Delta 46-460 gets hot?

[Alan Tolchinsky]

I was just wondering if this is normal? My 46-460 gets warm around the outboard bearing and the hand wheel. The handwheel actually gets pretty warm as well as the cast iron surrounding the outboard bearing. This happens even when I don't use the tail stock thus eliminating that as a possibility. Anybody have this happen? Otherwise the lathe runs very quietly and I have no problems with it. It's probably one of the nicest tools I've ever owned. Thanks Alan

[John Keeton]

Alan, there were some comments and a thread or two about this a couple of months ago, I believe. Most commented it resolved after a while, and probably was just tight tolerances. I don't recall anyone having a long term problem from it.

Mine has not gotten anything past just warm - nothing I would consider unusual. I have had some intermittent issues with the switch. I took off the cover and blew the dust out, and it seems to have resolved.

There have been some complaints about the speed control, too, and Delta has replace a few of them quickly.

[Wally Dickerman]

You say that the handwheel gets warm? I assume that's not HOT. I've had more than one lathe that had bearings that got more than just warm. I was told by John Nichols who custom made one of my past lathes, that if you can lay your hand on the metal around the bearing for up to 10 seconds without it being too uncomfortable, then it was okay.

At high speeds (3000 rpm or more) the inboard bearing on my Oneway gets too hot to lay my hand over the bearing. Kevin Clay at Oneway said that 150 deg. is not unusual and does no harm. You don't want to lay your hand on 150 deg. He said that it would eventually cool down but so far in 3 years and a lot of turning, it hasn't. I've discussed this with other Oneway owners and have found that it's not uncommon.

How hot do you suppose the wheel bearings on your car get at 75 mph? (The legal highway speed in Az.)

Wally

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Thanks John and Wally. Yes, it's only warm to the touch and I could leave my hand on it indefinitely if I wanted to. So it's not blazing hot but I just wonder why the inboard bearing is barely warm. Doesn't add up to me but not causing a problem so...

[Steve Mawson]

Mine only got warm once when it was new. I have had the spindle out of the headstock once and when I replaced there is a nut by the hand wheel that needs to be tightened. Perhaps yours might have been a little overtightened. However like the others have said a little warm is probably not much of a problem. It is fairly easy to adjust that nut by the hand wheel so you might give that a go.

[Alan Tolchinsky]

I'll have to look at my manual to see where that nut is.