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New garage "toy" . . . but not as big as 747Mopar's . . . and rebuilding

Been having a few "problems" with the lathe and working on them one at a time to get them resolved . . .

Today, was a very "interesting" find . . . ( make that plural - finds ) . . .

Been having more and more difficulty with the lathe starting correctly, without me having to start the rotations by hands . . . so my thought was the starting capacitor was bad . . .
Tested the starting capacitor and it's good . . . that's NOT the problem . . .

Pulled out the motor to start going through it and find what's up . . . and found this . . .
( needless to say - this does not look good )

sm_lathewindings01.jpg


So - spent some time working on the misalignment and got it looking like this . . . ( much better )
( sanded the tops with emery cloth to make sure that there were no high spots )

sm_lathewindings02.jpg


Got it all put back together and found that the centrifugal switch ( on the end shaft of the motor ) was not holding in place properly
( it's made of pot metal and it's cracked . . . oh boy )

So now . . . I need my lathe to build a part for my lathe to get the centrifugal switch to work properly . . .
( is this a chicken or the egg question . . . )

Will be working on my friends lathe to make the part to get this working . . . Whooohoooo ! ! !

( always something . . . )
 
And this . . . was losing oil from my site glass . . . and found it was leaking down the front of my lathe.
The 30-40 year old rubber grommets were not working well to prevent it - they were hard and could not find replacement grommets.

Ordered a new set of site glasses from Grizzly - that were threaded . . . and then went this route . . .

sm_oillevelwindow.jpg


Made an aluminum plug ( on my lathe ) that is pressed into the opening, and then screwed the new site glass into the aluminum plug . . .

But it was also leaking . . . so the plug was pulled out and reinstalled with Loctite 609 - let it dry, then put RTV on the back edges of the plug to ensure sealing
Then when the site glass was installed, put pipe dope on the treads, and an O-ring behind the window for pressure on the thread to assist the pipe dope

Been 24 hours since it was all re-filled with oil and not a drop has leaked out yet . . . on top if it, withe the new aluminum plug, it should NEVER go bad nor wear out again ! ! !

BSH . . . that's how to fix it ! !
 
Been having a few "problems" with the lathe and working on them one at a time to get them resolved . . .

Today, was a very "interesting" find . . . ( make that plural - finds ) . . .

Been having more and more difficulty with the lathe starting correctly, without me having to start the rotations by hands . . . so my thought was the starting capacitor was bad . . .
Tested the starting capacitor and it's good . . . that's NOT the problem . . .

Pulled out the motor to start going through it and find what's up . . . and found this . . .
( needless to say - this does not look good )

View attachment 904840

So - spent some time working on the misalignment and got it looking like this . . . ( much better )
( sanded the tops with emery cloth to make sure that there were no high spots )

View attachment 904841

Got it all put back together and found that the centrifugal switch ( on the end shaft of the motor ) was not holding in place properly
( it's made of pot metal and it's cracked . . . oh boy )

So now . . . I need my lathe to build a part for my lathe to get the centrifugal switch to work properly . . .
( is this a chicken or the egg question . . . )

Will be working on my friends lathe to make the part to get this working . . . Whooohoooo ! ! !

( always something . . . )
Looks like a bearing may have collapsed in the past. That stator looks pretty beaten up.
Have a good close look at he windings - if necessary you could run some more insulating varnish over them....the stator needs to be standing on end - so the grooves are vertical, for the varnish to run down.
 
Looks like a bearing may have collapsed in the past. That stator looks pretty beaten up.
Have a good close look at he windings - if necessary you could run some more insulating varnish over them....the stator needs to be standing on end - so the grooves are vertical, for the varnish to run down.

Good observation Kiwi . . . we believe too that a bearing went out in this motor and was replaced, but the never inspected (or didn't care about) the stator . . .

Just trying to keep this motor "functional" as the end goal is to replace this with a VSD motor . . .
 
The good . . . The bad . . . and the Ugly . . .

Well, got the motor back together but had to work on the centrifugal switch - hand started the motor to get it up to speed and was working on the needed part . . . but the motor was heating up pretty badly, not sure what happened to it ( or my my attempted repairs were at fault ) but I really think that the lathe 1 HP motor is toast ! ! !

ARGH ! ! ! !

Well . . . maybe . . . turns out I have a 3 phase, 2 HP Baldor motor sitting on the shelf that is looking for a "home" . . .

but I don't currently have 3 phase power at my house to be able to run the motor . . .

ARGH . . .

Hummmm . . . turns out, for about $150 you can get a VFD ( sorry - said VSD in a previous post ) that will accept single phase 220 Volts input, and will output 220 Volts 3 phase to drive the motor . . . it's already been ordered, delivered, and has been tested to see if it'll actually work . . . IT DOES ! ! !

Next I needed to fix the broken base on the Baldor motor - that's been completed already, mounted back on the motor plate for the lathe, and ready to go back on . . .
Now I'll need to slightly enlarge the hole in the pulley to allow it to fit the shaft of the Baldor motor - the old motor was .750 and the Baldor is .875, so plans are to work on that tomorrow, broach the keyway as needed into the pulley, and get it mounted on the motor . . .

Then it's time to start wiring up the motor and controls . . .

Now I know, "some" of you are probably thinking that I might have "purposely" toasted that motor . . . well . . . we'll never know . . . . ( snicker )
 
Progress on the lathe upgrade . . . .

Here's how it's going . . . first we needed to test the unit and see that it really worked . . .
This thing is really cool . . . got 220 single phase coming in driving a 220 3 phase motor - and can vary the motor RPS with a dial ! ! !

sm_latheupgrade01.jpg


Then we had to use my friends lathe to bore out the pullet from .750 to .875 ( forgot to get a pic of that )
The the key way needed to be broached . . . here it is in progress . . . .

sm_latheupgrade02.jpg


That worked great and ended up working as needed . . .

sm_latheupgrade03.jpg


so now the pulley from the old 1 HP motor has been installed on the 2HP Baldor motor - ready to go back on the lathe . . .

sm_latheupgrade04.jpg
 
More work on the lathe and the upgrade . . .

With the new controller (driver) - the existing controls and electronics are no longer usable . . .

sm_latheupgrade05.jpg


So all of the electronics have been removed from the lathe . . .

sm_latheupgrade06.jpg


Probably will reuse the emergency shut off button, but the forward and reverse buttons will be replaced with 3 position switch . . . and it will also need the addition of a potentiometer to assist with the speed selection . . .

Now I've got a blank canvas on which to start my rebuilding . . .
 
Probably will reuse the emergency shut off button, but the forward and reverse buttons will be replaced with 3 position switch . . . and it will also need the addition of a potentiometer to assist with the speed selection . . .
Make sure you have an E/Stop in a readily accessible place.

Also, if you get a "10-turn" potentiometer, you will get a much finer adjustment for the speed control. Most pots are single turn. A value of 1K-ohm should be fine. :)
 
More progress on the Lathe upgrade . . .

Here's what the original panel looked like on the lathe . . .

sm_latheupgrade05.jpg


And my plans for the upgrade . . . here's all the parts that will be involved . . .

sm_latheupgrade07.jpg


Used the original metal plate, and modified it for my needs . . .

sm_latheupgrade08.jpg


Needed to make some "adapters" to fit the new buttons into the panel . . .
Used my second lathe to get this done . . . remember, 2 is 1 and 1 is none . . . ( seems to always work out that way . . . )

sm_latheupgrade09.jpg


And the look of the new panel will be like this . . .
Left (top) - reverse, off, forward switch
digital speed readout - adjust underneath the panel
Green light for power on . . . DUH !
Emergency Off switch . . . of course
( did not use the 10 turn, did not feel like the range needed it on a lathe . . . but good suggestion ! ! )

sm_latheupgrade010.jpg


Now that all of this is built, it's time to work on the wiring of this upgrade . . . Oh Boy ! ! !

Here we go . . .
 
The previous picture was a mock-up of the panel, now this is the real deal . . .

And now I can see that it's a pretty "ugly" picture to boot . . . yuck . . .

sm_latheupgrade011.jpg


And the wiring of the panel on the back side . . .

sm_latheupgrade012.jpg


Installed back into the lathe . . .

sm_latheupgrade013.jpg


BTW - the display will be driven by an speed sensing system to give us the true RPMs of the chuck . . .

Working on the rest of the electrical connections now to get this thing back in business . . . YAY ! ! !
 
Forgot to report . . .

- The oil windows are now no longer leaking and maintaining proper oil levels.
- the new motor is really nice and smooth
- the VSD (variable Speed Drive) is Awesome . . . LOVE IT ! ! !

This upgrade will be very helpful to me in the shop . . . Glad that it's completed now !
 
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