Motor Headed Back to Kansas

Mish Weiss is in a bad state, as should be expected after a bone marrow transplant. I’m hoping this one works better than the last one. You would think marrow from a daughter would be more likely to take hold than marrow from a stranger. It’s comforting to believe, whether or not it’s true. She appreciates all prayers and comments.

I hope some of you will do me a favor and remember my cousin Debbie today. Her cancer involves her brain as well as her lungs. It amazes me, how many people in my family smoke. I can understand the older ones getting caught up in it, because the link between smoking and cancer wasn’t recognized by the US government until 1964. But why did the younger ones start?

Human beings are not driven primarily by reason. If we were, Barack Obama wouldn’t be President, and it would be impossible to get anyone to buy heroin. You would think that intelligence would make us happier and healthier than other creatures, but it hasn’t worked out that way. Intelligence is overrated; I’ve always said so. An ounce of character is worth a ton of intelligence. I’m smart, and I’ve done so many stupid things, I could never hope to remember a tenth of them.

Maybe I shouldn’t write about my lathe problems after saying a thing like that, but I will.

UPS, in its wisdom, sent my damaged motor back to Kansas. They provided no explanation. I have no idea whether they’re paying the seller anything toward the damage. It will be at least a week before I get a replacement.

Yesterday the new VFD arrived. I wired it up and held my breath, wondering if I might accidentally come up with a new way to destroy VFDs. I connected it to the ancient motor the lathe seller sent me, and it ran. Thank God. Literally.

When this motor arrived, it made a bonking sound when the shaft rotated, but now it’s quieter. I don’t know why. The shaft is still a mess, so it’s not possible to align the pulleys well. But the motor works. I’m thinking I should shove it into the lathe cabinet and use it until the Baldor arrives. I could rig it up without conduit for now, in order to make the Baldor installation easier.

If I could get the shaft out, I could use the lathe to take off the shaft burrs that make the pulleys sit at an angle. But I’d need a working motor to do that. I have a single-phase motor I could use, but to do that, I’d need to connect the drum switch. That would be a giant pain. I’ve stripped and degreased the drum switch, in preparation for wiring it to the VFD logic inputs. Besides, I’m sure the motor’s shaft is permanently attached to the rotor or stator or whatever the big thing covered with windings is. You could never mount that in a lathe chuck, unless the lathe was the size of a house.

I suppose a real genius would mount the motor on something solid and use it as a lathe. The shaft would turn, so it would be possible to apply a tool to it. But you’d have to have something solid to mount the tool on, and I think you can see what a Rube Goldberg mess it would be. If I were stranded somewhere and I had to fix the shaft in order to save my life, I’d give it a try, but as it is, it looks like a very bad idea.

I think I have enough crap now–here and in shipment–to use the lathe. I went crazy and sprung for Moly-Dee instead of cheap cutting fluid. The machinery snobs at PM seem to think Tap Magic is only fit for amateurs; they like Accu-lube (nearly impossible to find) and Moly-Dee (expensive). How often am I going to buy fluid? Once a year? I think buying the good stuff is a reasonable expense. I’m also going to get a gallon can of WD-40 for cutting aluminum. They have it at Home Depot.

I Ebayed a used 1/2″ 4-flute center-cutting carbide end mill. I might be able to rig the lathe up so I can use this to trim down the base for my quick change tool post. If not, it’s still a good cutter to have, and I think the total cost is ten bucks. I figured out how to put Enco’s 80-grit aluminum oxide wheels on my half-inch grinder arbors, so I have one of those on the way. I also got a silicon carbide dressing stick. I was not able to get a star-type dresser from Enco, and I didn’t feel like looking elsewhere and paying a big shipping fee for a four-dollar item.

I need some metal to train on. I’ve been watching Craigslist for scrap, but the one promising ad I saw did not produce a return phone call or email. I may have to drive to a metal dealer and pay up. I think I’ll get a couple of feet of bronze, some T6 aluminum, and some leaded steel. With WD-40 on hand, I can work aluminum right now.

What will I do? Don’t know. I guess I’ll start by chucking some aluminum and trying each type of tool, to see how everything works. I have a Clausing manual, but like most manuals for professional tools, it doesn’t tell you how to use the tool. It just tells you where the controls are. I plan to do what I used to do in my old science labs. I’ll make sequential lists of the things I need to do, in order to perform various operations. Then I’ll laminate them and put them near the lathe. This approach is a godsend for absent-minded people. If I had done this when I wired up the first VFD, it would still be working. I ruined that thing simply because I did not accommodate my known failings. The lesson was worth the expense. If you make a dumb mistake while running a lathe, it can mess you up good. A big lathe can roll your arm up like a bedroll, snapping the bones as required. I don’t know if this one can do that, but it can fire a chuck at me at great speed. This lathe should be pretty powerful. I’m using the biggest motor Clausing recommends, and I don’t have the vari-speed drive to sink horsepower. It’s just two belts and a gear or two.

I should make a list of operations I’ll do in order to train myself. That will simplify things and give me direction.

Lists are powerful things, if you have the character to make them and use them. Guess I’m looping now, so I’ll close.