New lathe-suggestions please!

[Frank Stevens]

Well, I made a impulse decision and bought a used powermatic 45 at the local school auction the other day.
After delaying for a year and looking at my current situation as it is...I figured it would do for now and I could upgrade later. It is the darker green paint job and comes only with the tailstock and toolrest. It adjusts from 1000-6000 rpm. I believe it is a 3/4 hp.

Any thought as to what might need attention or fixing? (clutch and drive belts, headstock bearings?)
Any need to add weight or would you bolt it to the floor? Room is not a problem but I normally go for mobility in my shop.

I plan to do bowl turning and long spindle work. I thought it interesting that a guy on the net had modified a 45 to turn 12'. :eek: I'll be starting in the more modest 24"-36" range.
Does the fact that it only goes down to 1000 rpm limit me on large out board turnings? Or is the 3/4 motor more of a limiting factor? Can it be modified?

Thank you,

Frank Stevens

[Carole Valentine]

Don't know anything about the lathe, but a low speed of 1000 rpm would scare the heck out of me even on a small rough blank. I start even 6" fairly well balanced balnks out at 500 rpms.

[John Hart]

Yeah Frank...I agree with Carole. 1000 is a bit steep for bowl blanks. Is there any way you can gear it down? That would be my first course of action since 6000 will be overkill on the high end as well.

On weight...the more the better. Wish I could bolt my table to the floor but there are some blanks that would probably uproot my foundation!

[Wes Bischel]

Frank,

I don't know the particulars of your machine, but check out OWWM for some answers:

www.owwm.com

http://www.owwm.com/files/PDF/Powermatic/1966-PM45.pdf

http://www.owwm.com/files/PDF/Powermatic/1967PM45.pdf

I would think this lathe should be able to slow to the 300rpm range unless someone has messed with the motor or the VS drive assembly.

FWIW, Wes

[Clem Wixted]

If the motor is 3 phase you could get a VFD for it and have all the variable speed and torque you can get out of the motor.

Clem

[Frank Stevens]

Clem,
No it is single phase.

Carole and John, yea I thought that was awful fast. I thought 300 was recommended for some of the real big thick bowl blanks. Maybe they are just wrong with the posted auction info.

Following the link from Wes I can say it's a model 45 w/gap. 39" between centers, 12" swing over the bed and 16" swing over the gap. The gap is 4 1/2" wide. Weighs 350 pounds. They also say it's range is 350-2800 rpm. I can pick it up after New Years and I'll know more then.

My shop building used to be a Sawmill 40 years ago. It has a 3"-4" concrete slab floor maybe more. So I could anchor it down after I've played with it awhile an picked a spot for it to stay.

Wes, thank you for the link. Nice to have a copy of the owners manual.

It's pretty common lathe as far as used goes. I would think that the forum had a few tinker'ers out there who had experience with one.

Thanks everyone for your input so far.

Frank Stevens

[Jim Becker]

The speed is a problem for anything outside of spindle work...replacing the motor with a VFD controlled 3ph motor would fix that problem and you can do it relatively inexpensively if you buy surplus and/or via "that auction site", etc. 1000 rpm is way too fast for bowl and hollowforms, inboard or outboard, especially when you have an unbalanced hunk of material on the machine. Even 300 rpm is too fast for big, out of balance things...you'll walk the machine around the shop at a minumum!

[Ernie Nyvall]

Frank, this looks like a lathe I turned on in High School (2 or 3 years ago) and the marks on the speed control were just references. It started out at a much slower speed than 1000 rpms. I certainly agree with the others about not using that speed for a bowl rough out:eek: :eek:

Ernie