Paul39
12th September 2010, 02:26 AM
I roughed a bowl on my new to me 1995 Woodfast M410 with 1.5 HP Leeson DC motor with variable speed controller. The VS looks to be a later modification. It is set up for 230 V AC.
I had a half dry chunk of walnut, roughed out with a chain saw with corners protruding.
When the motor is under power, the controller, mounted on the inside back of the cabinet makes a constant buzz. If I am on a higher setting and turn it down, the buzz stops until the motor slows, then the buzz resumes. When I shut off the lathe the buzz stops, and the motor coasts to a stop. From this I assume that if the motor is running faster than the set speed of the controller, it is coasting.
In the slowest pulley position with 50 to 100 % power, in an interrupted cut, if I took too big a bite with the tool the buzz would hesitate, at times if I would catch a large protrusion the buzz would stop and the motor turn off. When I pushed the start button it would restart as usual. Sometimes after cutting a series of protrusions, the motor would slow and sometimes stop even if I stopped cutting.
As the blank got more rounded and I moved to the second and third step at 100% the hesitation of the controller and stopping of the motor got less and less and stopped.
I flattened the bottom of the blank and turned it around on the faceplate off center to better use the blank. While turning the outside back to round, the gradual bump, bump, did not disturb the controller.
Is this normal behavior for the DC variable drive? It occurred to me that the controller may be set up so that if one has a bad catch the motor shuts down.
There was what appears to me a home made remote on / off switch that I was not using when I first started roughing the bowl. When I plugged it in, the controller dropout seemed to be less. But by that point I was doing less of the interrupted cutting.
The only other variable speed I have used is a constant torque variable frequency drive on my metal lathe. It uses 120 Volt AC single phase and converts it to 120 Volt three phase for a three phase motor. If you have a catch, it pushes the tool out, or breaks the tool, or throws the piece out of the lathe. Or any or all of the previous.
When I got below the split out part of the inside, using the third step of the pulley and 100% power, I could really hog out material using a 1/2 inch bowl gouge with no complaint from the controller.
Any comment by users of DC variable speed lathes, especially of the older Woodfast would be welcome.
Here is a photo of the blank.
I had a half dry chunk of walnut, roughed out with a chain saw with corners protruding.
When the motor is under power, the controller, mounted on the inside back of the cabinet makes a constant buzz. If I am on a higher setting and turn it down, the buzz stops until the motor slows, then the buzz resumes. When I shut off the lathe the buzz stops, and the motor coasts to a stop. From this I assume that if the motor is running faster than the set speed of the controller, it is coasting.
In the slowest pulley position with 50 to 100 % power, in an interrupted cut, if I took too big a bite with the tool the buzz would hesitate, at times if I would catch a large protrusion the buzz would stop and the motor turn off. When I pushed the start button it would restart as usual. Sometimes after cutting a series of protrusions, the motor would slow and sometimes stop even if I stopped cutting.
As the blank got more rounded and I moved to the second and third step at 100% the hesitation of the controller and stopping of the motor got less and less and stopped.
I flattened the bottom of the blank and turned it around on the faceplate off center to better use the blank. While turning the outside back to round, the gradual bump, bump, did not disturb the controller.
Is this normal behavior for the DC variable drive? It occurred to me that the controller may be set up so that if one has a bad catch the motor shuts down.
There was what appears to me a home made remote on / off switch that I was not using when I first started roughing the bowl. When I plugged it in, the controller dropout seemed to be less. But by that point I was doing less of the interrupted cutting.
The only other variable speed I have used is a constant torque variable frequency drive on my metal lathe. It uses 120 Volt AC single phase and converts it to 120 Volt three phase for a three phase motor. If you have a catch, it pushes the tool out, or breaks the tool, or throws the piece out of the lathe. Or any or all of the previous.
When I got below the split out part of the inside, using the third step of the pulley and 100% power, I could really hog out material using a 1/2 inch bowl gouge with no complaint from the controller.
Any comment by users of DC variable speed lathes, especially of the older Woodfast would be welcome.
Here is a photo of the blank.