Problems with Mardrive

Hi, I have a Pultra Lathe that has been in storage for some time. I am now trying to assemble it to use in a new workshop. I have put the machine together but have found a part left over that I can't see would fit anywhere. (image attached) I discovered from the wealth of original literature that came with the lathe that it is a clutch thrust and spring. Secondly Whilst the lathe was in store my carefully labelled wiring decription ( image att) to the front control switch has faded and I don't know what goes where. Would anyone be able to in simple 'leyman's terms' advise me on this problem. Lastly while searching for the odd left over part above in the literature I worryingly discovered that the brake pad on the Mardrive pulley system supposidly has an Asbestos brake pad. (image att 13B))Has anyone come up against this problem and could advise how to replace or resolve this predicament. Many thanks.

If the brake does not need re-lining I'd suggest your best bet is to leave it alone. I would clean it and the enclosure with a slightly damp paper towel (perhaps moistened with meths rather than water) and seal that in a bag for disposal.

if it needs a new lining, try a brake and clutch relining company.

You'll be fine

We walked in streets where every vehicle brake in the universe was asbestos, and lived in houses and worked in premises lined with the stuff

Asbestos is a problem if you're a demolition guy and you're cutting it up with a chop saw and breathing in the dust

(It might kill you by the time you're 147 years old, but that's not a worry for most of us)

And good luck on the mardrive, that's a cool bit of gear if you can get it going

Edited By Ady1 on 20/02/2023 23:03:48

The part you've shown goes between the two halves of the clutch, it pushes it out of engagement, hopefully my photo this.

The wiring ! you appear to have a MEM contactor and a santon rotary switch. Will you need to reverse the motor ? I will not try to remember the wiring for this I will look some diagrams and come back later today with luck. As for the brake pad don't worry, just wipe down with a moist cloth and dispose of - if it needs relining a piece of brake shoe material will be fine. Noel.

And when working on steam pipework and boilers we used to rush in to be first to get to work on the old section lagged in asbestos so we didn't have to put up with that itchy fibreglass stuff on the new sections.

Used to bandsaw and flycut asbestos. Would be covered completely in white. Did use a facemask to keep out the big lumps. Job ended in 1982. Also used to put My arms in a trichlorethane steam heated vapor degreasing tank ,arms only tingeled once.

Good to know that Hopper, Mark and Ady lived to tell the tale, but statistics confirm Asbestos isn't safe.

Your choice: believe in the personal experience of 3 chaps on an internet forum or the figures; about 55,000 deaths worldwide per year. A good deal depends on which type of Asbestos one is exposed to, how often, and it what form. One type is far more dangerous than the other, do you know which is which?

I've been more nervous of asbestos since a colleague died of Asbestosis. Office worker, exposure low. Our building was erected in 1939, and the underside of its concrete slab flat-roof had been insulated by spraying a few inches of asbestos underneath. Beneath that was a suspended false-ceiling, so not much chance of trouble. Unfortunately, the roof immediately over his office leaked and a section of false ceiling was removed during attempts to repair it. After noticing but not worrying about a fine sprinkling of dust he developed a little cough... Then the poo hit the fan!

I'm afraid personal experience is an extremely poor way of detecting carcinogens. For them to show up thousands of people have to report sick before the data eventually indicates a problem, usually long after the exposure, .

Playing Russian roulette, there's a 1 in 6 chance of blowing your brains out. Perfectly possible for an individual to pull the trigger more than 6 times without ill-effect, but his good luck absolutely doesn't mean the game is safe. Working with Asbestos is far less risky than playing Russian roulette but nonetheless a Japanese study found 39% of a workforce installing asbestos boards eventually developed Asbestosis.

Announcing "I'm all right" is a form of survivorship bias and falling for it leads to bad life decisions.

I doubt a lathe clutch is a widow maker, but even so I'd treat it with respect, just in case. Not difficult: wear a face-mask, wet clean the clutch, bag up the remains, do it outside, and avoid scattering dust.

Dave

The stuff we avoided at sea was benzene

Anyone who came into contact with it had issues for years, some of the guys I sailed with had even waded in it

The original two-pack paints that came out in the 1970s killed two of my mates who were spray painters in the days before its dangers were known and breathing gear etc organised.

Dave, not saying asbestos is not dangerous. It  can be. Just that I possibly dodged a bullet... so far. And how ignorant we were of the dangers.  We didn't wear hearing protection in car body stamping plants or on the turbine floors of powerstations either. Got two hearing aids today to prove it.

Edited By Hopper on 23/02/2023 02:51:40

Bit simplistic really, Ady. It's not a 1:1 "here's some asbestos", "now you die.

It's more of a: remove all that asbestos and lung cancer rates in the popoulation (amongst other things) drop significantly.

This has drifted well off topic, but there are reports of women who washed their husbands overalls dying of asbestosis when their husbands who worked with it day in day out escaped. I had exposure 50 years ago, still no effect, it's all in the luck of the draw, but eliminating asbestos eliminates mesophelioma (if I've spelled it right)

Good overview of the Asbestos problem here: **LINK**

https://www.alsglobal.se/en/environment/asbestos/about-asbestos

… it’s the very special morphology of ‘split-ends’ of the fibres that make it so potentially damaging

There are plenty of very impressive Electron Microscope images around.

MichaelG.

Asbestos is comparable with road deaths in the UK

The risk exists and we behave sensibly to mitigate that risk

The alternative is never step across our front door ever again

skin cancer is probably a far higher risk issue, doesn't stop us going out though

On a lighter note … I remember one of my Dad’s lines:

Q. How do they make Asbestos ?

A. as best as they possibly can.

MichaelG.

Just a quick thank you to everyone who replied with help and advice. Much appreciated.

Hi Martin, the thread went way of topic about a Sq " of possibly asbestos. You did not answer as to wether you need to reverse the motor, and do you need wiring diagrams ? Noel.

Hi Noel, Yes sorry about that. I would like to be able to reverse the motor and also have some wiring diagrams. I would be very grateful for those. Thanks Martin.

Getting a bit paranoid now as I was looking at the guts of the forward /reverse switch on the pultra cabinet and noticed the wired parts I have circled in red. Are these also Asbestos? as they look pretty ragged. If they are should I look for a replacement modorn switch equivalent? appreciate your advice Martin

Hi Martin, I wrote a long reply, only to drop the mouse - and loose it all. So ! What make of motor do you have ? Ideally we need to know what letters do you have on the terminal board. Does the reversing switch have a makers name on it ? Santon ? Does it have terminals marked F-, F+, A1, A2 ?

The contactor has overload on it, yes the insulation is asbestos, but left alone it will be ok ! A new switch is unlikley to fit the cut out on the panel and needs to be the right current rating for the motor to work. It appears to have 2 overload heaters, or are there 3?

I'm not sure wether this is a task that a layman should do ! Make certain that you have all metal connected to a good earth and ideally on an RCD. I will dig out the diagrams. Good luck Noel.