# Finally, my TH 42 is home!



## rfw_1968 (May 21, 2013)

This is my first posting other than the introduction so I'll start by re-introducing myself. My name is Richard and I am about as new to machining as one could get. I took up wood turning several years ago and have done very well at it so I decided some time back I wanted to look into metal turning. Last summer my wife and I were looking at some houses to buy as rentals. We didn't end up buying a house but the old Atlas lathe in the basement of one definitely captured my attention. Long story short, I bought the lathe from the man who bought the house, I just had to wait for the snow to melt from in front of the basement door. Spring finally dawned and I have my new toy home. I have an Atlas TH 42 that looks like it has seen very little use in its lifetime. The ways on the cross slide and compound slide still show the machining marks from the factory. The bed ways are smooth but appear to be in great shape. Over the past week I have torn down the entire carriage assembly, cleaned it and adjusted the gibs except for the main carriage gib which is missing. I have one on order from ebay. I haven't torn down the head stock yet but it turns freely by hand. I'm going to take it apart and clean it anyway, as much for the experience as for the cleaning. I believe it has all of the change gears (there are 10) but it is missing the rack on which to mount them. I turned it on for the first time this afternoon and it ran for about thirty seconds before the motor slowed down and stopped with a distinct buzzing noise. I am hoping that all I need to do is replace the motor brushes, I would welcome any input on the matter. 
    The list of things that came with it is too long to catalog but I'll try to list the highlights: 4 jaw chuck, steady rest, 3 lufkin micrometers, lufkin planing gauge, milling attachment, several live and dead centers, copious amounts of cutters and mills, and a bunch of other stuff. There will also be a band saw and antique drill press coming once the storage shed is emptied of all the junk the former owner left behind. I'll be posting pictures as soon as I can get my phone to work properly. 
   Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I'll keep it updated as I go along and I'm sure I'll have lots of questions especially once I am ready to start making chips.


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## kd4gij (May 21, 2013)

Congrats sounds like you gor quit a hall.

:worthless: could not help my self:lmao:


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## rfw_1968 (May 21, 2013)




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## kd4gij (May 21, 2013)

Looks good. Are you going to restore it or just clean it up and put it to work. I just cleand mine up and put it to work, been haveing lots of fun with it for the last 10 years.


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## itsme_Bernie (May 21, 2013)

Congrats!  What an exciting day!  

It sounds like theatre you are looking for to hold the change gears is called the "banjo" and is not too hard to get on Ebay I would think.  

I would look around the boxes of tooling before buying anything and make sure.

It'll look something like this (this may be for am12 inch)





Bernie


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## rfw_1968 (May 21, 2013)

I'm going to clean it up and use it. A friend of mine told me it's a good thing I have so much tooling because I'll probably break a lot as I learn how to work the machine. Hopefully it just means I won't have to buy any for years to come.


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## davidh (May 21, 2013)

treat it tenderly, they do a lot of things, even mill with it on small stuff if your tender fingered.  I have looked at my "banjo" thing a couple times, never did figure out exactly what or how but the machine does good work and meets my needs completely.  calumet eh ?  stayed there a couple nights with my best buddys uncle.  the uncle was on corp of engineers dredge that went from wherever to Duluth and back.  can't think of the uncles name off hand but he was a great old dude. . .  friends name is Harris.  lives in calif and he and his wife fly their own small plane back there every couple years. . . .  judt remembered, it was Harold Guy.  your probably related


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## robert1352 (May 22, 2013)

Wow! You got the milling attachment too!! What a great find!!


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## rfw_1968 (May 22, 2013)

As I mentioned in my original post I mentioned that the motor has some issues. Last night I thought I would remove the brushes and try to find replacements at the hardware store. I removed the pulley and the four bolts that run the length of the motor and that is as far as I could get. I am assuming that the sheet metal center of the housing holds the two cast ends together but the entire assembly is still tightly held together. I cant find a good place to pry the case open without breaking something. Any suggestions?


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## itsme_Bernie (May 22, 2013)

You are sure the motor has brushes?  What is it doing?




Bernie


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## kd4gij (May 22, 2013)

Just tap the endcaps lightley with a dedblow hammer. post pic of the motor and name plate. I don't think it will have brushes. It should be an AC motor.


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## VSAncona (May 22, 2013)

There aren't any brushes in that motor. It could be a problem with the centrifugal switch from the start capacitor not kicking out once the motor gets up to speed.


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## Codered741 (May 22, 2013)

Hello there, 

I appears, from what I can see of the motor in the very first pic, that your motor is a 110/220 vac Capacitor start, Induction run motor.  This type of motor will NOT have brushes.  The fact that the motor started, means that the capacitor is/was working, and the windings are good.  The reason that it stopped is more difficult.  

Did it grind slowly to a stop, like over the course of a minute or so?  Or was it more rapid?  Was the motor hot to the touch anywhere after it stopped?  I am half inclined to say, without a lot of information, that the bearings might be junk, and are simply bound up.  

Post a photo of the motor with its nameplate information to give us more information. 

Basic electric motor troubleshooting.  Eliminate the simple things first.  

The first thing to check, is the wiring connections.  Make sure that they are all tight, corrosion free, and making contact.  Be sure to check the entire circuit, switches, disconnects, fuses, even the plug at the end of the cord.  

MAKE SURE you UNPLUG the machine BEFORE checking these connections!!  Electricity KILLS!!  If you are not comfortable, find a friend or professional who is.  

Disconnect the motor from the drive train.  Turn the motor on and see if the problem persists.  If it does, then we have eliminated the rest of the lathe mechanically, and we can dive deeper into the electrical.  If it does NOT, then the problem is mechanical, and you can then begin troubleshooting the mechanics.  

Try these things first, and post your results.  

-Cody


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## rfw_1968 (May 22, 2013)

You are all correct, it is an a/c motor. Almost all of my electrical experience is with d.c. and I didn't know there was that much of a difference. As you can see from the pic, I got the cover open. I assume the centrifugal switch is the assembly showing between the coils and the casing. It does not seem to be binding but I will clean and oil it to be sure. One of the capacitor wires popped off with very little stress so that may have been the culprit all along. As for the bearings, I'm inclined to think that they are good because the shaft spins freely by hand. When I first turned it on it ran without hesitation. It was after the 30 second mark or so that it began slowing down. It didn't take long (maybe 15 seconds) for it to come to a stop and buzz. Initial attempts to restart it resulted in more buzzing but no movement. After a couple of minutes, it started right up. I shut it down right away and left it alone. 
   I'll do the things I mentioned and post the results. Thanks for all of the advice.

By the way davidh, I'm not from one of those families that have been here since the 1800's. My wife brought me here but she is only a first generation yooper. In spite of that, I love it here and proudly proclaim myself a transplanted yooper.


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## rfw_1968 (May 23, 2013)

I re-soldered the loose wire (which had come off of the centrifugal switch) and put the motor back together. She purrs like a kitten now. Thank you all for the tips. In the process I replaced the wires for the master power switch that had been previously removed.


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## rfw_1968 (Jul 16, 2013)

After a couple of insanely busy months I finally found time to get back to my lathe. I got it all assembled in my new house and tried using it for the first time tonight. I should add that it was my first time using any metal lathe so I'm sure I made plenty of mistakes. My concern is that I popped the circuit breaker numerous times. I am wondering if the problem is my technique, the fact that the breaker is only 20 amp, or somewhere in between. The only scrap stock I could find (since I just moved) was a short piece of steel gas pipe and that might not be the most forgiving medium to work on. I did get some improvement by adjusting the speed and experimenting with different cutters and angles but the breaker was still blowing. I would appreciate any thoughts you may have.


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## Ray C (Jul 16, 2013)

I had a TH42 that had a 1HP motor and even under difficult cutting conditions, it never tripped a breaker.  With it uplugged, is it difficult to spin the top idler pulley by hand?  I'm thinking three things... 1)  The machine is semi seized-up.  2)  The motor is a very high horsepower and blowing your ckt.  3)  The motor or wiring has some kind of short.


Ray



rfw_1968 said:


> After a couple of insanely busy months I finally found time to get back to my lathe. I got it all assembled in my new house and tried using it for the first time tonight. I should add that it was my first time using any metal lathe so I'm sure I made plenty of mistakes. My concern is that I popped the circuit breaker numerous times. I am wondering if the problem is my technique, the fact that the breaker is only 20 amp, or somewhere in between. The only scrap stock I could find (since I just moved) was a short piece of steel gas pipe and that might not be the most forgiving medium to work on. I did get some improvement by adjusting the speed and experimenting with different cutters and angles but the breaker was still blowing. I would appreciate any thoughts you may have.


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## kd4gij (Jul 16, 2013)

Can you post a good clear pic of the name plate of the motor


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## wa5cab (Jul 17, 2013)

Or at least the motor horsepower rating, whether it is connected for 120V or 240V, and the current rating of the circuit breaker.

Robert D.


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## rfw_1968 (Jul 17, 2013)

I can't seem to get a good picture to turn out so I'll just relay the info on the data plate.
volts 110 / 220
H.P. 1/2
Cycles 60
phase 1
amp 8 / 4
r.p.m. 1725

The circuit breaker is a 20 amp. I played with it a bit after posting last night and the last time it popped the breaker was after I had finished making the cut and backed the tool away from the work.


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## wa5cab (Jul 18, 2013)

rfw_1968,

You didn't say whether the motor was connected for 120 or 240 (but given the motor specs, that doesn't really matter).  You either have a bad breaker or a bad motor.  If the motor doesn't get hot (not just warmer than ambient) after running for 10 minutes or so, it's more likely the breaker.  Although it could also be an intermitten short in the motor.  As you probably don't have a clip-on AC ammeter, I would change the breaker and see if the problem goes away.  If it doesn't, something is wrong with the motor (or just conceivably with the lathe).

Robert D.


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## rfw_1968 (Jul 18, 2013)

The motor passed the test with flying colors so I will be changing the breaker. Thank you for the advice. I have encountered one other concern about which I hope to be proven wrong. The carriage gib was missing when I got the lathe so I ordered one and installed it. After adjusting it I realized that the carriage gets very tight toward the end of the bed by the tail stock. I fear this means that the ways are worn and thus wider on the area least used. Please prove me wrong if you can.


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## wa5cab (Jul 18, 2013)

OK.  If that doesn't fix it, you'll need to find someone (preferably a friend) who has a clamp-on AC ammeter to come over and monitor the current while you run the machine.  Then try to figure out what's causing the fluctuation or spikes.  

Yes, you have some localized wear on the back of the rear way and maybe the front of the front way.  That's the one advantage of a V-bed way over a flat bed.  If you almost never need to run the carriage to the area where it gets tight, don't worry about it.  If you do once in a while, try loosening the right (tailstock side) carriage gib screw just a little.  If it's a constant problem, go to the scraping forum and ask for help.  Just ignore any rude comments about flat bed lathes.  

Robert D.


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## rfw_1968 (Jul 22, 2013)

I switched out the breaker and the problem was fixed. Thanks for all of the help.


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