Flexispeed Lathe Motor and Power Supply

I have been looking for suitable pulleys to make a countershaft for my lathe, but have struggled to find anything suitable and affordable. I also looked for an electronic controller, but the motor that I have bought is not suitable for this.

I have concluded that it will probably be cheaper to start again and, as an alternative, I am thinking of just buying a new motor that is suitable for electronic control. I have seen this on E-bay, a 24v 100W scooter motor,

**LINK**

Is this likely to be adequate and can any one suggest a suitable power source?

Thank you.

James.

Hi James,
This motor is about 1/8 HP so with a belt speed reduction system it would probably be powerfull enough. If you reduce the speed with a speed controller the available torque remains constant so the available power is reduced. So if you ran the motor at 1/5 of its rated speed you would be down to 1/40 HP As you would be using the lower speed when turning larger diameters you would require greater torque which is what a mechanical speed reduction would give you. If you plan on using only a fixed ratio between the lathe spindle and the motor you would need so start out with a much more powerful motor so the available torque was greater.

Les.

Oh. Back to the drawing board. I will get this thing going one day!

Thank you, Les. Saves me wasting money and time.

Regards,

James.

James,

Please check your inbox as I have sent you a private message.

/meteor%20II%20manual.zip

Here's the manual for the Flexispeed Meteor II, (not exactly an epic publication).

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 06/04/2015 12:40:19

I like the idea of two reference faces that can be used to set the tailstock central.

Neil

Thank you all for the helpful replies, without which I would porbably have wasted a fair bit of money. My main problem with using pulleys was finding a stepped pulley small enough. However, a friend now has a lathe up and running that I can borrow to turn up a suitable stepped pulley for the Flexispeed.

Thank you, alos, for the link to the manual which is rasther useful, especially the section on centring the tailstock.

Fingers crossed and watch this space. I shall post some pictures once I have it sorted out.

Regards,

James.

Hi James,

I have a Flexispeed Meteor 11, the motor that accompanies it is a Parvalux 1/4 hp, 1440 rpm. I'm fairly sure that it is original, as it is painted the same Hammerite blue as the lathe. The only oddity is the countershaft, a Picador product, left as cast aluminium. These are all British products, and not add-ons in Australia.

Cheers, Hugh.

Its been a while since the last post. I am looking for a motor for the Flexispeed. It seems that 1/3 hp is about the right size. Standard motors are expensive. It looks like the motors off small pillar drills would fit the bill, but it seems a waste to chuck the rest of the drill away (I don't have space for any more machines). Wash M/c motors seem to need electronic control, so what other sources of motor have been used?
BobH

Bob,

I fitted a MY631-4 CAP RUN SINGLE PHASE 240V 0.12KW 0.16HP motor that I bought new from e-bay for £20.00 plus delivery. It is quiet, smooth and powerful enough. The belt slips long before the motor stalls.

Regards,

James.

James, the price has gone up a bit - over £80 now. What sort of depth of cut can you take at about 10 mm dia in steel. (Appreciate feed would make a difference).
BobH

Bob,

Ouch; and only in two years. Mine was a "best offer" price, but the full figure was only about £25.00 or so.

I am not sure about depth of cut: I tend to rough out at whatever the machine can manage and finish with quite shallow cuts. I think, though, that it can take about 15 thou. The trouble is, as I mentioned, that the belt slips rather than the motor struggling. I do have a better belt to try, but the machine is out of use at the moment as I can barely get into the garage/workshop due to my son's heap of car stuff.

Regards,

James.