For those more knowledgeable in electricity than me...

Chuck Ellis

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Tellico Plains, Tennessee
I have a Jet 1442 with the Reeves speed control system that has/is giving me trouble... I've pulled the spindle and replaced it, replaced the moving pulleys on the spindle, replaced all the bearings, replaced the harp that slides along the spindle and reset the worm drive that slides the harp along the spindle to change the speed... some how, I didn't get the worm gear set in the right position as my speed indicator is off by two notches... I can live with that, but a I'm getting a lot of noise that sounds like bearings rattling and having difficulty with the harp sliding off the bearing... I've put locktite on it and that helps, but it's getting annoying...

my thoughts are that if I have a couple of good Saturdays this summer, I may replace the 1442 Reeves set up with a slightly bigger lathe with EVS. I know Jet has the 1642 that's 110/115 electrical with a 1.5 hp motor... their 2 hp is 220V. And looking at the Grizzly line of EVS lathes, they all appear to be 220V.... I like the fact that the Grizzly units are less expensive than the JET, but I do like the JET... my friend has one that I've used and I am impressed with it...

I have a 5 breaker panel in my shop, 20 am breakers in all of them. All of them are in use. 1 breaker for the lights, one for the DC in the outside shed, and the other 3 for the four walls where I have a plug every other stud.... they're divided so that I don't have heavy machinery all plugged into the same circuit... the back wall is one circuit, the end walls and one plug on the front are on separate circuits.

What would I need to do to create a 220V circuit in my shop? Would I have to run new line for the 220 or can the breaker box be adapted? My electrical line is underground from the house to the shop, buried in gray conduit about 18" deep.

I will have to have an electrician do the actual work... I have a healthy respect for electricity and not all that much knowledge.
 
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You will need a larger breaker box to accommodate a 220V breaker. Or you will need to combine some circuits. Or you may be able to get piggybacked breakers to create space in the box. All this depends on the feed wire to the box. The 220V Jet requires a 20 amp 220V breaker which requires two slots in your box. Talk to your sparky.
 
You don't mention if you have 220 in the box or not.

If you do - it might be possible to install a couple of smaller breakers to make room for the 220 breaker.

If you do not have 220 in the box you will need a 220 feed installed.
 
A few questions.

What size and type of breaker you have feeding the shop?

Can you see what size of wire is feeding the shop?

Can you get the part number for the panel in the shop?

How much are the three outlets around the edge of the shop used (and for what?).

How many lights and of what type(s) do you have on the lighting circuit?
 
Depending on the amperage of the breaker feeding the box in your shop, and of course the gauge of the wire as well as the distance it is going has a lot to do with it all. You can always put a heavier breaker set in the main box as long as the wire is 10-8 gauge. 8 is preferable. For safety reasons on feed lines I always go one beyond code requirements. Then put a larger box in your shop and you can create a 220 circuit, which is simply 2 110's combined. The size of the wire feeding into your shop dictates the resistance therefore how much amperage you are actually getting. An electrician will be able to take care of all of that for you. Should actually be a rather low cost job. If you were right around here I'd do it for you in about an hour or so including hooking all your previous wires to the new box and tell you to have good fun with a labor expense of a nice brisket dinner. I have always done all of my own wiring. One of those things I learned as a teenage as well as some plumbing.
 
Not much to add but can you provide a picture of the box with the breakers with the cover off that may allow some of us to better understand what you already have so we can offer better advice.
The fact that you say you have a 5 breaker panel indicate to me that you may have some spare room in the box since most panels have an even number of breakers.
 
A few questions.

What size and type of breaker you have feeding the shop?Where would I find this info...in the main breaker box off the house circuit?? We have a breaker box on a pole behind the house and the line feeds off that... I'll take a look tomorrow when I'm back outside.

Can you see what size of wire is feeding the shop?Again, I'll look in the big breaker box and see if I can tell what size wire was used... I had the wire installed by an electrician, but he's not around any longer... think he went back to Rhode island... What gauge should I be looking at??

Can you get the part number for the panel in the shop?I'll look at that tomorrow when I'm back in the shop... we've been out all afternoon and just got home and got into my lounge clothes for the evening... will get back tomorrow.

How much are the three outlets around the edge of the shop used (and for what?).On the back wall of the shop which is all one circuit, I have my compressor, band saw, table saw, drill press, belt sander, my slow speed grinder, my little lathe and one of those Rockler upside down saber saws that are plugged into the plugs along this wall... none of these are run simultaneous, except the compressor (a small 6 or 10 gallon oil less) is on whenever I'm in the shop...the tools are used intermittently and never all or more than one at a time. --- On one end of the shop where I have work station, I have a microwave, a small tube light and a small desk fan that runs occasionally... the light is turned on as soon as I get into the shop... microwave is used on occasion to dry wood, not often... there is a spare plug here that I use when working at the bench ... I plug battery charger or a hand tool in for short uses. --- the other end of the shop has the big lathe, the light over the lathe, my high speed grinder, an electric sander that I use to power sand on the lathe and my shop vacuum.... the lathe, light and sander get used most simultaneously, but are usually turned off when I use the shop vac.

How many lights and of what type(s) do you have on the lighting circuit?
The lights are all fluorescents hanging from the ceiling.. currently there are 4, but need to add two more for better light... there used to be 5, but a flying bowl took out one and I haven't replaced it yet.
 
You should be able to see the breaker size on the breaker box on the pole, depending on what that is makes the wire size more or less interesting :)

With the breaker box being on the pole you might have better luck seeing the gauge of the wire from the box in the shop. You may have to pull the front off of the box to see it, don't worry if you're not comfortable doing that, odds better than 50% are the breaker is as large as the wire supports so if we know that we're most of the way there.
 
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Appreciate all the info I got on this thread and was supposed to look up some stuff today so we could continue the discussion... but I spent the day doing yard work and when finished too beat to go out to the shop.... I have to go over the mountain tomorrow morning with LOML to pick up a table she found, so probably will be Saturday before I can look up the wire gauge and breaker box part number. Thanks for you advice.
 
What would I need to do to create a 220V circuit in my shop?

With my knowledge of elektrikity, :rofl: you must do exactly as I did. Call a friend who knows about this stuff and let him do it. Works every time.;)
Couple thoughts, the Jet and Grizzly products (often) come off the same assembly line in Tiawan. As happy as I am with my Grizzly EVS lathe, you may not need to dump the Reeves model. My Reeves drive Grizzly served me well for six years. I sold it to a professional turner for what I paid for it and he wrote me two hand written letters thanking me for selling it to him. Point is, not fancy, but a Reeves drive will work just fine. That said, if you want the nice EVS, go for it. Wanting is the best reason ever for a guy to spend money. Same with fishing boats, pick up trucks, guns, etc.
 
With my knowledge of elektrikity, :rofl: you must do exactly as I did. Call a friend who knows about this stuff and let him do it. Works every time.;)
Couple thoughts, the Jet and Grizzly products (often) come off the same assembly line in Tiawan. As happy as I am with my Grizzly EVS lathe, you may not need to dump the Reeves model. My Reeves drive Grizzly served me well for six years. I sold it to a professional turner for what I paid for it and he wrote me two hand written letters thanking me for selling it to him. Point is, not fancy, but a Reeves drive will work just fine. That said, if you want the nice EVS, go for it. Wanting is the best reason ever for a guy to spend money. Same with fishing boats, pick up trucks, guns, etc.

Frank,
I've had the Jet 1442 or 8 or 9 years now and it has done me well... it still works fine, but I have had a couple of problems with it... nothing insurmountable and I've learned to tear it down and put it back together in a fairly short amount of time.... and I probably won't upgrade anytime soon as I'm not sure I want to spend the extra money for the 220V and expense of the EVS lathe... I've got the shift lever out of alignment on the speed and haven't been able to get it back correctly... not a real problem, I just know that if the lever reads 850, I'm actually turning at 450... probably need to take it back to an authorized dealer and let them re-set the worm drive on the lever and get it back to right place... or I could play with it some more and try to fix it myself... another factor against the upgrade, I'm getting of an age where the art shows and craft markets are getting to be harder and harder.... not sure how much longer I will do them... so I don't need a high dollar lathe sitting idle in the shop.
All this was speculation and if I have to run another wire to the shop, I know I'm not digging another 90 foot ditch to bury the wire, especially since I'll be digging through a 90 foot gravel path now as I've laid gravel along the same path as the wire runs.
I'll still look up the information asked for just for ducks.
 
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