First, Saw the Garage in Half

I have a bunch of important (to me) jobs facing me, and I have to prioritize.

I have to put the lathe back together, with the VFD wired up and the new motor installed. I guess it’s pointless to think about that until the new motor arrives. The ancient replacement motor I received isn’t very good; I finally realized that my inability to get the pulley stack on correctly means the shaft is so marred, it’s not acceptable for use. I had this idea that it was normal to have to use a non-marring hammer to drive one of these things onto a shaft, and that reducing the misalignment was a matter of skill, but that’s clearly BS. It should go on straight, without all this grief. The seller sent me a lemon. I can’t get it straight, so if I use it, the belt will always rub on the outside of the pulleys during part of each turn, and the lathe will vibrate, and the belt will eventually snap. When the new motor arrives, I’ll lubricate the shaft and slide it in, and everything will work the way it’s supposed to. This is the difference between the right way and the Fred Sanford way.

I have to put my Saiga shotgun together. All of the improved parts except for the light have arrived.

Finally, I have to install my new cheapo Chinese garage air conditioner. I guess that should come first, because it will make all the other projects bearable.

I was all bummed out because I thought I was going to have to spend $900 on a split unit or $600 on a conventional wall unit, and I figured the $600 job would mean cutting a giant hole in the wall and maybe running a circuit. Then I stumbled on a my 18000-BTU floor-model beauty at Brandsmart, and I took it home for $137 including tax. I still have to cut a hole, but that isn’t nearly as upsetting now that I’m getting a bargain.

What a difference this will make in my ability to use tools. Ordinarily, in any month which is not part of the November-April string, working in the garage is pretty bad. Every time I tilt my head, sweat pours into my safety glasses and makes puddles inside the lenses, making it impossible to see. My shirt sticks to me and digs into my skin. If I wear a respirator, it gets soggy. Sweat falls on anything I work on. I run two fans, but they don’t work all that well, and they blow papers around and keep sawdust in the air.

Now I should be able to cool the garage down to a reasonable temperature and relax. And I found a replacement remote for ten bucks, shipped. Sweet.

Og and Jim Dunmyer seem to think it’s a bad idea for me to make my new VFD explode–where is their sense of adventure?–so I looked the manual over last night and figured out how to connect my drum switch to the logic inputs. This will allow me to use the drum switch to reverse the motor without blowing anything up. It won’t allow me to stop the motor with the switch. I’m pretty sure. Depends on what the VFD is programmed to do when both contacts are open.

One nice thing about this is that it means I can quit trying to find a way to make the drum switch reverse the motor directly, and I can avoid fooling with the 12-gauge wires I bought for the purpose. I’ll be able to use 18 gauge, which is tiny and cooperative.

I learned something interesting. The VFD is programmed to take 10 seconds to get the motor running. That’s the default, and it’s no good. I think I’ll change it to one second. That sure beats the hard start I used to get, but it’s still fast enough to be convenient.

I may need to put a big fat resistor in there somewhere to help the VFD brake the motor. The one Hitachi sells is insanely expensive, so I’m going to conspire with forum denizens and find something cheaper. As I understand it, a VFD with no added resistor will provide a certain amount of braking, but it’s not clear that it will do the job for this application, and I don’t want to put it under any strain.

I think someone told me he used a stove burner as a resistor. That would be good. I could turn metal and fry eggs at the same time.

It would be great to be able to do a little milling with this machine (or any machine), but I have no milling attachment. I thought I’d have to buy an old Clausing attachment, but it looks like there is an aftermarket job that will fit any compound. That should be much cheaper.

I am really nervous about sawing up the garage wall.

Because I live in Karl Goebbels Coral Gables, home of the world’s worst zoning Nazis, I want to pretty up the outside of the unit with those wraparound louver things, but I can’t find them on the web. Does anyone know what they’re called?

I better start measuring for the saw.