Thread: Maybe I'm on the journey to becoming a real woodworker?

Good pick up and welcome to the club of the addicted.....

Would'nt be too concerned over the 3phase as you can get a inverter for it very easily and in doing so have a VSD set up. Failing that pick up a single phase motor and re fit the pulley to it. I would look at 1kw which equates to around 1.5hp or so,plenty of power for that lathe I would think

we have them lathes at school. they are great!

good pick up mate

Outstanding Chrisp!!!!!
No problem swapping out the three phase motor to a single phase and you have one fine lathe there!!!!

Thanks for the comments on the lathe. I was wondering if it was a reasonable unit or not as I only got to see it for a few minutes before placing an offer.

Regarding the motor, I've made a couple of phone calls and I can get a new VSD for $340+gst for 0.75 kW or $382+gst for a 1.5 kW unit. It looks like fitting a VSD to the existing motor could be a goer.

I'll get the headstock back together first and see how the bank balance is holding up before purchasing a VSD. Hmm, I wonder if I could borrow the motor from my bandsaw to give the lathe ago?

Chris

I'm a little worried that I'll reassemble the headstock without the belt in place.

Put 2 belts in while you have it dismantled.
They very rarely break but they always do it when you need it most.
PS. Welcome to the Black Arts side of things.

Crisp,

You need to be very careful about what you say on this forum about "what constitutes woodworking".

There are many among us that make furniture. Tables, chairs, display cases and even kitchens. Heaven forbid, but it pays the rent. And keeps the missus happy.

Some of the others just turn. And even among those that turn, some just turn spindles (some for a living like ) while others just turn bowls and platters, or lidded boxes or pens. Dark siders beware.

Recently, I stuck my woodworking foot into turning. An eye-opening for sure, being one that is use to moving wood into the machine, not the other way around. (Hand planes and chisels excepted).

I wouldn't denigrate what you can do without a lathe. I agree that an good all-round woodworker should turn and do so regularly. Split turnings, exquisite turned table legs etc are skills that should be acquired. But don't go thinking that your efforts as a woodworker are second-rate because you might not have a lathe.

Truth be told, the lathe is just one small part of the equipment and skills that makes a good general/ all-round woodworker. Don't say that too loud in the company of turners though! Myself, I've got the bug for lidded boxes and the cabinets that SWMBO desires are on the back burner.

So, a word of caution. Watch those buggers out there that specialise in turning. They are a quite different breed of woodworkers - and I luv 'em!

Jeff

Great lathe pick up there. All my admiration goes to those who can fix up their own stuff. I am a learna turna, and am now gunna learn some furnitcha making. Maybe I'll be a woodworker one day too.

Another one bites the dust.

I dreamed of owning a Woodfast for years before I saw my fist Vicmarc, good pickup.

Originally Posted by

Put 2 belts in while you have it dismantled.
They very rarely break but they always do it when you need it most.

Everybody: Write that on a piece of tape, and affix it to your headstocks. And/or, how about a Sticky for Woodturning - General?

Thanks, Ian ().

Joe

That looks like a great lathe ... very sturdy and "industrial" looking ... good score.

Good Stuff! I wish I had one for long times!

Well it's been awhile but there has been some progress.

I've got the headstock back together with new bearings. It all went back together reasonably easy. I used the tail stock to press the new bearing on with the pulley and a few spacers used to support the bearing while it was pressed on.

I even tried 's suggestion of fitting two belts but I had to remove one as I couldn't find any space to keep the spare out of the way.

Attachment 90284Attachment 90285Attachment 90286Attachment 90287

I've also partially sort out a variable speed drive for the lathe. I'll post some details in a separate post.

Converting the lathe to a variable speed.

The lathe was fitted with a 3-phase motor (and I don't have 3-phase power) so the question was whether to replace the motor with a single-phase unit or to fit a variable frequency drive (VFD). As indicated in an earlier post, the motor was originally wired internally as a 415V star wind and could easily be configured to a 240V delta wind. On the face of it, this motor is quite amenable for use with VFD with a single phase power supply.

What follows is my step by step account of rewiring the lathe and initial trial fitting of a VFD.

The first issue I tackled was the supply cord and the cable entry to the lathe. The original cord entered via a cut-off cable gland that acted as bushing for the cable. This arrangement lacks any form of sensible cord restraint. Also, the supply cord was a 3-phase cord and I would need to replace it with a single-phase cord.

Attachment 90288

The easiest way to provide an acceptable form of cord entry and restraint is to use a cable gland. The next three photos show the new cable gland - with an adapter to fit the hole in the lathe, how the gland is fitted inside the lathe, and the new power cord passing through the new gland.

Attachment 90289Attachment 90290Attachment 90291

Rather than make up a new power cord from scratch, I find it easier to buy an extension cord an cut the socket off. In the photos tha follow you can see the new yellow supply cord.

The next photo shows the VFD and the 3-phase motor out of the lathe. The VFD I chose was an Omron model 3G3JX-AE015 (list price $382 + gst) which is rated to be suitable for a 2 HP / 1.5 kW motor (the unit has a actual rating of 2.9 kVA). I also considered a smaller model 3G3JX-AE007 (1 HP / 0.75 kW motor, 1.6kVA rating, list price $339 + gst) which would have been perfectly adequate of the motor. In the end I chose the larger model as it was in stock at the time. BTW, it is quite possible to get better prices than the list prices.

Attachment 90292

I started wiring from the motor. First I removed the terminal box cover from the motor.

Attachment 90293

I fitted a cable gland to the terminal box cover. This also required a adapter to make the gland fit the thread on the motor.

Attachment 90294

The new motor cable was threaded through the gland.

Attachment 90295

There are lots of different ways to remove the sheath from flex, but I'll show you the way I usually do it. Firstly, think pinch-and-rip. Using combination pliers, pinch to sheath close to the edge to avoid pinching any of the inside wires. Squeeze the pliers tight and rip the pinched piece of sheath from the cable. You should end up with something like the third photo in this set.

Attachment 90296Attachment 90297Attachment 90298

Repeat the pinch-and rip several times around the cable.

Attachment 90299

and slide off the remaining sheath. This particular job looks a little rough.

Attachment 90301

Using side cutters, I can tidy up the job.

Attachment 90302

and it now looks much better. Note, there are no nicks or cuts on the inside wires.

Attachment 90303

Doing the above, I was a big hamstrung using pliers and a camera at the same time. On the other end of the cable, I just stripped it as I normally would (sans camera) and this end didn't need tidying up.

Attachment 90300

On to the actual wiring of the motor. The first thing to do is check that enough sheath has been stripped.

Attachment 90304

In this case the motor is fitted with brass studs for the terminals. While it is fitted with a set of washers with upturned lugs that are designed to hold bare flex, it is much better to use lugs instead.

Attachment 90305

Next part is to strip the insulation from the wires. Again, there are many methods, but in this instance I just used side cutters. The idea is not to cut the insulation, but to grip it with the cutting edge and tear it off. What is not shown in the photo is that I use my little finger to hold the cutters open while the other three finders hold it closed. The idea is to maintain a controlled opening in the cutters so that they hang on to the insulation but don't close on to the copper conductors.

Attachment 90306

Also, keep the face of the cutters at right angles to the cable or else it will either work out, or work in to, the cutting edge and the cutters are pulled. If done right, you shouldn't cut or damage any strands of the wire.

Attachment 90307

The next step is to crimp on the lugs. If you haven't got any climpers, get yourself a reasonably good pair. The really cheap don't do a very good job. One test of the crimpers is to try and pull the cable out of the lug. If the cable pulls free from the lug before it breaks the crimpers are no good.

It is important to thing about the current path when making connections. For example, the screw for the earth wire has two washers. It is tempting to place one washer above the lug and one below. However, this would result in the current path being via the lug-washer-motor. It is better to place the lug directly against the metal of the motor (and have both washers above the lug). The screw (and washer/s) aren't really intended to be part of the current path, rather they are intended to clamp the lug to the body of the motor.

Attachment 90308

The three wires for the three-phase connection are wired in a similar manner.

Attachment 90309

With the wiring at the motor completed, the cover is reinstalled and the cable gland tightened.

Attachment 90310

Using a multimeter, I do a few basic checks on my wiring. Firstly, I check the earth connection by measuring the resistance from the earth wire to some exposed metal on the motor. Do this in a couple of spots. The reading is about 0.3 ohm which is quite good and I know my multimeter leads will read about 0.2 ohm on their own.

Attachment 90311Attachment 90312

While I'm using the multimeter, it is also a good idea to do a (very) basic insulation check to make sure that the internal connections aren't inadvertently touching the inside of the cover, to that a motor winding has broken down. Measuring between one of the actives and the body gives an open-circuit reading (which is good).

Attachment 90313

I'm happy with the wiring of the motor so now it is on the wiring it to the VFD. In this case, I'm just want to try the VFD out to check that it is going to work and that the motor is still okay (I've never seem this motor operating). I fully expect to rewire the VFD again when it is physically mounted into the lathe.

The cover of the VFD is attached by a single screw and a couple of clips.

Attachment 90314Attachment 90315

The motor connections are at the bottom of the unit labeled U/T1, V/T2 and W/T3. There is also an earth connection at this end.

Attachment 90316

As I not sure whether this is a protective earth or a shield earth, I wired a another earth wire off this point to take it back to the supply cable just in case this earth isn't intended to be used as a protective earth.

Attachment 90317

Similarly, at the top of the VFD, there are the terminals for the incoming single phase supply. The 240Vac is wired to the "N" (neutrual, light blue) and the "L1" (active, brown) with the earth wired to the earth connection (and I've looped to the output side as well).

Attachment 90319

The wiring of the VFD is now complete and the cover can be reinstalled. You may have noticed that I have the 3-pin supply plug insight at all times while working on the wiring. This is a good habit to get into when working on electrical equipment so that you know that the equipment is unplugged.

Attachment 90320Attachment 90321

As I'm happy with the wiring of the motor and I don't think I need to change anything in it's wiring I reinstall the motor back into the lathe.

Attachment 90322

After rechecking the earthing with a multimeter I give the system it's initial power-up. Note: I've left the belt off as I don't know which way the motor is going to run.

Attachment 90323

I pressed the "Run" button and the motor slowly spun/ramped up to speed. It works! And the motor direction is correct! If the motor was running the wrong way, it can be reversed by swapping any two of the three motor actives; or the VFD and be configured to reverse the direction.

Attachment 90324

Having sorted the electrics, I still need to sort out where to mount the VFD. One possible location is in the cavity above the motor.

Attachment 90325

There seems to be three option for mounting the VFD:

1. Mount it so the the front of the VFD just protrudes through metal cover of the lathe. This would allow the controls to be reached without opening the cover. This would take a bit of work as the top of the VFD isn't rectangular.
2. Mount the VFD totally enclosed within the lathe and wire up remote switches and potentiometer to allow the on/off and speed to the controlled remotely from the VFD.
3. Mount the VFD totally enclosed within the lathe and insatll a remote control panel which can be purchased as an option for the VFD.

Attachment 90326

The other matter I need to sort is the main switch. In the temporary setup I wired above I didn't install a mains switch. In the final set up I'll reinstall a mains switch. The lathe originally had two switches: an isolator and a magnetic contactor. The magnetic contactor requires 415V to operate so I can't use it. The isolator could be used as a mains switch but I'm a little concerned that it is old and the location isn't the best as the drive belt runs directly behind it (the cables may rub against the belt?).

Attachment 90327

Please note:
The above was just a temporary rig up to check that the VFD and the motor would work together. In a later installment I'll show how to earth the body of the lathe and the electrical fittings.

In case anyone was wondering, mounting the VFD on the outside surface of the lathe isn't an option as the terminals on the VFD don't provide adequate insulation nor cord anchorage. The VFD here is intended to be mounted within another enclosure the protect the wirings.

Attachment 90328

Chrisp, good post, haven't read every word, can you say where you bought your OMRON unit. And is it designed for 'constant' torque loads or otherwise?
Also is the 'IP' rating OK (eg dust getting into the unit).

Appreciate any info.