- Joined
- Aug 3, 2017
- Messages
- 2,437
I have a big old lathe with a 15HP 3 phase 3450 RPM Baldor motor. It weighs ~300 lbs, so I'm in no hurry to try to get it out of the foot of my lathe or moved around at all
It seems to work 'fine'. It isn't particularly noisy or anything. When starting up, there is a brief 'rattling' sound (that could potentially be something else on the lathe?) at about 30-40 hz, but it goes away at 60 hz.
However, when i went to do some stuff to it, I discovered that the shaft doesn't seem 'attached'. I smacked it with a mallet, and it moves ~1/2" inward, then comes back. It seems to only be held in place by the magnets itself, as it does the little 'shimmy' back and forth until its in the right place. In my head, this means it needed bearings a few decades ago (as in, the bearings are just so bad they basically don't exist).
However, I'm hopeful that this is just the design of some motors? Is it possible that it is a bearingless motor?
It seems to work 'fine'. It isn't particularly noisy or anything. When starting up, there is a brief 'rattling' sound (that could potentially be something else on the lathe?) at about 30-40 hz, but it goes away at 60 hz.
However, when i went to do some stuff to it, I discovered that the shaft doesn't seem 'attached'. I smacked it with a mallet, and it moves ~1/2" inward, then comes back. It seems to only be held in place by the magnets itself, as it does the little 'shimmy' back and forth until its in the right place. In my head, this means it needed bearings a few decades ago (as in, the bearings are just so bad they basically don't exist).
However, I'm hopeful that this is just the design of some motors? Is it possible that it is a bearingless motor?