Monday, May 14, 2007

Lathe Drive Install

My Minarik speed controller arrived over the weekend so today I decided to get some work done. First thing was to hook everything up without switches or enclosures just to determine that everything works.

(Please disregard the dates on the photos as my camera's been acting up)

I'm happy to say that everything worked great the first time i plugged it in. I only had a simple schematic to work with but I did work in electronics for many years so that does help. Next, I had to screw down the steel sheeting on the mounting board as the glue I used was not as strong as I thought.


The sheeting is now on there solid although as you can tell by the picture, the sheet is easily marred and scratched. After this, I tackled the motor mounts. Two metal brackets from Home Depot did the trick.


I purposely let the left hand bracket overhang because I'm thinking of installing a goose neck halogen spotlight there. Here's the motor mounted:


I like the way the mounting system came out. The motor pivots on 1/2" bolts which allows for belt tightening. Finally, I started installing the speed controller in a box and gave the motor another test run to see how the mount holds up.


I'm excited about this motor/controller combo. The motor is very smooth running with very minimal vibration. I turned it way down to a crawl and the torque on the shaft was amazing. I couldn't stop it with my hand. UPS will be here today with my drive pulleys and belt so I will be installing those and finally mounting the lathe to the board. I also have to finish hard wiring everything. Stay tuned.....

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