Help with crazy motor project please

See if anyone on rec.crafts.metalworking has a motor that works for you. Mikek

Wow... sounds like a big project for only a small gain. (I know nothing about how motors are wound.) As I read I was thinking about buying one of your old motors, gutting it, and finding a modern motor that would fit inside the old housing. Yup, you'd know what was in there, but you wouldn't have to tell your visitors/customers.

I've got an old GE motor that might be of the right era, but it's only 1/4 HP... and it is in the barn with a grinding wheel attached... Could you put a few 1/4 HP motors in parallel?

Hmm looking online I'd guess my motor is no older than the 1920's.

Maybe it would be easier to rebuild one of the old motors?

George H.

I tried that. And the Seattle Metalheads too. I have been looking for over a year for this motor.

Eric

I thought about rewinding the Century motor as it is old enough. I may do that. But I also like the idea of making my own. Partly because 100 years ago it would be an option because in 1906 electric motors were really spendy. People could and did make their own motors. I have seen more than one photo of motors said to have been home made, and some were obviously so. Eric

Do you need a good shrink?

Why not rewind the Century? It should be loads easier than building a motor from scratch.

Personally I think I'd take George's suggestion and either mount a motor inside the Century, or behind it inside a cabinet where it won't show. But then, I don't have a month's worth of free time to spend messing with motors.

Alternatively, if such things as motor rewinding places still exist, take the Century to one and see if they can do anything for you.

Motor rewinding places do still exist and they do service the old time motors. I go to one when I need magnet wire for speaker cross-overs, they sell it for near scrap prices since they don't fool with remnants (and their idea of a remnant is usually enough for several speaker inductors)

In Wilmington NC, on the Cape Fear River, there's even an old machine shop that dates back to the age of steam. The owner maintains a small steam gen. to blow a whistle at noon... All overhead shafting with blocks supported by hewn timbers, for the huge lathes broaches and milling machines. A big old electric motor runs it these days, although they have converted some of the smaller machines to independent electric drive. The overhead shafts only run when they need the truly gargantuan lathes and broaches.

I appreciate the suggestions but I did say the project was crazy. I have it in my head to build my own pancake style induction motor. So I am looking for any books or sites or somebody who has done something silmilar. Or I could break down and see if my oldd century motor is worth rewinding. Or even if I can rewind it myself. Has anyone done that? If I was looking for the most simple method I would just buy an expensive old motor and be done with it. I am also considering making the lathe a foot operated machine. To do that I need to find a 2 foot diameter, 5 inch wide, three step flat belt pulley. I am still looking for one, even one I can modify. Eric

Really ? You have a lathe sat there. Machine one. Isn't that what they do best?

Mitch

My father had a Drummond circular bed lathe which he rigged up with a foot pedal arrangement. He made the large pulley from wood sections glued and bolted the turned, the biggest problem might be finding a lathe with the swing needed to turn it . He also added lead weights for counter balance.

I don't know if it will help, but I have a paper copy of a book by Alexander Gray, "Electrical Machine Design". It is the second edition, from 1926 - Google has a scan of the original 1913 edition:

If nothing else, it's from just a little after the time period you are interested in, so you'd be working with mostly the same knowledge that was available back then. Maybe it will help you figure out how to rewind the Century motor.

Matt Roberds

I don't have a lathe with a 2 foot swing so turning a pulley that big would be problematic. However, I may have a solution. I could mount the pulley to the 4th axis on my big mill. With the 4th axis horizontal and a stationary lathe type tool in the spindle I could use the mill like a vertical lathe. I might do this if I get crazy enough. Eric

Thanks Matt. The motor in question appears to be a replusion start motor so besides the missing windings there may be other things to look for that would be in that book. I'll take a look. Eric

Hi Eric, Re: turning a big diameter. This is probably a silly idea, but I needed to wind some big magnetic field coils. I had a wood lathe and I was able to turn the head around so it stuck out the back end. (There was some "creative" pulley arrangement to get it power.) I then wound some ~2' diameter coils... And yeah, you'd have to rig up some sort of tool rest also.

George H.

The old overhead line-shaft power transmission schemes used wide leather belts running on smooth wide crowned pulleys. I don't know for a fact, but you may be able to get by with a wooden pulley. A foot wide belt on a 2 foot diameter pulley should be able to carry a lot of horsepower.

Hey! Where's the cheap Chinese motor manufacturer with his spam?

I have a wood lathe that has the swivel headstock. It is meant to be turned around for large work and a floor mounted rest is indeed needed for turning the work. But there is no way I would attempt machine a 2 foot diameter cast iron pulley with the machine. If I was making a wood pulley I would do it though. And I have thought about making a wood oulley and adding lead weights. Eric

It wouldn't need to be nearly that wide for a single lathe -- I was looking at a 10-foot long monster that my brother took in, and the sheaves that the belt runs on are more like two or three inches wide.

I do think you could whomp up a temporary wood lathe to do the job (maybe even a wooden wood lathe!!!). The properly shade-tree way to do this would be to make the hub of your pulley blank with a bolt-hole pattern to match your truck. Then jack up one rear wheel, bolt on the blank, let it idle in first gear, and turn your pulley on that.

I think a wooden pulley would work just fine, and look properly period, to boot.

If'n you want my opinion.

I like your thinking. I suspect it may even be possible to "turn" a blank by putting a spindle through the center, allowing the work to rotate, then just hold a belt sander against it. Skew the angle of the sander so it isn't perpendicular to the rotation and it should turn a pretty good cylinder.