower the pronged block holder into the ice with the crank and turn it on (either by hand or with the foot pedal) there is no telling which way it will start spinning. Sometimes it will turn on and the block holder will raise to the top of the machine, lift off of the ice and spin the block out, other times it starts spinning regularly. It does this with no certain pattern that I can tell. If I operate with the foot pedal I can't stop and start because it may go either way, making the foot pedal a bit useless. Any ideas as to why this is happening, or has anyone experienced this before?
Thank you for your time
-Serena

Hello seems like you got a lot of issues with your machine. Let me see if I can help.

As per your description. I notice that there is a problem with your pressure, since you mentioned the ice was spinning out of the machine and the entire shaft lifted up. Perhaps, you should check your brake shoe. It is located in the front top center to the right of the machine with a black rubber cap that can be easily removed. Use a flat head screwdriver and slowly turning it clockwise to tighten, if the brake shoe isn't worned out to the maximum threading, you should feel it tightening of the shaft by turning the crank on the right side.

If indeed it is worned out you may solve this issue by replacing it with a new one that you can purchase from http://www.shaveicesupplies.com in the SWAN SI-100 parts section.

Secondly, the issue that you had with the machine's vertical shaft turning left and sometimes right, the only thing I can possibly think of is the motor problem. A reverse polarity issue. Although this is a rare problem with these machines, perhaps a ratio of 1-100. Currently, I do not know how to solve this type of problem for you, although you can try bring the motor to a machine/motor shop in your area to have it resolved. Although most of the time they would recommend you buying another unit to replace it since there is NO 100% that it would work correctly long-term wise.

Best of luck to you, update us if you can on anything else we can all help you with and much MAHALO for sharing your informations with us to keep our board alive