MC900/MC1100 speed change

[arose62]

There have been a few questions about this lately, and I couldn't find a good explanation of the Reeves pulley system by googling, so these may be of interest.

Pic of the rear split pulley in my MC1100
http://people.aapt.net.au/rosefamily/RearSplitPulley.jpg
(about 370kb)

Pic of the two split pulleys
http://people.aapt.net.au/rosefamily/SplitPulleys.jpg
(about 370kb)

And a video of how smoothly the speed changes after cleaning out inside the lathe head
http://people.aapt.net.au/rosefamily/LatheSpeedChange.MOV
(about 4 Mb, so it'll be painful over dial-up.)

Of course, in the best woodwork project fashion, these are from my planned "How to maintain your MC-series lathe" set: Visit the website, buy the book, DVD and T-shirt.;)

All of which I'll do when I've completed the daughter's dollhouse, my froes, a workbench, and a dust separator/cyclone.

Cheers,
Andrew

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Here's one for ya: my MC-900 has no problems whatsoever with the speed change, but withe the onset of winter it's started playing up; when first started it barely spins over until I manually give the chuck an assist (carefully!) to help bring it up to speed.

After some 15-30 seconds operating, it'll spin up fine... almost as though the lubricant is sluggish until brought up to operating temp. AFAICT it uses sealed bearings, so I'm buggered if I can see how to service it.

Any suggestions?

[Babytoolman]

Hi Skew,

Mine does the same and i put some latex type spray on it and it worked a bit better. I also found one of the pullies has been damaged when the last belt ruptured.

[Captain Chaos]

Hello Skew & Babytoolman,
It is possible to repack most sealed bearings but it will probably require dismantling the headstock assembly i.e. remove pulley, shaft and bearings, unfortunately.
Once the bearings have been removed the seal cover can be removed by gently prizing it out with a thin pointy tool eg. "O" ring pick or miniature screwdriver etc. Make sure that the bearing & tools etc. are clean before popping the seal(s) out. You can then either push more grease in with your fingers, or wash the bearing in Turps or White Spirits & then repack the bearing with a good quality High Temp. / High Speed grease, eg. Castrol APXT Grease & carefully refit the dust seal by sitting it in place & pushing it in & around until it pops into place.:confused::eek:
Clear as mud eh? Sorry. It is actually easier to do than describe. Just use care & remember that cleanliness is next to Godliness.
The amount of grease packed into bearings these days ( especially those coming out of China & Taiwan etc. {Read ALL} ) is miserly and of a low quality.
People will tell you that sealed bearings cannot be repacked but they only want to sell new bearings!!
Failing the above I guess that, its new bearings.:eek:
Hope that this may be of some help to you .
Barry. (Chaos.)

[adrian]

Do you drop the speed down to minimum when you are finished. I seem to remember something in the MC900 instructions that recommends that you should put it back to slow or it may be hard to start.

[gatiep]

The temperature change between when last used when it was fine and when it became sluggish must be out of this world to make the one horsepower motor that sluggish. It is a good idea to turn the speed down to low when stopping the lathe after a session. The reason behind it is that it requires less torque from the motor at start up

BUT the above are symptoms of the real problem which is the capacitor that is dying. On startup without the full boost from the starting capacitor the motor is sluggish and the slightest resistance which normally wont cause hassles, will then be a major issue. The bearings in the CT MC900/1100 are sealed 6205 bearings so they should not need to be repacked. If they do need it, they are crapp bearings and not worth the trouble when new ones, a reputable brand like SKF or Timken can be bought for under $10 each. Disturbing the rubber seal is only going to make matters worse as the bearings work in a very dusty environment. To my thinking it really is more stuffing around than spending the bucks on good bearings. BTW the motor on the CT FM300 dusty is the same as on their MC range of lathes.

Quote:"The amount of grease packed into bearings these days ( especially those coming out of China & Taiwan etc. {Read ALL} ) is miserly and of a low quality.
People will tell you that sealed bearings cannot be repacked but they only want to sell new bearings!!
Failing the above I guess that, its new bearings"

Almost always you'll find the bearings start becoming noisy long before they need repacking unless the seal is stuffed in the first place which makes it pointless to repack them.

Most times a cheap fix is nothing more than delaying the proper fix.
I am a firm believer in " do it right and you only have to do it once!"

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

BUT the above are symptoms of the real problem which is the capacitor that is dying. On startup without the full boost from the starting capacitor the motor is sluggish and the slightest resistance which normally wont cause hassles, will then be a major issue.
Hmmm... methinks that bears further investigation. FWIW, I've always dropped the speed to min before shutting off and I was doubtful about the bearings being the culprit. No significant noise or vibration and no slop in the spindle.

Hence my query; the comment about the lubrication wasn't really a serious suggestion, 'twas intended as a description of the symptoms although I was dreading the thought that it may actually be so.

I wanted to upgrade the motor anyway... I was already planning to modify the headcase to ensure easier maintenance and now I have an excuse to go that li'l bit further! ;)

[smidsy]

Joe,
My lathe has gone on sluggish start the last few days which I had put down to the stiffness of a new drive belt.
If the capacitor is dying, are they easy to fix or is a techie job?
Cheers
Paul

[gatiep]

As the pro's would say it needs to be done by a Sparky to be legal.


What the sparkie will do is to open the little tin holder that is on the side of the motor, held on with 2 screws, cut the two wires, replace the capacitor with a new one, connect the capacitor 2 wires to the 2 he cut. ( If he is a good techy he'll solder them, although most I've seen were just twisted and taped :eek: ) Then stuff it all back in the little holder and tighten the two screws. BTW the wires are not color coded as it doesn't matter which goes where).

[BrianR]

Adding to gatieps comments, when you buy the new capacitor, if there's space for it then get a higher voltage rated one. Many of the cheapie imports have capacitors with a marginal voltage rating.