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Delta/Milwaukee 1460 lathe

M

M Toupin

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Well here's part two...

1950 Delta/Milwaukee model 1460 heavy duty lathe. This is the lathe part of the $100 purchase my dad and I found. It was also in great shape, though it didn't have a motor or a stand. We sandblasted it at the same time we did the WT BS and just slowly started collecting parts. We know we wanted variable speed and figured a VFD would be just the ticket. I found a NOS Marathon 2ph 3ph 1800rpm motor for $20. It was in the box and had never been installed! A check with Marathon found it was built in 1971 so it's old iron too:) . Factorymation recently reduced the price on the FM50 VFDs so I picked one up a few months ago. All we needed now was a set of legs. We wanted the original cast iron ones, but their hard to come by, especially at a reasonable price. Well, luck would have it, I found a set of original cast iron legs for a good price on Craig's list right up the road. At that point I had everything in hand except the boards. With a bit of detective work I found the original specs for the boards which were originally pine. Pine just seemed cheap, so I picked up some ash and built the boards, even got a bit of curl in them:D .

We made a box with a small 220v fan and filtering for the VFD to keep the cool and the dust out. The door is Plexiglas so I can keep an eye on it. The control stalk is just a 6"X6" box and the controls all mount within, main power for the VFD and a indicator light so I know when the power is on, forward/stop/reverse and a potentiometer to control the speed. The wiring was straight forward, just took it slow. Everything works great and the 2hp has so much torque on the low speed pulley setting it ain't funny.

My dad and I are both in 1 car garages so a mobile base is mandatory. The base is a Northern Tool 1200lb model. The base originally came with short spreaders though. We picked up some 1 1/4" square tubing and stretched it :) . Everything from the base up works great! Threw a 10" piece of wet maple on it and had a ball making shavings today. The power is awesome and the 0-full throttle speed control is the ticket! The only thing left is to get this stupid grin off my face:D :D:D :D :D

Mike
 

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Don,

Actually you helped out a bit on this one:). Back in July you posted a tutorial on VFDs on the creek and we exchanged a couple of PMs. Your info is what got me going down the VFD/3ph trail. Worked out great just as you said!

3 phase via a VFD opens up so many new doors. Like most folks I shyed away from 3ph, but now that I know how simple and inexpensive VFDs are I'll be looking at 3ph machines in a whole new light. 3ph machines can generally be picked up for pennies on the dollar and the option of easy variable speed is SO nice! That and a basic VFD can generally be had for less than a new 1ph motor makes it all that more attractive.

Mike
 
Nice resto job. Mike. Two horses with that kind of low-end torque sounds like it'd be a lot of fun. Well done.
 
Don,

A question for you, I've been told VFDs are sensitive to dust and vibration. Just how sensitive to vibration and dust are they?

I mounted both the VFD to the box and the box to the bottom of shelf with rubber isolation bushings. Also, I installed a 60cfm fan to keep it cool. The bottom of the box is a filer, the decent quality heat/ac type which I cut down to fit. The output also has a cheap filter just to keep the big chunks out. I figured I really didn't need to worry about dust coming in the output end though.

Am I asking for problems or do you think I've got it covered sufficiently? If so do you have any recommendations?

Mike
 
Nice looking setup. Wonder what the neighbors think when they see you in the driveway turning a bowl. I bet you will get some curious people come by. Maybe even spread an epidemic in your area.
 
Thanks Don, I feel a bit better about the compromise now. A separate mounting would be ideal but the mobile requirement lead to this arrangement.

The neighbors don't pay much attention anymore, they have sort of got used to the the driveway shop:D. They're pretty accepting of the mobile cabinet saw, 8" jointer, planner, lathe. I try and keep the real noise makers to reasonable hours and durations:). I occasionally feel a bit guilty about the chainsaw when I have to cut up a bunch of blanks, but all in all I've got some pretty understanding neighbors. That and throwing them a small shop made gift every now and then helps!

Frank - I'm in no way a VFD expert, this is my first one, but I'll try and explain it a bit. A Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) is the little tan colored box you see inside the wooden enclosure. In simplistic terms it converts single phase electrical input (found in most residential homes) into 3 phase output. In my case I used 220v single phase to power the VFD which in turn powers the 3 phase 2hp motor. 3 phase has a few up sides in that variable speed control and reversing are much simpler than single phase. Most VFDs also do much more than just convert phases, all but the very cheapest versions allow external control stations like the one I have on the lathe. Another great part is that most allow you to set the various parameters to control things like how long it takes the motor to come up to full speed, kinda like soft start, I have the lathe set to come up to full speed in 3 sec. Thats nice in that I can see how a really out of balance blank is going to behave and shut it down or slow it down if it gets a bit jumpy. Most also have some sort of breaking function to slow the motor down faster than it would normally cost to a stop. I set mine to 2 sec which doesn't seem like much but when your turning the lathe on and off a lot to check things the time adds up. Just another of the "jeez that's nice" things:). Some VFDs also have a torque compensation parameter, one drawback of slowing down the motor is a loss of torque. The VFD can compensate to some extent for this also. Most VFDs also have a slew of other parameters you can set, but it's more Dependant on the model and brand. The prices on VFDs are dropping like a rock now days. It's often much cheaper to put a VFD on a 3ph machine than to convert to a single phase motor even if all you do is use it for power and forgo all the neat stuff like reversing and speed control.

Mike
 
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