Craftsman/Atlas 6", what have I gotten my self into?

It's a 1/3 HP GE continues run motor. My electricians hand book says 14Ga is required.

The issue with the wire that's in there is it's so heavy there's pretty much zero room to work. The wire also predates the motor and switch which are both relatively new.

I'm going to swap it over to some greenfield run my own wire. The way the PO wired it the green wire is hot. :)

K
 
OK. That sounds like a good idea.
 
Anyone ever had issues getting consisstant pressure across the cone pulleys?

Setting the belt all the way to the left (high speed) the belt is tighter then I like and all the way to the right (low speed) it's to loose.

I know the obvious answer is the counter shaft it not square to the lathe spindle but every way I measure it it should be, or at least the base is. A straight edge shows the pulleys to be in line.

I did over size my holes a bit to try and get some wiggle, I just can't seem to find it's happy place.

K
 
I've found it's not necessarily the alignment of the countershaft to the spindle, but rather that some of steps on the cone pulleys tend to get used more than others. So the sides of that particular step get worn a bit more than the others resulting in a slightly deeper/loose fit of the belt. Ideally I guess all the steps would see the same wear, but in reality it seems not.

-frank
 
Hi Frank,

I had been wondering if that might be part of the problem. The three slower speeds are much closer on tension then the last step which is the tightest. Just dealing with old stuff I guess.

The other problem I'm trying to work though now is rewiring the GE Serv-S-Line Motor. I wrote down how it was wired BUT I was looking at the diagram on the motor and it doesn't jive with what was going on inside. To be honest the tag doesn't even make sense to me. I've wired 120/220 motors before, this one has me baffled.

K
 
Never mind, I think I get it.

It's been "hacked" a little to work with the drum switch.

I'll check it out with my meter later today.

K
 
K,

If the motor didn't come set up to be reversed, a PO could have cut the two wires at the ends of the start circuit and pulled them to the outside world.
 
wa5cab said:
K,

If the motor didn't come set up to be reversed, a PO could have cut the two wires at the ends of the start circuit and pulled them to the outside world.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what I'm seeing. They are suppose attached to terminal blocks but they were cut and then wired into the drum switch. Makes sense now that I've get how the motor works.

I'm getting there...

K
 
Getting back to the pulleys...

After a closer inspection on the counter shaft side there's noticeable wear (by eye) on the slowest step compared to the fastest. The old "stick your finger in there" method of measuring bears this out too. It looks like it was used more or less in the slow speed setting and occasionally in the next two speeds and almost never in high speed. The first three settings I can use with out readjusting, the 4th I would have to tweak a bit. I can live with that, for now anyway.

I was driving my self nuts trying to figure out why the tension was off, some times you need to look at the simple stuff first. Thanks Frank!

K
 
I hadn't thought of it either but in most cases, the highest speed range gets the least use unless the owner is doing a lot of wood turning or a lot of small aluminum parts.
 
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