Central machinery 12x36 wiring issues help needed

[markba633csi]

Hmm, starting to look like the motor itself might have an issue- have you tried powering it by itself without the lathe?
You would need to put a pair of straps on like this to do that: Edit: valid for straps only, not cap connections or switch
I'm wondering if you have a shorted cap or shorted winding-
Caps should be discharged first then checked with the ohm meter. A good cap will initially show zero ohms then quickly rise to infinity.
Windings can only be tested for shorts to the case or to each other- interwinding shorts are not easy to test for unless you have winding resistance data.

 

[RSnell]

well I guess I cooked the motor in my quest to get it going. I know the motor was good because it came off my milling machine .It got me thinking though that I rewired the forward reverse switch according to the factory wiring but that shows the 3 wire motor and mine is 4 wire ( plus ground )
Do you think that be the problem ?

 

[markba633csi]

Well, we don't know for sure yet that it's cooked, but it seems possible- the straps locations are different and shorts can cause voltage spikes that can punch through winding insulation from inductive kickback-
It would take an electrician to notice the difference in the two motors- easy thing to overlook
So you could do some tests first or just plug it in first- do you want the bad news right away or delayed? LOL
I would check the caps first, then measure the resistance of the windings to the case and each other
U1 to case
V1 to case

 

[RSnell]

Yes, I did check the caps and they are good. I also hooked it up in forward and it blew the inline fuse, same in reverse,Sorry I didnt post this previously. Probably why it didn't have a motor when I bought it LOL.Im starting to realize why this machine has never made a part in 23 years. Well i will go ahead and check the windings anyway and let you know.

 

[KillMeSoftly]

You can check with bandsawmanuals if ever you are in need of getting the whole thing. Tried searching and I was able to see but was not able to download it.

 

[markba633csi]

So you tried to plug the motor in by itself and it blew the house breaker? Not sure what you mean by inline fuse-
Is this a fuse inside the motor? (usually a resettable breaker, not a fuse)

You say you took this motor off your milling machine? And it was working then?
So your mill is dead too now? Bummer
How did you have it jumpered on the mill? How many wires?
You know there's still a chance we've been hooking it up wrong- doesn't seem likely tho at this point

 

[RSnell]

Ok so i have an inline fuse holder I hooked up between u1 from the box and the motor terminal . I used it to hopefully protect the motor. its just 2 wires with a fuse between them.I did hookup the motor the way you showed in post 21 and it just blew the fuse again. As for the motor,I originally bought a used 1 1/2hp dayton motor for the lathe but I couldn't figure out how to wire it to the lathe so I put it on the mill and put the mill motor on the lathe because it is the same type as it would have came with. I thought it would be easier. The mill just had the two hot wires and t5,t8 from the reverse switch as I recall. Well this things not going to to get the best of me so i,ll recheck things in the morning and let you know.

 

[matthewsx]

If the motor is cooked it would be a good opportunity to convert to 3phase with a VFD.

I did that with my Tida (Samson) 12x36 and the Seneca Falls Star before it. Don’t think I’d want a lathe without variable speed now that I have it.

Mark is the man for troubleshooting these electrical issues but it sounds like you might have a deeper problem with the wiring in this particular machine.

Sometimes the only solution is to tear it all out and start over. Sometimes persistence wins after you find that one fault that was hiding underneath something else.

I learned a super valuable electrical troubleshooting lesson from my old Datsun I had back in the 80’s. After checking everything I could think of I finally unscrewed the fuse box and saw that it was corroded on the backside.

Good luck with it, should be a great machine when you get it going.

John

 

[RSnell]

Yeah, the 3 phase and vfd has been in the back of my mind lately.Plus there seems to be a lot of 3 phase motors on marketplace.I will try a few more things and make a desition.

 

[RobertB]

Yeah, the 3 phase and vfd has been in the back of my mind lately.Plus there seems to be a lot of 3 phase motors on marketplace.I will try a few more things and make a desition.

How many amp fuse is it blowing and are you using slo-blow fuses? Fast acting fuses are not good at motor protection due to the large inrush current spike at startup.