Got sidetracked with mechanical work on the lathe but it looks like the oil pumping station behind the chuck has been shut down. Running it for 2-3 minutes was resulting in about a 2 tablespoon oil loss through the bearing cap. It was very loud at high rpms. I wasn’t terribly worried about it because it sounded just like my other lathe when I set the change gears too tight. After cleaning, fresh grease and setting the clearance it’s massively quieter.
Enough of the off-topic rambling. More closely related to the VFD, I had to repair the foot brake before setting it up in the VFD. Welds in the mechanical linkage had broken previously and were repaired poorly. Once the brake arm and pedal were repaired I removed the “micro” switch to change it from normally open to normally closed. I know that sounds backwards but the foot brake arm in its normal position presses the switch button in so it has to be open when the brake is in its resting position and closed when the pedal is depressed, releasing the switch button. New 20 gauge shielded wire was run between the switch and the VFD, The switch was returned to its place, the VFD parameter set and the brake was tested. It worked exactly as expected. I tried it several times at every speed just because it was so satisfying.
About all that’s left for the first phase of electrical work is to set up the spindle control using the original shaft and lever. I should be able to accomplish that in the next day or so.
The second and hopefully last stage is to install power switching. Right now I’m turning the power on/off at the breaker box. The breaker box is only 10 feet away but I want the power to be controlled at the lathe. The primary option that comes to mind is to install a contactor that can be switched by the original power switch. Alternatively a 2 or 3 pole switch could be installed but I really like using the original switches. After thinking about it for a while the flood coolant pump will probably not be used; at least not until a need arises.
