Old Delta Lathe Worth New motor?

Even the old Homecraft line would be worth 50 bucks if there were no cracks in the castings. Of course, they used to age 'em better in those days, so chances are small on that.

No plate on the beast to tell model #? If you had that, or the time, you could do some looking at

to see ifthings were pretty much where they should be. The motor is probablydesigned to mount below, tensioning of its own weight, and a stand is just abig table or cabinet which allows for belt change access.I'm turning on a 46-204 "medium" duty lathe myself. With a 12" swing, ithas a 3/4 HP on it.

Absolutely. A bit new for me (I have 3 lathes from the 1800's).

There are about 999 ways to do this, and at least 1000 that work. You could obviously copy the stand it came off of. You can take any workbench plan, skip the vises, and slap the lathe on it, and the motor to the back - you can also modify to put the motor under, or over. You can hang the motor off the ceiling and bring the belt down to the lathe (a lineshaft built for 1, if you will - keeps the motor a bit cleaner). You can pour blocks of concrete to bolt the lathe to.

I recommend putting a variable speed DC motor on the Delta. I turned on that combination of old Delta/Rockwell with a Chuck Woodruff motor & controller for years. Variable speed with DC really makes that a usable "modern" machine. The Reeves drive acts as a gear shifter to always maximize torque at the speed that you want. Since you are paying almost nothing for the machine, why not go a bit higher and get a really good motor? If you like the DIY approach, there is a lot in the archives about installing a treadmill (surplus) motor on a lathe.

Have fun!

-CD- boulder, co

Thanks for the reply. The lathe I'm working with is a Delta "Double Duty"

-- no other name or number appears on the lathe. I like your suggestion, but I'm new to this newsgroup and to building my own lathe stand.

I've seen variable speed lathe motors at Woodturners.com. Are there other sources I should know about? I don't know what a Reeves drive is -- I'll Google it, but if you have a link, I'll appreciate your lead.

I don't know how to access the archives in this newsgroup. I'll see what I can do -- I hadn't heard the term "treadmill" used for an external lathe motor.

Best,

Jim

Dain-Owens wrote: I don't know what a Reeves drive is (clip)I hadn't heard the term "treadmill" used for an external lathe motor. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ A Reeves drive is a belt drive with a means of changing the pulley diameters, thus providing a continuously variable ratio.

Treadmill, in this context, does not have a special meaning. The reference is to borrowing the variable speed drive from an exercise machine.

No idea if the one I have can help you, but I have a treadmill motor. I had a treadmill belt sander for awhile, which proved to be a better idea on paper. Tore up a lot of expensive belts with my sloppy tracking system. I've been saving the thing for years to make a lathe, but never got around to it.

I'm getting a JET mini for Christmas, which will be much better than anything I'm likely to have ever built. I'm looking at the space the stupid thing is eating, and I'm about ready to cut it up and stick the metal in my project box. That liberates a motor that I really see no forseeable use for. I'm sure I'll do something with it one of these years if I keep it, but if someone can put it to good use right now, I don't mind parting with it. I got it for free, I'll give it away for whatever it costs to ship it. (Because I really am that broke, sorry.)

I can go blow the dust off and look at the plate to see what it says, if you want. I'm not sure if it's compatible with this variable speed setup you're envisioning. I just have it hard wired with a regular household light switch. If the treadmill had some kind of variable speed gizmo, it's busted and/or missing.

A link to the group archives mentioned...

Barley

Thanks for the lead to Grangers - I had forgotten them, and will dig up their catalog.

Jim

Jim, Chuck Woodruff sells variable speed DC motors and controllers, and I was very happy with the one I got from him. It needed no fiddling and has performed well. Price was about $400. Craft Supplies (and probably others) sell DC motor/controller packages too. I have the one from Craft Supplies currently powering my Vicmarc, and have been very happy with it too. Chuck may have a website, but I don't know it. His email is in the AAW member directory under Washington State.

One (of many) source for treadmill motors is American Science and Surplus.

You can get a 3/4 hp motor for about $40, but the fiddle-around factor might be really high. The archives on this group will yield lots of advice on how to do that. I believe the archives are somewhere on Google, and maybe deja.com? Anyone else know?

It's true what another poster said about how variable speed won't make you a better turner....but if you have to install a motor anyway, you will be happier in the long run with a modern variable speed machine because it will allow you to do things that are more difficult with the standard cone pulley fixed speed arrangement. The key is to balance the time spent fiddling with your lathe against the time you could spend turning on it!

Have fun!

-CD- boulder, co

CD,

Thanks for your note and suggestions. I've been turning for a while on my craft guild's lathe. Now that the guild has a newer, variable speed lathe, I'm considering picking up the old lathe at a bargain price, upgrading it with a variable speed motor (I like that feature and am using it on my current projects) and putting it in my garage shop -- a little closer to home than the guild.

I first started thinking about a variable speed when I noticed that Craft Supplies sold several such motors. The lightbulb went off -- I could have my own variable speed lathe for less than the cost of a new one, and it's bed, headstock and tailstock would be heavier than the newer guild lathe. I'll look around for information on Chuck Woodruff -- the price you mention is lower than Craft Supplies.

I spent some time with Google yesterday, and came up with some suggestions for building a lathe stand with a motor mount. Lots of suggestions, and I think I can pull it together. Since I still have a lathe to work with at the guild, I think I can deal with the fiddle factor, particularly since I have a kayak and other projects already underway in my garage. The old lathe is available now, so I might pick it up and add it to my list of projects. Oh yes, there's also the tool collecting factor. This will be the last power tool I buy, honest!

Jim

No fiddling at all (I bought a couple of these), but they are selling the raw motor, so you need to supply the controller. They are brush-type open frame, so you want to try and keep them clean, and you also want to put a cooling fan on them (easy way to keep them clean is to bring the cooling air in from outside). The controllers I currently use, through non-surplus channels, are 5-6 times the price of the motor - so you might want to look for a source which includes the treadmill's contoller, if keeping it cheap is the aim. What I'll do, as there's one of me, is to set the controller up so it can be unplugged and moved to different tools _easily_. I have not quite gotten there yet, but will want to in the new shop when all the lathes are out and usable. Have floor finally, still need roof, already in the second half of Novembrrrrrr.

This is pretty funny since the older lathe is probably a much better built lathe than the new one. I had a 46-700 for a few years. It's major shortcoming is the weak headstock casting. All the older Delta's I have seen have a lot more metal where it counts. Get a full 1 hp motor if you can afford it; it's a significant improvement over 3/4 horse for a 12" swing lathe. And whatever kind of stand you make, make it very rigid and HEAVY. It's amazing how much 450 pounds of sand will improve the performance of even a light duty lathe.

-mike paulson, fort collins, co

Hey Jim, I'm not sure if your thread is a question or a gloat. Anyway, you got a deal even if you convert it to a pole lathe. Take it before someone offers $51. :) Maybe the decision makers of your guild, in their wisdom will accept a donated new Harbor Freight $35 micro 'lathe' and dump the 46-700 for $12. Take that deal too. :)

I wonder what is meant by the motor being "burned out". Could it possibly be bearings, starting cap. or switch or some other repairable fault on an older quality motor that matched the machine design? Arch

Fortiter,