Relmac Lathe Help and advice needed.

I Was given a Relmac Lathe a few years ago, after her father passed away and due to the motor not being wired up or it having belts it has been sat in my garage. Im not sure wether i should buy a new motor or get the run capacitor replaced on the motor i have (which came with the lathe but not entirely sure it is the one for it) I also am not sure about how to set the motor up to run the belt driven lathe. Is there anyone in the Carmarthenshire area that might be able to have a look and give me some suggestions or know of anyone i might be able to take it to. Im not sure how to add images of the lathe. Thanks in advance.

Edited By David Harland on 04/07/2018 07:12:18

David,I'v just had a look on Lathes UK website, they don't say about the motor size, but as it was designed to be foot powered, I would suggest a 1/3, or a 1/2 hp motor no more, and a 1/4hp motor would be ok, if you can't get the motor you have going, you will be able to get a second hand one quite cheap, by the prices here in NZ I would expect to pay about 10 UK pounds.

To get your photos up: Go to the top of the page to the green line and click on Albums, just follow the instructions. Reduce your pics to 640 x 480, that opens an album for you. Then when you want to put the pic in your thread, click on the little camera on the top line of the writing box, select your photo, that's it. It only took me about 6 months to work it out.

Ian S C

Thanks Ian i will attempt to post a picture on here.

If you want to use it for metal turning, it will need a counter shaft to reduce the drive ratio between the motor and the lathe's headstock pulleys. That shaft will need three pulleys on it to match the three on the headstock. Then another large pulley on the end of the counter shaft is belted to a small pulley on the motor. You want the pulleys sized sot the countershaft runs at about 400 rpm.

An alternative might be to buy a modern motor and VFD variable speed drive for it and couple it up directly, but probably would cost more than the lathe is worth?

On lathes UK the lathe looks quite nice with the foot motor.

Ian S C

Drummond recommended 250 rpm as the speed of a countershaft so perhaps 400 rpm might be at the top end?