Pining for a Bowl Lathe

There is ALWAYS a way. I believe what Grizzly meant was that there was no built-in way for THEM to upgrade your lathe or send you parts to upgrade it yourself. As far as you upgrading it or getting someone else to upgrade it is just a matter of time, money and ingenuity.

A larger motor is going to give you even more problems with clearance. It'll stick out even further into your turning space IF you can even get another motor to fit into their assembly. I'd be making another frame but making it longer so that the motor that fits into it will be further away from the headstock and much lower. So low, in fact, that as you swivel the headstock the motor will actually move under the bed ways. You'll have to have a longer belt and be limited a little in how much you can swivel the headstock because you'll be limited by the belt hitting the bed ways as you do swivel.

You could also move the new motor out and up (instead of down as I describe above) to gain clearance and not have the swivel movement problem. However, you'd get terrible vibration with so much weight (of the motor) out and up so far. More vibration that you already get with that lathe.

- Andrew

The Nova DVR would fit your needs for space and ease of carrying downstairs. The DVR has a 16" swing, swivel head, 1 1/2 hp motor will do just fine on 110-115 volts. 1 1/4" x 8" spindle threads. Electronic variable speed, reverse all that in a 200 lb. package. You can build a stand or buy one. Price about $1700.00 You can read more in this group

Just a thought - have you considered geting more power out of your existing motor? You would need to talk to a specialist, but AFAIK you can have motors rewound to produce more power from the same size. You might though have problems with extra heat etc. The upside is that if you reuse the existing chassis for the motor, it will fit into the lathe without modification.

HTH Dave R

I went through the same dilema with a lathe similar to your Grizzly. I bought a bigger motor and mounted it differently and used a system of step pulleys to set the speed. I also wanted to get a lower minimum speed for bigger blanks. To make a long story short, the system was cumbersome but I did have a lower speed and more power. Then the other shortcomings of the lathe became apparent; it just wasn't made for bigger stuff. So I wasted time and money which I should have put towards a better lathe in all respects in the first place. I bought a big General variable-speed.

Why are you so keen on being able to reverse the rotation?

Billh

Well, heres the deal...

I see the advantages of running in reverse for sanding and hollowing. Power sanding doesnt seem to be quite enough. I still find myself stopping the lathe to hand sand in the reverse direction. For scraping, I see a definate lack of power. But otherwise with gouges, skews, etc, there seems to be no problem.

I dug up a new 3/4 hp, 56C, capacitor start, Leeson motor that was sitting around doing nothing. I have managed to bolt it to the side of the headstock. Tonight, armed with a step pulley and a few belts, I am going to attempt to make this sucker work. If it doesn't work out, so be it. I will start saving for a new lathe. I do like the Nova DVR, or possibly others. One thing I was wondering about the DVR is how it holds up to roughing larger, square stock? One would think it might be hard on the motor bearings, being direct drive. How has Nova overcome this?

Thanks for all your help

Leslie

I haven't found the need to do it yet, but surely walking round to the other side of the lathe and mounting the rest there, orientates the tools the same way as running it in reverse would do.

The only down side is that you can't site the machine tight against a wall, but if you're going to swing the head through 180 degrees, you'll probably need to be able to stand well round to the end of it anyway.

A cheaper solution for that part of your problem than a new lathe I would have thought.

-- Geoff Beale Extract digit to email.

Fair enough on the wish for reverse but I haven't found it to be necessarily the magic bullet for a difficult piece of wood. If you are able to reverse, either with your new motor or a new lathe, please be aware that the faceplate or chuck tend to loosen rather than tighten due to sanding/turning forces. If the faceplate is put on snuggly sanding is unlikely to cause a problem but cutting forces can and I have been told it happens very quickly!

I would say the the answer to your question about the Nova DVR is that they designed it with sturdy bearings in the headstock/motor to handle the forces. A lot of people like the DVRs and they are not overly expensive. Personally, I like having the headstock spindle and motor connected by a belt for no really good reason other than one is not intimately connected to the other for troubleshooting and repair purposes.

Good luck on your bigger motor project, hope it works well for you.

Billh

Don't worry about DVR bearings there are 3 large sealed bearings, 2 in front 1 in the back

quote from the site above "The motor is solid and heavily constructed, because it forms part of the headstock. The bearing structure is a specially developed TRIMAX TM bearing configuration, which provides a heavy-duty spindle."

Apologies to the group for posting this cr*p. Must try to avoid posting after imbibing in future!!!

-- Geoff Beale Extract digit to email.

Why? We've already discussed special relativity as regards sanding. Moving the paper in the opposite direction relative to the material is not the same as moving the material in the opposite direction relative to the paper.

Further, in a thread on use of tools with tangs, we delved into quantum mechanics, discovering that Newtonian physics do not apply to turning because, for instance a 10" diameter piece rotating at 300 RPM under electric power has greater angular velocity (creating greater risk of bending the tang) than the same diameter piece rotating at 300 RPM under the power of an apprentice

One other posting which would cause even Werner some uncertainty was the statement that bodgers had been making bowls in the woods _before_ the advent of bowl gouges!

After reading these, I know I felt a second glass was warranted!

George, you are falling behind. At rcw we are now into the _general theory! Moving sandpaper in reverse at the speed of dark messes up everything, but embellishing hides the results. Unlike you & Werner, I'm quite certain of this. ;) Arch

Fortiter,

Well, heres a progress report on the motor upgrade on the Grizzly G5979 Lathe:

I bolted a piece of heavy unistrut to the lower half of the headstock where the casting was heavier. I used a sliding/tilting motor mount that I had laying around bolted between the unistrut and motor. I had a piece of 1/2" power-twist belt that was long enough, but it is too wide to get the full range of the Reeves driven pulley.

I rewired the switch and motor using heavier guage wire and added a heavy toggle switch to reverse the rotation.

After a few test runs, it seems to work pretty well. There is ample power, and the reverse works nicely. There is still room for improvement in the mechanics of the setup.

I have a 3/8 power-twist belt arriving today. Also arriving today will be a shaft coupling, keyed shafting and a shaft collar to extend the motor shaft to accept the Reeves driver pulley. I feel this would be a better setup then a step pulley and having to shift and tilt the motor everytime I need to change the speed range. The motor mount can then be mounted rigid. I may need to add a bearing on the end of the shaft for stability. I will have to modify or make a belt guard to fit the new arrangement.

So far it has been a trying project. On several occaisions I nearly chucked the who thing and put the old motor back on.

Last weekend I went to a Woodcraft store and saw the Nova DVR and a couple of Delta lathes that look good too. Time to start saving my money. Even if the lathe modification is a success, I will have to get me one of those high-priced, new fangled machines in the near future!

Is it just me, or does Woodcraft have higher prices on their tools then Rockler and Craft Supplies? Their turning tools seemed quite a bit higher then I am use to paying. I did pick up some bowl blanks that were very reasonable.

Thanks for all your help and comments.

Ms. Leslie Gossett