Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

Safety, probably wore out and the handles will turn themselves on. The one with the string and the weight should be what turns on the lathe.

Either that or its a safety so you have to hold it on.

 

I’d check the contacts in the starter and check the heaters if it has them. If you hear a loud click it means the coil is working but the contacts could be shot so the motor won’t go. There should be a neutral position on the lathe so you and spin the motor pulley and see if the motor is bound up as well

 

@BananaMan , has the capability to fix all that stuff though. Be nice to find the original manual. I think a spring/ball detent possibly keeps that handle up to run. It looks like it's upwards enough it should be running. Regardless that is a easy fix and should be addressed. I took some pictures of maintenance on little blondie I did today.
Quick change box way low on oil.

 

Some pictures of maintenance talking about earlier.

 

I tried that and nearly every lever combination I could before we got too busy to mess with it.

 

This is called the lead screw and is what you will use when threading. This piece on the end will slide in/out to engage/disengage

 

Middle photo above are the feed levers. The lever on left is longitudinal then pull out and operate for cross feed. The levers to turn the spindle on (like one with string on it) I believe are taper pins, may be wallered out or rigged with something else sloppy.
The lever on the right (looks like one bungee cord on yours) is for engaging to the screw when threading.

 

This is the sight glass for the quick change gear box. I topped it off today. Finger by fill plug. I replaced the sight glasses a couple years ago. Hate to admit but I was so miserable working with dipshit, that I stayed as far from the shop as possible and let much stuff go, my give a care was a little broke.

 

Depending if it has overloads on the contactor those may be burnt/dead/need to be reset.

 

And I know very little about the electrical portion of it, but if there were a couple of large fuses in there, could one be bad? I mean where you could hear contact but not the run mode?

 

Fuses are usually upstream from the contactor but it is possible that they are blown and that you would still have power to the coil. Although @BananaMan did mention that he verified 480V coming in.

 

Controls generally aren't 480, there will be a small step down transformer for control power. Prepackaged machines like this lathe usually are wired this way. Alternately some machines have a second power source for the controls alone.

If the click of the contactor occurs every time the start/stop buttons are pushed it sounds like the 480 isn't available but the control voltage is. If it was a safety switch the contactor wouldn't be allowed to click.

 

He did say he verified 480v was present I believe

 

"At the wall" he said. So at the local disconnect, this opens up other questions.

Fuses? A thermal on the contactor?
One blown fuse will trip the thermals on the starter, power for the controls is usually pulled from the top of the starter.
Need to do a bit more investigating.

 

Unless there’s a fuse in the line between the wall and the start button I’d assume there is the same voltage at the starter, depends on who wired it I guess. I usually wire the disconnect and starter next to each other for this exact reason. The coil power being pulled from the line side of the starter really depends on the voltage of the coil. Also, there needs to be thermal protection for the motor, not the starter, so I guess I’d look at the motor as well. If someone swapped the motor on the lathe out, it could have a thermal reset on the motor itself, and the heaters in the starter could be bypassed, or not present at all. Tough to say on old equipment.
Bottom line is it’s tough to diagnose something we aren’t looking at.

 

Agree, tough when you can't put a meter on it. Also with an older machine there is no telling who has modded what over the years.

When I said starter and thermal I was referring to the motor starter assembly - a contactor and thermal overload unit.
The job of the starter assembly is motor protection.

I can't remember encountering a 3 phase motor with a click type thermal protector located on the motor, not to say they aren't out there.

Generally industrial machines come completely wired from the manufacturer, there will be a local disconnect installed within sight of the machine (on the wall, etc). The disconnect may be fused or not, sometimes depending on what was handy for the installer rather than what was correct. Run your 4 wires to the manufacturer provided junction, check rotation and off you go.

The control side should have a fuse protecting the transformer if used and also one on the low voltage side.

 

Everything went good, was knocked out by 8:30, awake by 9:15, didn’t feel a thing and have to go back in 10 years

Came home, took a nap, Cole and I went and put some corn out, he said when did they tell you that you could drive? I said tomorrow

 

Glad all is good in Shane’s world! Hope you have a good day Shane!