A New Project!

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I have been keeping this quiet because I am still trying to figure out how I am going to accomplish this.

A couple of EXTREMELY GENEROUS readers who are within a half hour drive from me and who would prefer to stay anonymous, dropped by a week ago last Saturday and gifted me an awesome little present.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a brand spanking new, Variable Frequency Drive and a used 240 V three phase electric motor.

Already wired up and ready to install on my Smithy 3 In 1 lathe/mill combo machine.

I am just beside myself with gratitude for such an excellent gift.

These guys are just awesome and it’s not the first time they have dropped in and showered me with awesome.

I tried to return the favor a bit and they didn’t go home empty handed but that is beside the point.

You guys know who you are and I thank you again!

So now I have to figure out how to get all that installed, no easy task because that 240 volt motor is quite a bit larger than the little 120 volt unit that is on the machine.

In other words, it’s not even close to being a straight swap.

Ve Haf Vays of getting around such things though.

My plan is to make a Jack Shaft that will install in the spot the original motor is at right now and then mount the new motor underneath the table with a belt going through an opening I will have to cut.

Something like this, that was also in a bunch of stuff I got from Old Chuck, except this one just has bushings and I want bearings.

I will have to make a riser for the Jack Shaft pillow bearings to sit on to get close to the centerline of where the motor sits now.

I already have the material for the shaft and the riser and the pillow block bearings are sitting right next to the machine.

I went and bought a big hunk of some tough assed Aluminum yesterday and got it cut down so it will fit where the motor is. I still have to keep the machine in one piece for the moment because I am going to have to mill some keyways in it for the pulleys I am going to use, also courtesy of Old Chuck across the street, who gave me a whole tool box full that he was going to throw away.

It took my Harbor Freight Chineseium Special Horizontal Band Saw and hour and a half to cut through this 5X2 hunk of Aluminum.

The saw is 3 years old now and still has the original blade on it. I’m thinking maybe it’s finally time to put the new one on….

But, it did finally make it, after I realized I had to flip it over and take off one of the vise extensions so it would clear.

The shaft only took a couple of minutes, I’m thinking the Aluminum was clogging up the teeth on the blade even though I was pouring oil to it.

So I now have some of the parts ready to put together. I still have to drill a bunch of holes and fabricate a way to make it slide for belt tensioning purposes. I may just use the idler pulley already inside for that.

That set up will replace the motor and then I am going to figure out how to mount the new one underneath. It will be on a shaft with a plate on it and be able to slide back and forth as it tilts so I can put that step pulley on it for even more speed control.

It’s pretty big project for me and my humble skills but I think I will get it figured out and done eventually.

It’s something I have been wanting to do pretty much since I got the machine but thanks to a couple of awesome guys I don’t have any excuses not to anymore.

I’m pretty excited to get this done and working. This will make the little machine way more user friendly.

So that is one thing I have going on among many. There has been quite a bit going on in my life for the last couple of months and a new chapter is going to start tomorrow. I have been staying quiet about most of it except for family and a couple of friends.

I am fine so don’t worry about me.

The Good Lord must still think I’m not done with whatever it is I am supposed to do down here this go round and hopefully I’ll be around long enough to get a quarter of all of my projects done.

I would be happy with that.

Stay tuned as I try to avoid complete catastrophe yet again with my little project.

I will take some kind of video of it when I get more of it done.

Because there just isn’t enough comedy out there.

Thanks for stopping by and my heart felt appreciation to everyone who is helping me out here.

13 thoughts on “A New Project!”

  1. Wrong category, but oh well. Do you or your readers know the burning episode that Biden was referring to and caused Pelosi to explode with glee? She sure is a odd nasty old crone if you ask me. I tried to send a email to your former address and another name tagged in. I deleted it and am doing it this way. I think it was one of your trolls.

    • I didn’t watch it but saw someone saying it was the toxic chemicals that poisoned our military from the burn pits over in Iraq during the Gulf war that she got so excited about.
      Who knows what was going through her psycho brain.

  2. SCOOOOORE!!!!

    So the little VFD takes 240 single-phase and generates 240 three-phase? That’s pretty cool. I didn’t know those were available. Back in the 70’s~80’s I was designing 480V 3-phase VFD’s. The smallest we made was 60HP, and the largest was 400HP.

  3. You should probably check to see if you have 3 phase power available. Most residential areas don’t have it, so you may have to obtain a 3 phase converter in order to use the motor.

  7. why did you cut a 5 by 2 inch al bar ? I would have made stand off from thick wall steel tube, a whole lot cheaper ! and YES, it is time to buy a new blade for your saw. I had good luck with the bi-metal blades in 10-14 teeth range.
    for what you cutting, use a 10-14 teeth blade, thinner stock, more teeth.
    thought of doing what your are a few times, but something else always came up
    so the funds for that project went to something else.
    I would have other uses for a bar that of that size besides a stand off.
    got a hunk of flat plate given to me a few years back, like 12 by 12 . made a faceplate out of it. threaded it, turned it to fit. and then used a t-slot cutter to
    made a clamping plate style faceplate. used it more on the rotary table than the lathe. wished I had the time and space for a casting setup as I would like to try it out. I think if you take your time with this, you will end up with a really nice way to run your lathe, thought about a rev counter as well ?
    I still like to get a good dro setup for my lather and mill myself.

    • I went with the bar because it was a Cut Off, I can buy that by the pound. Otherwise I would have had to have them cut me something and I was in a hurry. I had a quick window to get over there and get back. It was also the exact dimensions that I needed.

  9. I would like to thank those generous people who donated. Its fun watching Phil feel his youth again and thank you Phil have fun.

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