Best Motor Enclosure for a Lathe

A

Allan

Active User
Registered
Joined
Oct 7, 2012
Messages
281
Last night whilst drilling a hole in the end of a shaft my lathe motor made a loud "pop" and shut down. It has made this pop on previous occasions but just kept on running. I suspect that metal chips get drawn inside by the fan and short something out. At any rate I need to replace the 3/4 horse motor and would like something that will not allow chips to get inside.

I am no expert on electric motors so I could use some advice. What type of motor enclosure should I be looking at? Some look totally enclosed but still have openings for cooling air. I don't want a repeat of this episode if possible. As always funds are an issue.

The existing motor is behind and inaccessible until I pull the lathe away from the walls so I can't give you much in the way of specs on it other than is wired for 220V 1Ph and is a capacitor start. It is the type that has good sized opening on the ends to allow cooling air to get in. It was on the lathe when I bought it and has done well for the last 6 or 7years.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
TEFC would be my choice.

(Total Enclosed Fan Cooled)

No box required.............:)
 
Thanks, Cathead. That was my first thought as well. But on further reading it appears that material can still get inside. How much of an issue would that be?
 
Allan said:
Thanks, Cathead. That was my first thought as well. But on further reading it appears that material can still get inside. How much of an issue would that be?
Click to expand...

The motor is sealed and the fan is on the end blowing air over the outside of the enclosure. Any chips would blow through harmlessly I would think.
 
If you're getting chips in the motor, you should consider a TEFC (totally enclosed, fan cooled) motor. The fan inside the case circulates
air so that the heat dissipates from the housing. Chips can't get into the motor since it's sealed.
 
A backsplash will help. My 602 came with a sheet metal backsplash. Others that I have seen are made of plywood.
 
I put a backsplash up but chips fling everywhere. It reduced the problem but did not eliminate it.
 
You could make a quick and simple fiberglass screen filter enclosure to cover the motors intake for a few bucks without needing to worry about space but would need to remember to clean when needed before overheating the motor!
 
TEFC (Totally Enclosed Fan Cooled) is the option to use if you just want to throw money at the problem. Those are on my stuff, for what that's worth. A backsplash will help, but not stop, material entering the motor. TEFC is nominally submersable except for the electrics.

Years ago, a friend of mine developed an enclosure for alternators on GrayMarine 6-71s on a small boat. It would need adapting to work, they were large (Leece-Nevill 24 volt) alternators. But the concept would be the same. You want to keep out chips, not seawater and oil. The big issue is that the motor must breathe.

Enclose it with a sheet metal wrap with good filtration on each end. And a "slinger" on the drive end, as close to the filter as you can get. A squirrel cage fan reversed will work. A disk of sheet metal if you have nothing else. A sheet metal "slinger" is mostly to stop liquids, but does help with solids. The idea is to stop material before it reaches the air intakes.

Even a TEFC motor needs to be cleaned occasionally to get good heat transfer. Keep that in mind while rigging the filters.

.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top