Hey all,
It's been a while since I provided an update on my progress so I figured I would post. No pictures this time, I'll snap a few tomorrow and toss them up. The top half of the machine is done and fully assembled. Carriage, apron, chuck, tailstock all done. Head completely drained, cleaned, re-lubricated and ready to go. All the dials and levers have been pulled apart, cleaned and polished, and made to operate nice a smooth. Gear box was already in good shape so just did some minor cleaning and put it back together. There remaining checklist includes: stripping and painting the lower aspect of the machine (base/coolant reservoir), removing the existing electrical components, replacing existing motor with 3-phase motor, and wiring in the VFD. To that end, I had a feel questions for you guys.
1. I cant seem to locate a head gasket for the machine. I'm thinking I'll need to just buy gasket material and cut my own. Is that what you guys do for these machines? What about some of that gasket-in-a-can stuff?
2. The original motor is a single phase 3-HP metric motor (112M). It has a 28MM shaft. I would just use it for now until forced to upgrade to the 3-phase/VFD, but half of the keyway sidewall has been broken off. It's basically just a large flat area on the shaft until you hit the opposite side of the keyway where it transitions back to round shaft. I could weld it up, turn it down, and re-cut the keyway, but I don't have a lathe without that motor. Here's the question: A new 112M 3-phase inverter motor is like $700. Finding a different motor with say a 1"-1.250" shaft would be nice because they're more widely available, but then the pulley wouldn't fit. The pulley is a double-B groove pulley with a journal for the brake. I can't seem to find a part that would replace this pulley (the journal for the brake is the problem). Any ideas?
Any recommendations on the gasket and motor would be helpful. I'm not so much worried about the base configuration and mounting, that can be changed quite easily. My concern is finding a VFD-friendly motor (inverter duty) and a matching pulley that will allow me to still use the original brake.