Member postings for john fletcher 1

Have look at the local tip or car boot sale for childrens electric scooter, its usually the batteries which fail. I have used these motors to power 5" gauge 0-6-0 dock shunters and have never had a faulty motor or controller.I think a third horse single phase motor would be too heavy for what you are doing.Ted

I ordered some bolts from EKP yesterday afternoon and was here this morning.Barnstaple to Scarborough, congratualtions to the post and EKP.

If you join Vintage Radio forum some one there will tell you for certain.Also they will give you information on how to fix the radio if you need any help in that area and to where you might obtain components. Ted

£25 for a blade seems a lot of money.We get together as a group and buy from a local nut/bolt/screw/washer etc dealer. We pay up front and they deliver within 3 days, we usually buy 12 or more and can mix and match regarding teeth per inch. The blades are Bi-metalic made by an Internationally known manufacturers of blades on the Scottish Boarders for about £12 each.So I suggest you link up with several other users and save money. Happy New Year.ted

Sorry fellows I got the names mixed up.Ted

Better to use a window up/down motor/gearbox which are are slow speed and are designed to work in reverse,some wiper motors are not reversable. I made up a gear box using ex photo copier gears and made a dog clutch. In one of the earlier copies of MEW was a really useful low voltage motor speed control circuit. So, that gives me forward/reverse, speed control and fast traverse. Like Robin mine has been working 20 plus years. Robin if your mill is an RDM 350 I have several 1970's Model Engineering articles which list a series of mods to improve the machine. 5 years ago I fitted a pre owned inverter and 3 phase motor plus a fly wheel which has made things smooth. Finally, Robin have you ever had the column to pieces/out.Ted

HPC Gears 01246 260003 Foxwood Industrial Park, Chesterfield S41 9RN. They used to stock gears to fit early Myford lathes which had the early type gear box and which weren't available from Myford.Ted

Regarding Cap size for the colant pump its more likely 4 Micro farads. I have done this for my friends but cannot remeber the exact value. When the motor sound right and not getting hot then you have the best value, so its a bit hit and miss. Connect Caps in parallel to increase value, in series opposite.Ex fluorescent lights are good. Old 5 foots fluorescents were fitted with 7.5 micro farad. Ted

Hello Len P, John and Russel, regarding your foot mounted motor Len. I had the same arrangment but though the Myford resilient mounting better.So, I obtained 3 piece of 3mm plate and using one piece, copied the original base including the mounting hole. Using the two other pieces of 3mm I copied the verticle cradle end bits,which accomadate the rubber pieces in which the motor sits. I took the motor to the motor factors and they soon found 2 rubber rings, which were a tight fit over the motor bearing housing. Once home I mounted the rings on a piece bar and sanded the inner and outers flat. I next welded the end pieces to the base. Finally made two clamping pieces just like there was on the single phase Myford fitted motor. I left the welded on foot mountings just incase things didn't workout that was 8 or 10 years ago.My workshop is one of continual development.Ted

I fitted a 3 phase delta connected motor and inverter to my Super 7, the inverter is an early one/type, originally sold by RS Components without all the extra facilities now available.I made up the remote control box to give forward, reverse,jog and speed control.I can recommend the 3 phase motor and inverters.I've never found my motor running hot on slow speeds. Regarding the speed, I made up the digital display unit which was an article in one of the MEW magazines and that is also useful. Regarding possible electro magnetic interference, one can use Sy sceened 4 core cable and a filter unit which can be found at the end of the cable inside a front loader washing machine, the round box to where the lead fits. For the control multi core control wires use a screened computer lead.The control system is low voltage often 24 volts, so low voltage switches can be used. The speed control potentiometer (variable resistor has to be a linear type NOT A VOLUME CONTROL TYPE) are sold by electronic component outlets.don't be afaid of buying second hand, by and large inverters are very forgiving and 3 phase motors are tough and smooth running. Should you need any help fitting things up send me a PM.Ted

What a shame to discard a motor for such a simple fault, as Wallace says, its very easy to fix a motor. Just work with care,after all that is all the rewind people do. Also those motors are very silent running as they used sleeve bearings, modern ones use ball bearings.Ted

You won't have done you lathe motor any harm and I don't see how your converter has altered the lathe speeds either, as the motor speed is dependant on the mains frequency. Its not easy to reconfigure switching arrangement on a two speed motor, so leave well alone, your doing alright as you are. Yes converters don't produce a true three phase, but does it really matter in your situation? What you might consider obtain a cheap large say 3 or 4 hp motor 3 phase 415 volt, running it a as a pilot motor idling a way (doing no work) ,acting a a rotary converter, sound wise, insulated from the floor, tucked away some where close by but out of the way. Then have one socket outlet from the converter and a plug for each machine.Then use either lathe or mill one at a time,negligable cost and safe.

I wonder if Ian in Australia would like to send me details of the LED kit and copy of the instruction sheet he refered to on 26th june 2012.Ted

Regarding the 415 volt transformer and lo voltage lighting.If you connect 240 volts to where it was intended to connect 415 volts, then connect a full wave (bridge rectifier) to the lo voltage output and then connect about 5000 micro farad capcitor to the rectifier output observing polarity, you will find you have about 12 volt D C output to which I have connected one or more 20 watt lamps. I have a few ex dress shop display lamps I kind remember the correct title and have used the same rig up for more twenty years or maybe 30 when I think about it.But as others have said RS, Farnell and Rapid have suitable transformer, but be aware they have small order charges.Ex battery charger transformer are good and so are most audio equipment transformers. The exact voltage is not critical for lighting. As you might imagine, I have quite a lot of what the wife calls scrap.Ted

I have made several converter using transformer primaries in parallel and secondaries in series to obtain the desired output voltage, forming an isolation transformer. Capacitor values are a bit, near enough, (approx) if the motor sounds right the value of capacitance is correct or so I have found.Don't forget caps are + - 10 or even 20% tolerance. Regarding working voltage, yes you can connect caps in series but put a resistor in parallel with each cap to share the voltage.. You will need two banks of caps, 1 a run group, 2 a very much larger group, initially in parallel with the first group until the motor is up to speed. Without going into theory, two caps in series don't necessarily share the voltage equally, for futher details have a look on Vintage Radio there are some brainy guys there on cap and transformers.For the rotary part I've used a motor with various contactors to give starting up procedure, never relied on timers, easier to hold the start push for 20 seconds or so. Ex power factor correction caps are very good if you can find them second hand.I have used an ex micro wave cooker with the internals remove for the cabinet. I made a sheet steel front in place of the door and same for chassis to mount things on,the chassis make life easier for the wiring and possible fault finding.Finally mount a 10k 1watt discharge resistor to each cap, you will be working with quality caps which can store a charge for a long time.Ted

I hope I'm in the correct area.

Has any one any experience of using a 3 phase 415 volt inverter to power a 415 volt motor to just to obtain speed control of, 1. A .5hp. 2. A 1.5hp motor

The wife and I built my workshop 20 years ago from ex Butlin (Filey) 7 eiths thick, tongue and groove floor boards, double doors £250 including nails. Locally we can now obtain reject roofing/wall material, which is two sheets of plastic coated steel separated with 75mm of insulation foam, the plastic inside is white. Several of my friends have made excellent workshops using this material.I notice some farm building are made of similar material so it must be durable and maintenance free. It doesn't sweat and one only needs a 100watt bulb as a heater, can't be bad. Ted

Redthane round plastic belting.Heat up a broken hacksaw blade or old knife,push the two ends onto the heated blade pull away and push the two melted ends together, must be held in line for 5 or 10 minutes leave over night.Next morning remove plastic flashing with a sharp knife and smooth up with some course sand paper. Very quiet in operation. I believe they make a Greenthane as well its small diameter, Ted

After reading the request and the answer about the infra red thermometer.Please tell which model of Fluke are you using. Could it be the 77 on milli volt range.I have two different models of fluke and both are excellent.Ted

I have just looked in my garage at a similar motor with a not so different terminal box.I suggest you take a piece of paper and a pencil and make a sketch of the terminal box and note the colour and position of all the wires.It would appear that all you have to is move the links. Remove the incoming flat twin and earth, then move both link from the horizontal positions to vertical. Bottom left to top left and one I think link marked C to terminal above it.Next your input, and by the way you ought to using better or more appropriate cable with Green/yellow sleeve for the earth, connect supply to bottom left and the next terminal to it, marked C, I think. Well there you have it according the label on my motor. You can only blow the fuse if its wrong. If you lived close I would fix it for you, I've done lots in the pasted and have a good ohm meter to test out which winding is which, start or run. I notice its cap start which is good.Let me know how you get on, oh and by the way you need a double pole switch with centre off for reversing a single phase motor, not a dewhirst and use a starter with NO volt release for your own protection.Ted