Southbend Lathe Repower... With a treadmill Motor

[Ian 2,417]

Hi all, it's about time I put this lathe re-power thread up. I first mentioned it a long time ago in this This Thread .

For some reason I did not take any photo's of the build, so all the pic's you see have been grabbed for video footage, which means sometimes the pic's are not as sharp as they could be... sorry..

 

Before I moved out of my old workshop, i stripped down the treadmill leaving only the parts I needed...

 

The motor and all the wiring/circuit boards..

 

 

 

And the control panel..

 

 

 

A closer look at the motor. 1.25 HP, but 180 volts DC which means I have to use the electrical gubbings that powered it in the treadmill..

 

 

 

So the question is... How do I get power from this little ribbed pulley...

 

 

 

To this big pulley on the lathe

 

 

 

First lets make a mock motor with direction of travel, as it's much lighter than trying to hold the real thing in place..

 

 

 

The easiest place to mount it would be on the wall above the lathe, but making something to tension a drive belt could be awkward!

 

 

 

Also mounting the "speed change pulleys" would be fun as it would have to sit somewhere in the catch tray.. Somewhere about here..

 

 

 

Despite the amount of space it would take up behind the lathe, I decided to go with the mounting system I made for the lathe years ago.

Here's a view from the back when the lathe and I were still at the nursery workshop..

 

Thankfully I can make it a bit less "hangin out da back" or else I'd have to cut a hole through the wall in my new Workshack!

 

 

 

It used to pivot on the back of the bench on this steel rod.

 

 

 

The trouble was I'd cut one of the hinge brackets off to make the lathe bench easier to move to my new Workshack!

 

 

 

Never mind. let's lighten it a bit and cut off an unneeded bit in the saw..

 

 

 

One broken blade later...

 

 

 

But after some more of this..

 

 

 

It finally came off.

 

 

 

Leaving this odd small bit of box sticking out..

 

 

 

Sooo, out a new tool came

 

 

[Ian 2,417]

Now may be a good point to drop in Vid No 1

 

 

[Ian 2,417]

How how does my new toy perform?   Not bad at all

 

 

 

It still needed a bit of hitting..

 

 

 

And wiggling!

 

 

 

Back to the back and time to sort out this hinge problem..

 

 

 

A quick bit of marking out.

 

 

 

Small drill..

 

 

 

A bigger drill...

 

 

 

Don't you just hate it when this happens?

 

 

 

So I finished it by hand with a step drill... very handy things

 

 

 

A bit of trimming and a couple more holes and with it bolted on the hinge repair was done...  Now I know this is steel on steel, but as I don't have to change "speeds by belt" that often there will be very little ware..

 

 

 

Whilst I was down that way, I bolted the "belt tension arm" back in place.

 

 

 

The "beltey tiltey bit was fitted on.. Sorry about the naff pic.

 

 

 

And this little collar stops it from moving side to side.

 

 

 

Loads more to come, so tune back at some point for more..

[Ian 2,417]

Afternoon/morning all, a bit more of this build for you..

 

A slight change of direction here as for no particular reason I decided to crack on with getting the control panel mounted..

 

Here it is..

 

 

 

And the underside... HHmmm... how am I going to mount something with only 4 screw holes that are at the ends of the tube like sticky up bits

 

 

 

Well, here the bottom half of the answer..

 

 

 

The top half has a rather sturdy metal lamp shade on it!..

 

 

 

Not any longer

 

 

 

HHhhhmmmm... So I need to fix one bolt to 4 screw holes!! 

 

Anything is possible with a bit of cardboard

 

 

 

 

 

Marked out on a green steel shelf!

 

 

 

Out with the grinder..

 

 

 

A slight thump to finish it off..

 

 

 

"Be gone, you sharp edges"!

 

 

 

MMMmmmmm... Shiny

 

[Ian 2,417]

With the green side up, fold lines and the 4 screw holes were marked out..

 

 

 

A bit like this..

 

 

 

The two short folds were easy as they were straight folds.. My (now dismantled) metal folder couldn't handle the thickness of the steel, so the control panel cover (just realized, I've not actually told you that's what I was making, so I hope you'd guessed right?) was clamped to the lathe pulleys tilt thingy/ex Wheel Horse chassis using a length of solid square bar... Can a bar be square?

 

 

 

A bit of hitting stick action....

 

 

 

Soon had the edges bent around..

 

 

 

Bending the curved parts was not quite so violent for the steel, but it did take longer.... It also involved a "Bending stick"... One of these in fact..

 

 

 

Take this part slowly and don't try to bend too much down at once or the steel will kink..

Slot the "Bending stick" on and push down slowly.. This is the first bend..

 

 

 

Third (I think) bend..

 

 

 

And the almost finished bend..er bend

 

 

 

From this point on wards, I forgot to take any pic's of making the cover.. For some reason I took a pic of the heavy rain through the window instead

 

 

 

The finished control panel cover...  Mounting it to the lathe bench will come later..

 

 

 

Oh, here's part 2 of the vids.