Variable Speed Control plugged into a Harbor Freight Wood Lathe

[AndrewB]

  So this morning I went hunting around for my variable speed control.  Which I had previously used for my blower fan that connected to my twier and into my coal fire forge.  Worked quite nicely for that and moved a ton of air.  Either way I had repurposed it.  I wanted to test something out to see if I could get a slower speed than 600 RPM on the Harbor Freight wood lathe.  So I hooked the variable speed into the lathe this morning to test that theory.  I don't have a tacometer to verify it.  How ever it seems to have worked.  It does make a couple of clicks but I can only assume that the clicking noise is the variable speed control talking to the motor telling it to spin at a certain speed.  Here is the video result of the hole thing.  No music just lathe sounds.  Almost 2 minutes.  So score 1 for me.

 

[Larry Buskirk]

Does the tag on the motor state if it is a split phase motor?

The clicking you are hearing sounds like the centrifugal switch that controls the start winding.

When you lower the speed to far the centrifugal switch closes energizing the start winding.

You could burn out the start winding running it that way.

[AndrewB]

So that's what that is.  I wasn't sure exactly what it was...  How ever that settles that.  I wont be using that thing on the lathe or connected to the lathe.  Hopefully I didn't do too much damage to it already by testing it.

[Larry Buskirk]

If you didn't run it that way for very long you should be fine.

[AndrewB]

I wont be running it that way at all after that test.  Now knowing what the noise is.  I mean it may work for a regular belt driven non variable speed lathe.  But it probably wouldn't be a good solution for this type.

[Larry Buskirk]

Depends upon what type motor you are using with this type of speed controllers.

Split Phase and some Capacitor Start motors use a starting circuit centrifugal switch that opens when the motor gets up to speed.

[Larry Buskirk]

@AndrewB

Do you have a manual for the lathe?

It might be possible to get lower speeds with a belt and pulley change.

[AndrewB]

I don't have a manual for it at the moment unfortunately the HF lathe doesn't have the ability to change pulleys.  I could take the motor housing off to double check but I don't think it does.

[HandyDan]

There are adjustable pulleys to be had too but if your current pulley may be the smallest available.

 

 

[Gerald]

I thought he said it had a Reeves Drive. Cannot change pulley if it is.

[AndrewB]

@Gerald Yes that is corret the the HF lathe it is a Reeves Drive system.

Edited October 2, 2020 by AndrewB

[FlGatorwood]

Andrew, I did not see any post about the warranty of the Wen lathe.  It doesn't seem that old to me and I would try to work on the warranty.  

[Larry Buskirk]

10 hours ago, Gerald said:

I thought he said it had a Reeves Drive. Cannot change pulley if it is.

Could be done if the fixed sized pulley is on the motor, and is not already the smallest pulley available.

Of course doing so would also lower your upper speed range.

 

 

[HandyDan]

1 hour ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Of course doing so would also lower your upper speed range.

Upper speed is always too fast in my opinion.

[AndrewB]

I agree with that statement I tend to more prefer the low end speeds of about 300 to 1000 RPM and even then 1000 RPM seems to be a decent turning speed for me to handle.  When I did the pen turning which has been somewhat on back burner the 2K RPM just kind of spooked me some.

[Larry Buskirk]

49 minutes ago, HandyDan said:

Upper speed is always too fast in my opinion.

 

38 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

I agree with that statement I tend to more prefer the low end speeds of about 300 to 1000 RPM and even then 1000 RPM seems to be a decent turning speed for me to handle.  When I did the pen turning which has been somewhat on back burner the 2K RPM just kind of spooked me some.

In that case if the fixed pulley is the motor pulley and you can go to a smaller sized pulley you can lower your speed range. If your present pulley size is large enough that you can replace it with a pulley half it's size you'll cut your speed range roughly in half. You'll also need to go with a shorter belt.

[Gerald]

Larry a Reeves has two sets of split pullies. It does not work with fixed pullies. If you change to fixed then will only have one speed

[AndrewB]

I mean if anything I could always just swap the motor

 

[Gerald]

Yes but that and getting electronic controls is not cheap. Best to plan on new lathe with those controls unless you are an electronics whizz

[AndrewB]

I'm doing some price shopping on them now.....  The ones I'm looking at seem pretty decent for prices.  It may be something I'll be looking into at some point.  Ah yea and @Gerald  I've built drones and PCS so no big deal there...

Edited October 2, 2020 by AndrewB