Lathe Spindle Clutch

I'm thinking of adding a clutch to the drive train of my GH1330. I've read Kwils article on his magnetic clutch in MEW159 and another article on a cone clutch added to a Warco BH600.

Has anyone else fitted a clutch to a gear head lathe?

Looking for opinions, advice, any thoughts on whether it would be a worthwhile modification.

Well Colchester thought they were worth fitting on the gear-heads and my IXL with the Colchester Master clone gear headstock has one. I suppose it all depends on the type of work that you do. If it involves a lot of stopping and starting then a clutch must help the motor as it isn't seeing all the high current starts. If you're doing a long continuous cut, then probably less benefit. I think generally gear heads will have more inertia than a belt drive lathe for the motor to overcome on start up and certainly more resistance when starting from cold. The lathe I was taught on had a clutch and the operating lever worked in both ways, disengaging the clutch and pushing further activated the brake so a bit of the best of both worlds really. Probably no real definitive answer though.

Keith

Hi Coalburner

I made and fitted a cone clutch to my Denford 280 probably 10 years ago now, which is geared head, but has adjustable cone pulleys for variable speed control.

My lathe is converted to single phase which doesn't really like being switched on and off frequently, which is why I originally did it, but having fitted it, I wouldn't want to be without it and it's used very frequently.

I put the clutch in the original motor position connected to one of the cone pulleys and moved the motor position to drive the clutch by a belt.

My lathe was bought cheaply and in poor condition, so hacking the thing around to that extent didn't really worry me - but had I had a near new or expensive lathe, I would have thought long and hard before getting the angle grinder out !!

Cheers - Will

With a gear head its probably a good idea to have a soft take-up. Easy enough with a mechanical clutch which merely needs an educated hand on the control but if retrofitting an electromagnetic one its most likely better on the motor shaft so the belt provides some drive cushion. Some of the gear head lathes have very short drive belts so maybe re-positioning the motor to give a longer belt run for more cushion should be considered if you do go electro-magnetic.

Car aircon compressor drive clutch from the scrappy looks promising as a relatively inexpensive source for an electro-magnetic clutch. Got one under my bench ready for incorporation into a projectr due for completion in the next month or so.

I've had good results with simple slack belt and spring loaded jockey pulley "clutches" in the past on lathes. My biggest motor was 3/4 HP but such devices are common on petro engined domestic mowers etc so up to a couple or three horsepower should be within capabilities. Nooging around the car multi-Vee serpentine "fan" belt drive repair kits should come up with most of the jockey pulley bits. These days I'd be highly tempted to source a couple of suitble pulleys from a scrap car and change to a multi-Vee belt too.

Clive

3 part series in 4452 "A clutch for geared head lathes" would be worth reading, it was fitted to a Harrison M250.

J

Good morning all

Has anyone done a clutch fit to an Emco Maximat 11? I have already fitted a new starting capacitor to the motor no great problem but a clutch would be useful. The clutch on S7 is wonderful ideal when power taping and it does save all that stopping and starting the single phase motor.

Peter