My Lathe Motor has Lost Its Torque

My Lathe Motor has Lost Its Torque appeared first on Hardware for Creative Finishes

I was just poking around the woodwork forums as I do and there’s a question here.  It says my lathe motor has lost its torque.  This is by Orraloon.  It’s a 1 horsepower motor and today while roughing a small bowl, would stall while taking very modest cuts.  I’ve done largish turnings up to 16 inches on this with no problems.  The motor spins up okay, was not hot and the headstock bearings were not even warm.  Not being an electrical expert, I’m asking for some advise.  Motor is about five years old and estimated around 2,000 hours.

So there’s a good discussion that follows from this.  There’s a suggestion about how is the belt for tightness and what lathe is being driven by it.  I guess someone with exactly the same problem and they also mentioned that they applied for insurance and got a new motor.  So it might be something to think about.  If you’ve got insurance for electrical motors, that might cover a lathe.  Other suggestion about checking the belt and then there’s slack belt matches the symptoms.

Okay.  So Chuck1 said that his drill press did something similar and the belts were okay and it turned out to be a capacitor that was on the way out, but there were sparks coming off the motor so different symptoms.  And it would spin up but as soon as there was any load put on it, it would clagg out.

So back to the original poster, it’s a Leady lathe so the tension is by the weight of the motor.  I guess that is why I did not think of the belt at first.  It’s one of those micro V-belts, still looks in reasonable order.  I locked in the index pin and was able to rotate the motor pulley by hand on the first step.  I have scrubbed out the V-grooves with metho and given the belt a wipe with soapy water to clean off any gunk, still some slip on the slow speed, so the small pulley on the motor end.  But a fair bit better than it was.  So I’m going to need a new belt sometime.  I may as well look at the bearings as the shaft has to come out for the belt change.  Anyone done the bearings on a Leady?  I will need pullers and a press.

With a follow-up again.  If it’s a V-belt, you can replace it with a link belt.  They do have two sizes that will stretch out quite a bit and you just pull out a link or two, stretch it out over the wheel again.  And this person’s found that needle nose pliers make it pretty easy to pull the belts apart and put them back together again.  And they outlast standard belts and slip less.

Okay.  And so someone else has heard them called “serpentine” belts but has no idea why.  And it says it looks like the spindle will have to be pulled.  Okay.  So that type of belt, apparently, is supposed to give the best pull because of all the surface area.  So I guess, the grooves are like a corrugation on a roof so it makes it stronger and give you more surface area.  On some of the newer lathes, the headstock spindle will unbolt for a belt replacement and for replacing bearings.

And this person here said he’s had a Leady, 20 years old, and has had about four sets of bearings.  But it’s done a lot of work and it’s relatively simple to remove the spindle.  Just pull off the cover plates and tap the bearings out.  There’s no metal impacts and it doesn’t sound like you need any special tools to do it.

So I thought that was an interesting little Q&A and indicative of how helpful people on the woodwork forums are.  It’s a very friendly, helpful community from what I’ve seen and anytime someone does have a legitimate question, there’s people rushing to answer and provide their input on it as well.

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f8/lathe-motor-lost-its-grunt-170807/?highlight=question

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