Recommendation for lath motor

[LittleWatchShop]

56 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Mine came with a foot pedal. It say John quale QD Beech and sons suppliers. How do you find working with a pedal as to a fixed switch ?

I guess you mean on/off. I would not like that.

[Neverenoughwatches]

4 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

I guess you mean on/off. I would not like that.

I've not tried either as yet to strip down. Will be my first experience on a watch lathe. Only ever done wood turning. I could see pro and con to both. Being able to adjust speed to suit work without stopping but also having to focus on controlling the lathe and turn at the same time. I'm hoping it will become second nature to me. I can pat my head and rub my tummy at the same time

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I've bought from this guy, a job lot of bits and pieces. Was ok. Not the cheapest for what I got tbf. But had no issues with him as a seller. 

What lathe have you got ?

[nickelsilver]

7 hours ago, LittleWatchShop said:

So a lathe motor question was all it took to get to see @nickelsilver work space? Wish I had asked a year ago.

I have a large roll of 3mm TPU filament for 3D printing. Makes a great belt.

 

Hahaha, that's about 0.01% of the schtuff I have, it just starts accumulating at a certain point. But not lathes. I have a long bed Levin I've been meaning to rescrape to match Leinen standard if possible (started many years ago, in stasis), another Leinen that just needs new bearings and a going through of its Levin heavy duty cross slide, and that's about it. There have been many others, and while it's handy to have two watchmakers lathes on hand, I've been happy enough with one really good one and a Schaublin 102 for the last couple decades. I like having backups, but not a collector.

 

I will say that over those couple decades, every person who's used my lathe has made some sort of comment about stealing it, haha. The Levin slide is sublime, quick change toolpost is a copy I made of a now defunkt Dorian and repeats within microns, with loads of toolholders, literally hundreds of Schaublin collets. Guesstimate of 10k hours of crank time on it. My baby.

[nickelsilver]

16 hours ago, Daniel123 said:

I’ve been looking at this motor, it’s just motor though.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/403592624860?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=zgke2qfwr92&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=rlz7vj34Rf2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

16 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I'm jealous. What scope is that please Nicklesilver, I want to upgrade mine.

It's a little Olympus VT-II, two powers, 1x and 2x; with 10x eyepieces I get 10x and 20x. Sounds like a lot, but at 10x I can see a good 15mm length.

14 hours ago, Daniel123 said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265640776964?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=VyiznPFHT16&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=rlz7vj34Rf2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
 

how about this one

 

14 hours ago, Daniel123 said:

This is a potential, 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185381419314?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=xOSWZLSCSNa&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=rlz7vj34Rf2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

The last one I think is fixed speed, and runs too fast unless you can cut it in half with a countershaft. The others might be ok, but the lack of pulley is a pain- those can be very hard to find with appropriate grooves and hole size, they also don't seem to be "ready to mount", so you'd have some work making a bracket. But the one with speed control included looks like a good deal.

 

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

17 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I'm jealous. What scope is that please Nicklesilver, I want to upgrade mine.

Is that 15mm field of view ? I am using a swift, I think a predecessor of the amscope, or maybe just a rebadge. It has a 10x 20x and 30x eyepieces, but very rarely do I use anything above the 10x. Field of view 15 maybe 20mm at most. I'm after something  to give me full view of the movement.  I ordered a 5x thinking I would have a larger field but it is exactly  the same as the 10x but with the lower mag.

[jdrichard]

29 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Is that 15mm field of view ? I am using a swift, I think a predecessor of the amscope, or maybe just a rebadge. It has a 10x 20x and 30x eyepieces, but very rarely do I use anything above the 10x. Field of view 15 maybe 20mm at most. I'm after something  to give me full view of the movement.  I ordered a 5x thinking I would have a larger field but it is exactly  the same as the 10x but with the lower mag.

I use a DSz70

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 minute ago, jdrichard said:

I use a DSz70

Hi JD. What viewing field are you getting with that please? 

[jdrichard]

Not sure what you mean. I have a x70 zoom with a x20 eyepiece. Great for watch work

[Neverenoughwatches]

4 minutes ago, jdrichard said:

I use a DSz70

I'm looking at your vid now thanks. I think this is exactly what I've been looking for

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 minutes ago, jdrichard said:

Not sure what you mean. I have a x70 zoom with a x20 eyepiece. Great for watch work

I can only view half of a movement, field of view around 3/4 "

[nickelsilver]

38 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Is that 15mm field of view ? I am using a swift, I think a predecessor of the amscope, or maybe just a rebadge. It has a 10x 20x and 30x eyepieces, but very rarely do I use anything above the 10x. Field of view 15 maybe 20mm at most. I'm after something  to give me full view of the movement.  I ordered a 5x thinking I would have a larger field but it is exactly  the same as the 10x but with the lower mag.

Just checked with a scale: Olympus 10x, 19mm field of view. Nikon zoom at lowest power (8x), 28mm, and American Optical zoom at lowest power (7x) 30mm.

[Neverenoughwatches]

4 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

Just checked with a scale: Olympus 10x, 19mm field of view. Nikon zoom at lowest power (8x), 28mm, and American Optical zoom at lowest power (7x) 30mm.

I've ordered something wrong then.  My 5x gives me the same field of view as the 10x 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 minute ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I've ordered something wrong then.  My 5x gives me the same field of view as the 10x 

The am scope eyepiece range is limited, tbh its cheap and cheerful but got me up and running. I need to upgrade to some quality and use this one  to set up along with my lathe a separate bench

[Neverenoughwatches]

23 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I'm looking at your vid now thanks. I think this is exactly what I've been looking for

Watched your video thanks. I like the scope and is what I'm looking for, likely it will be a lot more to buy here in the Uk. What time you got in Canada ? 

[Daniel123]

7 hours ago, nickelsilver said:

 

It's a little Olympus VT-II, two powers, 1x and 2x; with 10x eyepieces I get 10x and 20x. Sounds like a lot, but at 10x I can see a good 15mm length.

 

The last one I think is fixed speed, and runs too fast unless you can cut it in half with a countershaft. The others might be ok, but the lack of pulley is a pain- those can be very hard to find with appropriate grooves and hole size, they also don't seem to be "ready to mount", so you'd have some work making a bracket. But the one with speed control included looks like a good deal.

 

 

Do you think I’d be able to add a foot peddle to the one with the speed control?

[nickelsilver]

1 minute ago, Daniel123 said:

Do you think I’d be able to add a foot peddle to the one with the speed control?

Only if it's designed for it. Most AC motors can't be controlled by variable resistance (whats in the pedal), you need a variable frequency drive. Motors marked both AC/DC, known as universal motors can, but low speed torque is miserable.

[LittleWatchShop]

2 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

variable frequency drive.

PWM drive. Constant frequency with varying duty cycle. This is typical.

Varying speed with resistance is low tech, but it works. At really low speed (high resistance) you will lose power and torque as you say. For my amateur level of work, that has never been an issue.

[Neverenoughwatches]

7 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

Only if it's designed for it. Most AC motors can't be controlled by variable resistance (whats in the pedal), you need a variable frequency drive. Motors marked both AC/DC, known as universal motors can, but low speed torque is miserable.

Induction motors Nicklesilver? 

[Daniel123]

50 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

PWM drive. Constant frequency with varying duty cycle. This is typical.

Varying speed with resistance is low tech, but it works. At really low speed (high resistance) you will lose power and torque as you say. For my amateur level of work, that has never been an issue.

There is this one but I’m just not convinced. 
 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351817207808?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=emNmx5pgStO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=rlz7vj34Rf2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[Daniel123]

8 hours ago, nickelsilver said:

 

It's a little Olympus VT-II, two powers, 1x and 2x; with 10x eyepieces I get 10x and 20x. Sounds like a lot, but at 10x I can see a good 15mm length.

 

The last one I think is fixed speed, and runs too fast unless you can cut it in half with a countershaft. The others might be ok, but the lack of pulley is a pain- those can be very hard to find with appropriate grooves and hole size, they also don't seem to be "ready to mount", so you'd have some work making a bracket. But the one with speed control included looks like a good deal.

 

 

There is this one but I’m just not sure about it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351817207808?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=emNmx5pgStO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=rlz7vj34Rf2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

[LittleWatchShop]

16 minutes ago, Daniel123 said:

There is this one but I’m just not sure about it.

A sewing machine motor will work.  @jdrichardgave an example of one with a counter shaft earlier in this thread.  It can work without a counter shaft but there may be some performance issues as noted in this thread.  But it can work.  I had one of my lathes configured with a sewing machine motor and a belt in figure 8 drive so that it turned in the desired direction.  For the foot pedal, I used a sewing machine foot pedal that had four or five different steps of control.  I did not care for that but it was workable.  Ultimately, I bought a Marshall motor and replaced the sewing machine motor.

I would ask the seller about his foot pedal.  It looks a little lame to me.  Ask if it is continuous control, on/off, or stepped control.  Looks like on/off to me but, who knows--well...the sell knows.

My first two lathes belonged to my Dad who used them in his business for 40 years.  Both were controlled with Allen Bradley rheostat controls and used Marshall or Racine motors.

[jdrichard]

I have now purchased 2 additional Borel Lathe stands and will now need to find 2 more motors….which I have somewhere:)

Check out my new video

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 hours ago, Daniel123 said:

There is this one but I’m just not convinced. 
 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351817207808?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=emNmx5pgStO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=rlz7vj34Rf2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

It doesn't strike me as much quality tbh. His feedback rate isn't too bad but his negatives won't load. Personally  I would pass, but that's me

[Neverenoughwatches]

5 hours ago, Daniel123 said:

There is this one but I’m just not sure about it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351817207808?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=emNmx5pgStO&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=rlz7vj34Rf2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

I waited it out for a few months until the right one came along and it did. Less than 200 for a really good lathe with loads of extras.  Bide your time something will come your way. Do good things and the universe  will reward you . Then when I've got what I want I go back to being naughty  again.

Edited April 16, 2022 by Neverenoughwatches