Newbie With A 6" Lathe And Motor Issue

[T. J.]

I thought I'd fire off a first post and mention a motor issue that I discovered. After several months of watching other people make chips on YouTube, I scored a Craftsman 101.21400 on Craigslist. It's in decent shape and mainly needed a good cleaning, which I've done. I've almost got a bench built for it and will soon be in business! I purchased a new Dayton 1/3 HP capacitor start motor and then discovered the issue. A motor with a capacitor mounted on the top won't work with the mounting configuration depicted in the Atlas manual because the capacitor interferes with the belt between the countershaft and spindle pulley. I've never seen this issue discussed before in any forum, which is my reason for mentioning it. Luckily I discovered this before I had my bench built and have modified it to mount the motor under the bench.

Anyway, I'm happy to join the forum and I'm sure I'll be asking for some help soon...

T. J.

 

[Kernbigo]

I had a atlas 10" that i had a tread mill motor on it and worked great, sold it a year ago and bought a south bend wide 9", also mounted a tread mill motor on it. There is nothing like variable speed.

Edit-

 

[T Bredehoft]

Ignore this post.

 

[Kernbigo]

sorry spelling error

 

[mattthemuppet2]

reverse the motor (refer to the motor wiring diagram) and mount it to the left

 

[T. J.]

That would definitely be an easier option. However, I already had the wood cut for the bench top when I realized the problem and it wasn't wide enough!

 

[mattthemuppet2]

is the countershaft mounted to the lathe or to the bench? If to the lathe, raise the lathe with a couple of hardwood blocks. If to the bench, raise the countershaft lots of ways to skin this cat

 

[T. J.]

The countershaft mounts to the bench. I considered that, but it would have required riser blocks under both the lathe and countershaft. I made the decision to mount the motor under the bench thinking it would be easiest and shield it from chips better as well. I was wrong about it being easier, but I'm almost done now.

Speaking of different countershaft assemblies, my lathe came with lots of extra parts. Included were 3 countershaft brackets - 2 of the 'typical' M6-20A brackets and one that bolts to the lathe bed (M6-20). I chose to use one of the M6-20A's since I believe it is 'correct' for when my lathe was made. I was curious if anyone has a feeling for which one is more mechanically sound/desirable?

 

[Kernbigo]

i ran my 10" for about 10 years with no counter shaft direct drive using a treadmill motor

 

[A618fan2]

I can't offer an opinion on which is more desirable but once you've picked the one you want, the other two could go a long way to offset the cost of your lathe. I had to buy one of those when I set mine up and OUCH! Good luck with yours - they're nice little lathes.