gloat... new lathe

[curtis rosche]

i was home this week for spring break, finally got back to my lathe and made some things. i will post pictures later. but as some of you know, its mudsale season in lancaster county. i went to the gordonville pa. mudsale today and i got a lathe for $125:eek:. it has about a six foot bed, it can turn up to 14.5 inches, and i can remount the headstock for out board work. i need a motor for it and i need a chuck and faceplate, or an adapter for the ones i currently have, but it is much heavier duty. it was made for a local woodshop out of heavy steel. it wieghs about 300lbs. i will post pictures of it as soon as my camera charges. :D

[Tony De Masi]

Nice going Curtis. Looking forward to the pics of it.

[curtis rosche]

its been so long since i have taken a picture of my work that my camera is dead. so as soon as it charges i will have some.

i need a motor for it. will i notice the difference between a 2hp and a 1.5 hp motor with since its only a 14 inch piece?

this motor
http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?item=10-2531&catname=electric

versus this motor
http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?item=10-2552&catname=electric

[Steve Schlumpf]

Curtis - Congrats on your new lathe and I am looking forward to seeing the photos! You posted links to a 1 hp and a 1.5 hp motor... in which case I would think you would see a big difference between the two on a 14" lathe.

Have fun with it! Hope you get your camera charged!

[Andrew Goar]

Hey Curtis;

Not sure if I can speak to the 1hp vs 1.5 hp question. My lathe have a 1.5hp motor on it, and I'm certainly happy with the added power.

However, I did notice another difference between the two motors you might want to consider. The blue Western Electric is a is Totally Enclosed Fan Cooled (TEFC) motor, while the other motor is not. TEFC motors have the advantage of keeping dirt/dust completely out of the motor, which really reduces wear and tear on the motor.

I recently purchased one of the Western Electric motors (a 2hp model) from the Surplus Center for my bandsaw. I was a bit concerned abut the plastic junction box, the capacitor start/run (often used on cheap motors), and the much lower price compared to the other 2hp motors I looked at. However, I can say the motor is working out fabulously. The quality of the motor was certainly better than the motor that originally came with my bandsaw. There is no doubt, that this brand is a cheaper brand, and they cut some corners (like the plastic junction box) compared to other brands. However, I was very pleasantly surprised at how good the motor was for the money.

Have fun with your new toy!

Andy

[Bernie Weishapl]

Curtis congrats on the new lathe. I would think the 1.5 hp would do just fine. I am using 1.5 on my 16" and have had not one problem.

[John Keeton]

Congrats Curtis, and I hope you are able to get it set up with a new motor soon!

[curtis rosche]

tried to post pictures but its not working. how do i make the files smaller?

[Harry Robinette]

Curtis
Can't wait to see it I love one of lathes.I started to build a bowl lathe when the LOML bought me my Vega 2600.

[Tim Thiebaut]

tried to post pictures but its not working. how do i make the files smaller?

Curtis, I use IRFanView, go here...
http://www.irfanview.com/

Once there go to DownLoads and download it to your hard drive and install it, once installed run the program...

Open you picture in the program and once its open hold down on CTRL and hit R...that will bring up a resizeing window, you should be ok if you pick 1024x768 then click OK, save it and it should now be approx 90 kb....far smaller then original. You should now be able to upload it here with no problems. If you have any problems let me know, Tim

[Salvatore Buscemi]

Since you are buying a motor, why not go with a 3-phase and a vfd to give you better speed control?

Sal

[curtis rosche]

Since you are buying a motor, why not go with a 3-phase and a vfd to give you better speed control?

Sal

its cheaper to go with just a single phase motor. i dont have alot of money to spend. unless you know where i can get a motor and a vfd for less than $100

[Salvatore Buscemi]

its cheaper to go with just a single phase motor. i dont have alot of money to spend. unless you know where i can get a motor and a vfd for less than $100

No, not less than 100. Probably more like 200-300 for a decent motor/vfd combo.

Sal