Thread: My 'new' lathe

Looks like one of the very early Woodfast lathes. Should be a very solid piece of machinery, nice get!

Yes it has a woodfast badge on the front.

I bought one of the variable speed (like yours) and a belt swap style version a year ago tomorrow, but they are in storage awaiting the reconstruction of there shed in a few months time. Mine are both ex school and have outboard turning rigs on the back end of the headstock, and the VS has a 450mm bed extension as well. I won't have issues with 3 phase power, the house and shed are a fair way from the road and will be served by 3 phase power, but the belt change unit may get a 415V VFD for simpler speed management. Strangely, when I was doing woodwork at high school 50 odd years ago, we had one each of the same units in the woodwork shop, so they are fairly ancient but as solid as a rock.


How did you test the variable speed if you have a single phase supply and 3 phase motor, my VS unit has a label warning by the adjuster to not change the speed unless the motor is running. This is fairly normal for units with Reeves style mechanical vari speed units.

These variable speed Woodfast lathes are a dime a dozen here in Sydney.
They have a very expensive belt on the variable speed mechanism.
They all come from schools or uni studios.
The students habit of winding the speed change handle whilst they are stopped doesn't do them any good.
H.

So how does the variable speed work on these old units? Is it some sort of gearbox?

Thanks for the replies. I think this one might have been from a school too.

I gave it a quick test with another 240v motor I have here, but its not the one I want to put in there long term (only 1/2 hp).

From what I can see from a quick look the belts run inside tapered wedge type pulleys and when you adjust it the belt runs further into or out of the wegde, effectivly changing the diameter.
Someone can probably explain it better or correct me.

Thanks for the heads up about the expensive belt - ill try to look after it.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by bueller

So how does the variable speed work on these old units? Is it some sort of gearbox?

I think if you have a look at this site, scroll down to when you see a Cyan coloured Principle of Variator box. Look at this for a bit and figure out how it is done. The illustration directly above shows what they look like.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contin...e_transmission

Mick.

Originally Posted by Optimark

I think if you have a look at this site, scroll down to when you see a Cyan coloured Principle of Variator box. Look at this for a bit and figure out how it is done. The illustration directly above shows what they look like.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contin...e_transmission

Mick.

Awesome, thanks mate!