Lathe motor

[Dell]

A lot of people seem to ask what motor to use to run a watchmaker or small instrument lathe so I thought I would post my observations on the motor that I use , because I only service, repair and restore torsion clocks I use a Pultra 10mm instrument lathe but the motor I use will work just as well for a watchmaker lathe, it is made by Jack and it is an industrial sewing machine motor although I have removed the foot pedal and replaced it with a potentiometer because I have trouble with my leg twitching, the motor is very quiet and smooth and the torque is very good even at slow speed and I have added a video of me making a replacement disc pendulum adjustment rod just to show how good it is, I tend to run the lathe a lot slower that most when using a graver the video is when I had my original Pultra 17/70 although I no longer have it because I needed a larger lathe for some work and as I am very short of space I sold it when I got the Myford something I regretted almost immediately ( benefit of hindsight) , anyway I have now found a Pultra P type in very good original condition apart from a broken knob on the drawbar and at a price I couldn’t turn down so after stripping, cleaning and repainting it is setup on a piece of kitchen worktop with a Jack motor , I have checked runout and it is half an increment on a 0.001mm dti so very pleased, I have made a replacement knob for it on the Myford and I have made very small screws on the Myford IE 12BA but find it a lot easier on a small lathe using a graver, I hope this is of els to anyone looking towards a small lathe.

Dell