Line shaft motor.

Seeings how Jim and Hugh were over to help load the last of the sander I suggested we make a start on getting the line shift up and running.
We jury wired up the motor as my bro had disconnected it when he rewired the shed about 25 years ago.
I'd remembered we'd test run it but had forgotten about the rest.
It was connected with old fabric cable in steel conduit.
Disconnected but about 20 feet of conduit to get off the top wall tie.
I did this and then we put modern cable and a plug out of the on/off switch.
It ran ok but noisy so we unbolted the motor and lowered it to the floor off its cradle.
Basically stripped, very dusty, ball race dry, roller bearing RS.
loverly old 2hp Oz made motor check out the cast wiring diagram on the inside of the connections cover.
Hugh's ordered a new roller so I'd better check out the line shaft bearings.
We took the belt off the shaft pulley as there is so much acumulated dust on everything.
Might have a morticer up and running before Xmas at this rate.
H.

Love to see your little top mounted fret saw going on one of those belts Henry.
looking forward to seeing more progress, looks like fun.

Melbourne Matty.

Love the motor, very tidy the way the windings are done

Hugh bought a new bearing from Melbourne and the motor is now back together and very quiet.
I pulled the end Hoffman hanger and bearing housing down after poking around and finding dried up grease in the line shaft bearings.
Stripped it down and now slowly washing/dissolving the grease in thinners.
Whilst I was so dirty from the fallout dust in the shaft and pulleys I decided to remove one of the wooden pulleys.
Also removed one of the big metal pulleys.
The shaft is supported by 3 Hoffman bearings and 2 split plain? bearings.
We will have to support the shaft by rope and slip all the bearing off.
Maybe the split ones will be easier? I will find out after lunch I am so dusty now I might as well keep at it.
Good to have another set of hands and brain to get this gear down.
So far nothing is butchered and it was well built originally, the Hoffman hanger was attached by bolts that were threaded into the top plate. This is the sort of stuff my father did before the war.
He worked for Buzzacotts and went around the country installing their shearing sets etc.
H.

The SKF double row ball race was easier to get down and much easier to clean.
Removed the centre Hoffman as well and these bearing are a real pain to clean thoroughly.
From PVC plumbing fittings I made up a gadget to hold the bearing and spin on the lathe.
Seemed to work ok until I realised the thinners melted the PVC.
Tried boiling in dishwasher powder but no great success.
So the old mate says ' Boil it in Kero '.:rolleyes:
WARNING DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME !!?:o:o:o:o:o:C
Set up the Primus camp cooker on the driveway and placed the bearing in the stainless mug with lid attached.
Lit it up and after telling Hugh and Jim went in the house to make a coffee.
The kero boiled and fumed and the fumes lit up as they escaped the lid.
Sure works well for cleaning bearings we even put the other on in the hot Kero and got the last of the ancient grease off it.
After the excitement died down I cleaned all the housings and Hugh re packed the 3 bearings.
I have got the centre Hoffman back up and the SKF in position.
We decided we needed some mice to keep the shaft clean and having no large pipe cut the spigot off some old Vanguard wet sleeves. We had trouble parting this on the lathe so cut up an old pressure bottle.
This wasn't much better so I have used the Forte bandsaw at the MS and cut more spigot material.
Faced this this arvo so should get this half together tomorrow and the remaining Hoffman and SKF housings stripped.
H.
I tried to put up too many pics and now it won't let me post any, so will put some up in a following post.

I'll try those photos again.
Thats Hugh up the ladder.
As these are all big and expensive bearings I've put a lot of effort in cleaning them before running them.
After making a slew of mice I'm not sure how well they'll run so will be trying a few on a suitable piece of shafting on the lathe.:no:
H.

No probs with the mice but that rat has me worried.
H.

I have used petrol as a last resort for cleaning really old grease. Works a treat

I'm told piston rings make good shaft mice.


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A tip for repacking bearings the clean easy way. Get a strong plastic bag and put the required amount of grease in it, you can do this by putting your hand in the bag and scooping the grease out of the tin then turning the bag inside out. Drop the bearing in the bag and twist the bag to confine the bearing in the grease, now pressing and working the bag the grease will go into the bearing.

We finally have got back to the line shaft.
I bolted the motor down and put the steel pulleys back on the shaft.
Tempory plug from the motor and gave it a test run.
All went smoothly except the big rat runs over all the mice.
The wide wooden pulley on the shaft was falling apart so I removed the belt from it to the fast and loose pulleys with the 3 step pulley over where the old metal lathe was.
The idea is to get the mortiser up and running and to this end a countershaft with fast and loose pulleys would make life easier.
Anyone out there have one they don't need?
My son took a video of it running so I'll see if I can upload it here.
H.
:no: No luck with uploading the video, Hugh says he can do it thru utube after Easter.

Youtube link for video test run.

Hugh

https://youtu.be/xNvbM-jaQqY

I dug out some 2" belting and Hugh put a join in it.
We have now got the mortiser operational but there is a lot of sideways play in the chisel.
We are now looking at using thrust bearings to remove the slop.
H.