Bizarre Suburban Tool Oasis Begins to Take Shape
May 15th, 200977°
I am so glad I got a bigger air conditioner than I thought was required. The garage is comfortable now, but that’s about all I can say. The humidity goes below 50%, and the temperature gets down to 77 in the hottest part of the day. Livable, at least.
I stuck the new Baldor motor in the lathe, and it ran like a top. What a difference. I was absolutely right about the bad shaft making the lathe thump. I had to pry the pulleys off the old motor, but they slid onto the new one with ease, and they ran true when the power was applied.
I still have to figure the VFD out. It doesn’t like it when you plug the cord in and the drum switch is in forward or reverse. It gives an E13 error. That’s a new one, but it’s apparently harmless.
I lengthened the braking time to 5 seconds, and I also lengthened the deceleration time. I’m not sure how they can be different, since you would expect controlled deceleration to require some sort of braking. But I’ll figure it out. The VFD quit saying “E7,” so I guess I did good.
I’m not sure I can mount the backing plate on the lathe without moving the VFD. I should have mounted the VFD farther to the left, but I never dreamed it could interfere with a plate or a chuck, so it’s pretty far to the right. Today some kind of oil came from the chuck and/or spindle and flew up onto the VFD. I don’t know what the source was, but if it continues, I’ll have to move things around. I was not able to salvage the old Anaconda conduit stuff from the old motor, so I still have wires all over. Project for the weekend, I guess.
The backing plate is here, and it’s beautiful. I finally have enough junk to get started.
I don’t want to keep harping on the dubious deal I got on the lathe, but I have to say, that new motor makes a world of difference. The other two ran, but that’s the nicest thing you can say about them. One made a buzzing noise, and the other had a mangled shaft and made a funny sound when it turned. This one runs slick as wet ice. I feel justified in saying the other motors are crap. Good enough to keep for unimportant projects, but not what you want on a lathe that would cost twenty grand new. I don’t know how much a motor affects the way a mill runs, but with this lathe, every vibration goes right to the chuck. A clapped-out motor can’t be good for the work.
I finally got the garage more or less beaten back into shape. Once I get the conduit on the lathe, I can back it up another six inches and reclaim some floor.
Maybe soon I’ll be able to go a whole day without lying on the garage floor to turn a wrench in a greasy confined space.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:17 AM
“Maybe soon I’ll be able to go a whole day without lying on the garage floor to turn a wrench in a greasy confined space.”
What fun would that be?
May 16th, 2009 at 7:59 AM
Older garage doors are always a structural liability in a hurricane as their failure is a common instigator of greater physical damage as the wind has an entry point to the rest of the home’s interior.
I know that you are fearless while sitting in the next “cone of death” prescribed by the weather nerds during the upcoming tropical storm season, but you aught to check out your existing door strength ratings (this being a sideline issue to this posting) and consider adding insulation to them if they are presently just bare metal–and replacing them with new insulated storm resistant doors if they’re not.
They sell kits consisting of rigid foam board for this purpose and some come with preformed panels to cover the foam and keep the dust and spiders out.
They also sell a formed metal beam or channel which can be installed horizontally across the door at a couple of levels to address the structural strength issue if it exists.
If you don’t already have an insulated door and of course good gasketing/weather stripping the addition thereof will probably gain you another couple of degrees of cooling and save you some money in the long run.
(the insulation will also help keep the Neighborhood Nazis from complaining about the noise of metal shreeking and your histerical laughter at the power you now wield)
May 16th, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Perhaps Deceleration is unpowered spinning and Braking is time when actual brakes are applied?
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Sounds like great fun. Perhaps a turned aluminum cup for fine handcrafted ales?
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Is there a turning benefit to T6 (I’m guess 6XXX) aluminum? I know T6 condition gives strength benefits, but those would be unecessary in turned parts that didn’t have particular strength requirements (Candle Sticks, egg cups, pen bodies, etc.)
May 16th, 2009 at 10:21 AM
the vfd is made to sense a power failure , cut out and not “restart all by itself” when the power returns. safety feature, same as old magnetic relay mine had that was in line….
May 16th, 2009 at 10:24 AM
I’m not worried about the garage doors. After Andrew, Rita, Katrina, Wilma, and whatever other hurricanes I’ve been through but can’t remember, I have a pretty good idea of what hurricanes like to tear up. It may be that the cardboard houses Andrew destroyed lost garage doors, but other than that, they haven’t been a problem down here. I can’t recall seeing any damaged garage doors. For that matter, windows are surprisingly tough, even without plywood. The single biggest problem during a hurricane is tree overgrowth. Trees and their limbs go all over the place. After that, I think roof damage is the worst likely result.
Insulation would be a good idea. Not sure how I’d do it.
May 16th, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I thought your doors might be OK, but because I was mentioning the idea of insulation…insulating a crappy door would be a potential waste.
Check here for one material kit option: http://www.texasgarages.com/insulation.htm#foil
I did mine myself years ago on a previous house just by buying foam similar to this:
http://www.energyefficientsolutions.com/foam_garage_door_kit.asp
and measureing and cutting it to size with a utility knife. Then I taped it down neatly with Silver colored metal ductwork tape (not cloth duct tape.)
Finally, you’re gonna hate me for pointing out these garage flooring systems…probably not a good idea in a machine shop I guess…
http://www.texasgarages.com/racedeck1.htm
I’ve used the two part epoxy garage floor paint kit with the colorful sprinkles like they sell at HD and it works great. You just have to clean the floor with Muric Acid to get the oil off and afterwards you have a nice oil resistant finish that’s easy to clean in the future.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:23 PM
Insulation would be a good idea. Not sure how I’d do it.
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In colder climes (it’s in the 50’s today! :-(), you can buy “Garage Door Insulation” kits. I bought a couple for my garage to reduce the heating costs (I need it above 60 to do epoxy layups for the airplane). You usually need two kits for a double-wide door.
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Home Depot carries it, around here at least…and maybe they can special order it to be picked up at the store (could save you the shipping charges). See:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100666124