Howdy Wrec!
It's been a long time since I've posted, but I had to tell you a little story about the "jewel" of my shop. Back in 1999 I bought the
2nd Delta 1642 Lathe (46-745 I think was the model #) that our local wood store had. It was a 1.5 hp, steel bed behemoth with 20 amp, 120v Baldor Motor.It survived 2 moves from Nashville to Florida, and then from Florida to Oklahoma. Over the years the lathe has never given me 1 bit of problems and has served me quite well; until now.
I went out to get started on my ornaments for this season and went to turn the lathe on and noticed it had a blinking "fault" light. After several on-off's; I couldn't get than light to stop blinking on "fault". I gave up and finally started to disassemble the variable speed controller box. After about 15 minutes of taking things apart, I noticed one of the little yellow circuit board "chips" was fried. I mean it was toast! Burnt brown all around it. So off to the "dewalt-porter cable-delta" parts website I go!
I wound up ordering what I THOUGHT was the right variable speed controller for $878.00!! I came in about a week later and I rushed out to the shop to get it all hooked back up and working. New controller with DIGITAL READOUT - (Nice I thought) - UPGRADE! After a few translations from Chinese; I think I got the right L1,L2,T1,T2,T3 wire connectors all hooked up. Turn it on, hold my breath, error! I got an "Lo" alarm on the digital read out. Tried several times later and then finally gave up! I called the local Delta factory service here in OKC and spoke to "Gary". I told him about my issues and he said to bring the controller down and we would order the "correct" part for my lathe. He called me back on my cell about 2 hours later. He said he had some good news and some bad news. I bitched and moaned about Chinese junk and threatened to get that new "Powermatic"!
He said that the bad news is that Delta no longer sells or even has any factory servicable parts for my 46-745 (1642) lathe!!! The controller was NO LONGER AVAILABLE! The good news is that the factory Delta rep would give me a new (X5) 46-755x lathe for the price I paid for my new controller!! YIPEE!! about $2,000 in savings - I jumped on it.
I got my new lathe all setup and working last weekend. Had to get an electrician to come wire in a 220v receptacle off my circuit box. It sure is sweet.Already made a few ornaments. A few differences:
Variable Speed controller has LED digital readout in RPM. (Nice) Live Tail center is a new "beefier" design. Better point. Baldor motor replaced with 2hp MARATHON motor. Base / Feet have 4" square tube that BOLT on. Old ones were welded on. Faceplate not near as nice (fit and finish) and the old one. Knock-out bar is 6 inches longer than the old one (big deal) #2MT Drive Spur has longer spurs and seems "beefier" The tightening handles on the tail stock are much improved, beefier. At certain RPM's though I noticed some odd vibrations that I never had on my old lathe. No big deal, just bump up or down the RPMs.
All in all I'm a happy camper with my new X5 lathe. I just can't believe that old controller bit the dust!
For any of you older Delta 46-745 owners out there; I sure hope your VS controller lasts alot longer than mine did!
Neil (in OKC)