victor lathe motor problem

**the fabricator** · 16th June 2013, 12:10 PM

I bought an old victor 400 X 700 ( 16 X 30 ) and saw it running in the shop perfectly fine ( hare and forbes sydney ), forward and reverse and everything. got it back to work and stripped it down and painted it.
got it home 8 months later and got it wired up. started playing around, 6mm cuts with ease, beautiful finish, and boy is it accurate.
decided to have a go at a thread. spinning about 300 odd, went to reverse the chuck ( i did brake the spindle, but it was still rotating slowly when i reversed it ) and the lathe kind of died, it moved in reverse as if it was just inching it. tried to move it either direction - nothing. unplugged it and played with the new turret mill and slotter that i also brought home. went back to the lathe, forward was running fine, went to reverse it and it did the same, just kind of inched it and then it wouldnt spin either direction. and after that the motor now doesnt even turn on, in either + or - mode ( high low range )
coolant pump works fine, but motor has no sign of power getting to it at all.
my mate ( electrician by trade ) said it could be the motor that has #### itself, but the motor made no smoke, no noise. come to think of it, the motor runs as quite as a mouse.
ive replaced two of the fuses, the other 3 are coming in on monday, but it cant be the fuses because the whole electrics of the lathe rely on the fuses ( and the coolant pump works so that proves it cant be fuses )
my mate is bringing up his multimeter to have a sniff around the electrical box one day this week.

any ideas whatsoever? im intching to get into it

**.RC.** · 16th June 2013, 12:39 PM

Do the contactors click in and out?

Is it a two speed motor?

**the fabricator** · 16th June 2013, 03:43 PM

where would i find the contactors? ( sorry im not an expert on lathe electrics, i just know how to run them! lol )

and yes it is a 2 speed motor, 1440 and 700 rpm ( high low range )

**.RC.** · 16th June 2013, 04:29 PM

Contactors are in the control box, there will be a number of them in there...

**Jon_77** · 16th June 2013, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by .RC.

Contactors are in the control box, there will be a number of them in there...

They will be the Black coloured boxes with a white button (the actual switching mechanism) in the middle. On my Victor 16x30 all the contactors are wired in yellow. Mine had some corrosion on 1 connection that I cleaned and reseated. It resolved the issues I had with forward/reverse. I suggest locating the contactor that controls the reverse and doing the same. It fixed the issue I had with mine

They are a solid lathe

All the best

Cheers
Jon

**Hunch** · 16th June 2013, 08:27 PM

Nothing to offer, do very occasionally get no forward or reverse on a bigger version, switching mains off and on resolves it - mysteriously.

If you ever get a look at where the brake return spring hooks in up top....that's something I've been putting up with for a few years, and would like to fix......one day.

**azzrock** · 16th June 2013, 11:48 PM

do you have any photos mate control gear photos even better .
the contractors may look like this. it uses a small amount of current to switch a larger load.
contactor.jpg
there should be a for and rev one at least. see the black button in the middle try pushing it in with a insulated screw driver
and see if rev run ok.
be careful its all live electricity.
aaron

**Keith_W** · 17th June 2013, 07:43 AM

Hi the fabricator,
Could be several things that are the problem here.
1. Check your selector switch for forward/reverse, it would be either a two pole cam switch or limit switch and it would have a positive feed in and the two poles going out would be one to the forward contactor and the other to the reverse contactor. There could have been a build-up of oil/dirt on the contacts or the contacts have worn to the point of where they are not giving good continuity. Solution there would be to replace the switch.
2. The forward or reversing contactors should be interlocked and check to see that the contacts are again clean and giving good continuity and that the coils are pulling in and that the contactors are ok.
3. Either before or after the forward/reverse contactors would be the either cam switch or relay/contactor arrangement for the two speed control for the motor, also check that there is good continuity here.
It’s good that you have an electrician coming over to help in checking with his meter that you have continuity and that the various components are switching correctly.
A circuit diagram would be helpful in determining your layout and help in the fault finding process.

Good luck, hope it a simple fault that is easily corrected.
Keith_W.

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