Jet 16-42 EVS Lathe Inverter

[Russell Neyman]

One of my students purchased a lightly-used Jet 1642 EVS lathe, and it works fine, but there's something whirring -- a fan? -- in the inverter unit. It's continuous, even when the lathe is off but still plugged in. Other lathes of that type don't do that. Where do we start troubleshooting?

[Dick Strauss]

The original b-type vfd may have been replaced by a delta s-type vfd. There is no setting to turn off the fan for the s-type afaik.

The other model to replace the deltas on the jet/pm lathes was an m-type iirc that was twice the price of the s-type when I checked for a friend with a pm 3520A quite a few years ago.

[John K Jordan]

One of my students purchased a lightly-used Jet 1642 EVS lathe, and it works fine, but there's something whirring -- a fan? -- in the inverter unit. It's continuous, even when the lathe is off but still plugged in. Other lathes of that type don't do that. Where do we start troubleshooting?

Maybe be thankful it has the fan? Jet/Powermatic evidently omitted the fan in the Delta S VFDs, at least none of the three Jet/PM lathes I have included the fan. Some suspect this is the reason some of the VFDs have failed. (A fan can be added.) The VFD on one of my Jet 1642s failed and I replaced it with a 3rd party VFD which has a fan.

JKJ

[Russell Neyman]

Should the fan shut off? My buddy is simply unplugging the lathe after every use, but I wonder.

[John K Jordan]

Should the fan shut off? My buddy is simply unplugging the lathe after every use, but I wonder.

I have no idea since none of mine have a fan. Maybe ask Jet or Delta Electronics. The 3rd party VFD I use on one 1642 has a fan that only comes on when needed. The fans on some electronic equipment stay on all the time - my tower computers and data storage boxes were like that. The only problem (other than the sound if you find that annoying) is the occasional need to blow dust out.

Unplugging is not a bad idea anyway - gives protection from line voltage surges and lightning. I don't unplug but I switch the power off.

JKJ

[Mike Turner]

I have a Jet 1642 I purchased about 6 yrs ago.When did they stop putting the fans in them? I havent had any trouble at all with mine. I do unplug mine because of power surges and lightning.I was raised in older home and lightning would run in on stuff so it is hard to not be concerned about .Sometimes I may be a little on the extreme side of being concerned or cautious lol.

[John K Jordan]

Mike, You can probably answer Russell's question then - does the fan on the 1642 run all the time or does it shut off after a while?

As for the lack of the fan, perhaps it's a matter of when did they START putting fans in them! I bought my first 1642 new maybe 17-18 years ago and it had no fan. I bought the second 1642 and the PM3520b used so I don't know the ages, but neither have fans. I know one guy who investigated this and Delta Electronics said the VFDs normally come with fans unless the buyer specifies otherwise so Jet/PM must have ordered them specifically without fans. Maybe to save $3?

A number of people with both machines have had VFDs fail after a decade or so. One guy I talked to suspected it might be the missing cooling fan.

JKJ

I have a Jet 1642 I purchased about 6 yrs ago.When did they stop putting the fans in them? I havent had any trouble at all with mine. I do unplug mine because of power surges and lightning.I was raised in older home and lightning would run in on stuff so it is hard to not be concerned about .Sometimes I may be a little on the extreme side of being concerned or cautious lol.

[Dan Bevilacqua]

I have the newer version of the Jet 1642, the 1640EVS. The Delta inverter on my 1640 does have a fan that only comes when a set temperature has been reached. I was concerned when I first heard the fan, so I did a little research. The fan appears to only come on in the warm summer months when I am using the high speed pulley at a low speed for something like sanding for some period of time. I leave it plugged in until the fan shuts off, and then unplug as I always do. It has not come on at all in the cooler months, despite using it at slower speed on the high pulley.

Despite my limited knowledge concerning electronics, my research came up with this particular inverter having different settings for the fan. There are 4 settings that I found for the "E" series inverters ". According to a on-line manual on "E" series inverters (Galco website), there are different settings for when the fan goes on and off. One setting will turn on the fan at a certain temperature and then turn it off once a lower temperature is reached. Another setting has the fan on when the motor power is on".

Russell, you may want to search online to see if you can find the manual for the inverter on your student's lathe to see whether the available settings include the what the fan is doing on that inverter.

[Don Orr]

My Jet 1642 has a Delta VFD and has never had a fan that I know of. It's over 15 yrs old though.

[Bill Dufour]

I run three VFD's in my home shop. They all run the fan all the time. These are from 1-3 HP, all single phase input. None of them are name brand units.
I think you could install a fan with a thermister to turn it on only when heat reaches a certain point.
Bill D

[Dennis Ford]

I also have multiple VFDs. Some run the fan all the time and some newer ones have the option to run the fan all the time or only when the temperature reaches a set point. It is not something that I would worry about. The fan noise is a good reminder to unplug the lathe (to protect the electronics from voltage spikes).