Motor Question

Cue Crazy

Cue Crazy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I am kind of in a bind, My switch blew out tonight, spit flames out of the switch, and left the smell of the 4th of July lingering in My shop. After taking a look, It turns out I blew one of the terminals off the toggle, and the wires are smoked up pretty good, so. I'm in a bind with a build that is in the final stages and promised delivery in a couple of days. I really don't have the time to go through the motor and wiring right now and completely evaluate the damage, much less wait for a switch in the mail. I do however have a 90v Sherline motor on hand with reverse and a variable pot. I figure that I could mill out a mounting bracket for It in a hour or 2. It has a smaller pulley, but It does fit My lathe belt, and the motor has a lot of torque for it's size. What I'm not sure about is if My deluxe headstock with dual chucks will put too much of a load on the motor. I know some people have used the Penn State motors, but they look like they are larger. My old motor has seen more hours then I can log, and was finally starting to get weak anyhow, and I need to get a new motor, but I'm wondering if the Sherline will get me by until I can do that.

Has anyone ever mounted one of these to a deluxe? Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated, Like I mentioned I'm kind of in a bind. The guy is a friend, and I'm sure he would understand, but he was really excited when I mentioned that his cue is almost done, He has saved up the money to Pay for the cue, and I would like to keep My word and deliver on time. The cue just needs some minor punch out work to be finished.

Thanks Greg
 
Cue Crazy said:
I am kind of in a bind, My switch blew out tonight, spit flames out of the switch, and left the smell of the 4th of July lingering in My shop. After taking a look, It turns out I blew one of the terminals off the toggle, and the wires are smoked up pretty good, so. I'm in a bind with a build that is in the final stages and promised delivery in a couple of days. I really don't have the time to go through the motor and wiring right now and completely evaluate the damage, much less wait for a switch in the mail. I do however have a 90v Sherline motor on hand with reverse and a variable pot. I figure that I could mill out a mounting bracket for It in a hour or 2. It has a smaller pulley, but It does fit My lathe belt, and the motor has a lot of torque for it's size. What I'm not sure about is if My deluxe headstock with dual chucks will put too much of a load on the motor. I know some people have used the Penn State motors, but they look like they are larger. My old motor has seen more hours then I can log, and was finally starting to get weak anyhow, and I need to get a new motor, but I'm wondering if the Sherline will get me by until I can do that.

Has anyone ever mounted one of these to a deluxe? Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated, Like I mentioned I'm kind of in a bind. The guy is a friend, and I'm sure he would understand, but he was really excited when I mentioned that his cue is almost done, He has saved up the money to Pay for the cue, and I would like to keep My word and deliver on time. The cue just needs some minor punch out work to be finished.

Thanks Greg
Click to expand...


If it where me, I would just wire the old motor up direct. It sounds like you are going to replace it anyways. This motor should be an AC motor. My guess is, Chris is just switching between two wires to the motor for forward and reverse and there is a common. Just wire a plug up to the motor directly. Now adviously if the motor is bad this will not work. If the motor will still run then this is the easiest way.

Jim.
 
You can buy the switch from Grainger and it will get to you in 1-2 days. I used to keep a couple on hand because those switches don't last forever.

Now I have a heavy duty light switch installed instead. Easier to change than those 9 wires you can't get to and it should last a lot longer.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, can use all I can get. Right now I need to do something quickly on the cheap just to finish the cue, and I guess I will take the money from the cue to upgrade the motor. I thought I may order that penn state setup for $99, even that or I have an old buddy whose Southwest I do work on that rewinds motors for a living, and thought I may ask him If he can set something up for Me, although I would rather not bother him by calling in the favor, but it is another option.

I have already replaced the switch Once before, and it lasted for a while. I read a post where Chris said He has since changed the switch, and jumpers to have a separate switch for on and off, and that It will burn first making It easier to find locally. The heavy duty light switch is a good idea and had crossed My mind, but I loose reverse with that, and I'm not sure that I am ready to scrap the wiring yet, but it is a last resort. It smoked the terminals up pretty good so it may turn out that I will have to anyway. I was using reverse when It happened, although This time It was from a cold start, not from throwing It in reverse too soon. last time the switch went out, I got dust down in It from not being booted, this time that was not the case, and I had shrink wrap over it to keep the dust out. The motor was still running even with flames coming out the enclosure, until the terminal blew off I suppose, I had paper towels piled all around It when this happened so My first instinct was to get them away from the flames. By the time I did that the motor had stopped and I unplugged It. The last time It blew, it did not flame up like this or blow a terminal off, It just sparked and gutted the internal contacts.

The Sherline motor I have is the same that Porper uses on some lathes, It seems to have more torque then the blower motor that is on the lathe now, so I'm not worried about that, It will turn the lathe, and I don't think I could stop it, but I do plan on using that motor with a standard taig headstock that I have down the road, and don't want to blow a $300 motor if the deluxe will put too much load on It. Milling a bracket would be a piece of cake though.

Another option I may have is I have a couple of wood lathe motors, and a blower motor, but they use standard fan belts, and I have not checked yet to see if a quick pulley swap is a quick option or not.

I have not run down to home depot yet to see what they have locally but I went online, and this was the closest thing I saw http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 it looks Like it may be shy a couple of terminals compared to the carling switch on there now.

Which brings up the question, I know the current switch is 15a at 125vac, but is the switch a double pull double throw or double pull single throw that I'm looking for? I may have some other options around town to call, but which one should I be looking for? is It just a on off on, and the jumpers reverse the motor on one side. I have built DC controllers, and usually you just reverse the polarity on one side to reverse the motor, but something tells me not to do that with AC. I'm pretty good at figuring things out with the right information, and for example I can wire a 220 breaker, hot water heater, etc, most basic home electrical, But really have not fooled with wiring ac motors with jumpers and such. I know I could do a ton of searches and probably find the info I need, but I am really pressed for time need to have the cue ready for league tomorrow night, so I need to get some kind of motor going today, so that I can work through the night to finish the cue. I was behind schedule to begin with, and don't want to have to tell him that it will be another week. After the cue is finished I can work on a more permanent solution.

I don't know maybe I'll just go down to home depot, get a heavy duty light switch for a temporary fix, and try to figure out how to rewire the thing, but I'm afraid of loosing track of the current wiring. There are a lot of contacts wired up to the switch the way It is now.
 
Mighnt want to call Chris and see if he can detail you a way to hot wire it in one direction for now.
Good luck,
Dave.
 
Dave38 said:
Mighnt want to call Chris and see if he can detail you a way to hot wire it in one direction for now.
Good luck,
Dave.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice Dave. When in deep thought over this earlier, I was wondering to Myself if It was possible to jump some wires at the switch to get by with temporarily. Chris is real good to deal with, and I know he would go out of his way to either help me or ship a switch out ASAP for Me, I'm just so pressed for time unfortunately.

I should say that The price of a switch is small compared to the amount of revenue the lathe has generated since I last replaced It, My reasoning for buying another motor isn't due to this, or any idea that the motor isn't sufficient in anyway, just that the motor has served it's lifespan, and I'd like to get a variable setup for It when I replace It.

I checked out My wood lathe motors, and the spindles are larger so I could not switch pulleys on those. I just said screw It, for the heck of it pulled the motor off the lathe, hooked the belt up to the Sherline motor up to the belt and just held It in place while powering it on, and even at low speed there was no drag at all, It turns the headstock very easily, seems to take no real load at all, and stayed cool to the touch, so I'm gonna go ahead and mill a bracket out this evening, and see if It will get me by until I can finish the cue. I'll just try not to put too much of a load on it or run it for too long at a time. all the heavy machining is done on the cue, I just need to do some touch up on the finish, and put a ferrule on It. After that I'll see about a motor upgrade. I may end up needing some help getting the new motor to reverse if I go with a Penn State setup, but still need to weigh My options after wards to decide what motor I will upgrade to.

Anyway thanks for the the help Gentlemen.:wink:
 
Just a update, but I milled a bracket for the motor, mounted It, and It works great, been using It for over a week, It handles the load and stays cool over prolonged use. Pretty impressive for such a small motor. I still plan on using It on another smaller tip & ferrule lathe though, so I will be changing It out with a larger variable speed Dc motor, but It worked, and got me by for what I needed at the time.

Greg
 
Knowing how to wire things (basic electricity) comes in handy.

Wire the motor direct for now with wirenuts (get them at LOWE'S)
The only time I change directions is when doing a linen wrap.
If it runs backwards reverse the wires.

The switch contacts were faulty and arced.
Lot of current to the motor so you need heavy duty contacts.
Current rating is all you need to know about a switch.
I would go for something rated for 20 amps at least.
 
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