[Newbie] Doall 15 Lathe

Hi All, A follow up on my lathe. I did get it cleaned up a bit, leveled and wired up. I don't have any pictures yet but hopefully soon. I did go with a rotary phase converter from American Rotary. Since the motor is a 7 1/2 H.P. they strongly recommended a 15 H.P. I originally ordered a 10 H.P. online on a Sunday, and the next day I received a call from Jacob at AR asking about all the voltage, amps, applications, etc. He told me I needed a 15 H.P. and that is what I went with. He gave me a very good deal at $965 on a display model. Never used, never electrified, one knock-out was out on the connector box on the generator. That was on a Monday about 11:00 A.M. The next day at 11:15 A.M. there was a Fed Ex freight semi backing into my driveway. Very pleased with their service. Hook up was a breeze with very concise instructions.

One of the concerns I had was regarding the lead screw not turning. Even in the video I had the lead screw did not turn. Upon clean up I noticed what appeared to be a coupler on the lead screw right where it exits the gear box. Well it was and all that needed to be done was slide the collar of the coupler in towards the mating coupler on the shaft from the gear box. The book say it is a safety clutch. I even ran my first job with it. I faced off a fly wheel from a John Deere crawler that needed cleaned up. I had to use the 4 jaw chuck and remove the bed gap casting. I was very pleased as was the owner. My wife and I don't own a smart phone so I will have to take her 35mm SLR camera out there and take some pictures and then transfer them to my computer so I can post them on here. Thanks again for all of your previous input and help.
LaVern
 
Here are the pictures of the DoAll setup in my workshop. Hopefully I will be able to upload them without a problem. The two closeup pictures of the leadscrew show the clutch that was disengaged in both the engaged and disengaged positions. I also have a picture of the rotary phase converter.

IMG_0005 (640x427).jpg IMG_0006 (640x427).jpg IMG_0007 (640x427).jpg IMG_0008 (640x427).jpg IMG_0009 (640x427).jpg IMG_0010 (640x427).jpg IMG_0011 (640x427).jpg IMG_0012 (640x427).jpg
 
Looks like you got a nice lathe. Benefit of the phase converter is , now you can watch for a three phase mill that nobody wants.
Thanks ron
 
I am running out of room for much more machinery in my workshop but my we (my son and I), did get a bandsaw when we got the lathe. It too is a 3 phase and is 3/4 H.P. I'm going to hook that up in my garage which sets up right next to the workshop. I feed my workshop electricity from the garage so I put in an extra conduit when I built the workshop so I can run another line into my garage from my converter and mount a 3 phase receptacle on the wall. Hopefully by puttting a plug on the saw, and wheels on it, I'll be able to move it around. I'll attach a few of pictures of the sawBandsaw_1 (640x427).jpg Bandsaw_2 (640x427).jpg I don't know when I'll be getting around to that. Thanks for replying.
LaVern Bandsaw_3 (640x427).jpg
 
I guess the pictures didn't come out very clear. Maybe I'll try to take some others.
LaVern
 
ask them to keep an eye out for the steady rest and follower rest. They will be difficult to find replacements for.
 
Yes I have asked and was also back to the shop two times where I got it. I looked around quite a bit and there are none to be found. The shop is closing soon, and it may already be closed by now. Looks like I am more than likely out of luck in the steady rest and follower from there anyway.

LaVern
 
Well a follow up on the DoAll. Got it all hooked up and running, and ran my first job on it, faced off a fly wheel from a John Deere dozer my cousin is rebuilding. Worked great. It sat idle for a few days and when my neighbor, also a retired machinist saw my lathe he wanted to see it fired up. Well........it wouldn't, it just sat there and hummed while the lights dimmed. Of course I shut it down immediately and tried it several more times. Same thing the motor hums and you can see the chuck trying to turn a little. When there is no power the chuck rotates freely. Hmmm, sounds like electrical problem. I checked out the rotary phase converter like the trouble shooting instructions from the manufacture says to do and everything on that end seems good. So my next step will be to loosen the belts and try it again but I'm afraid of what the results will show. Looks like my $500 dollar deal will be a bit more expensive than I originally thought it would be. Hmmm... $500 for the lathe, $965 for the converter, still a good price, new motor or re-build? Could take this good deal to more than I expected. Even another $500 or $600 wouldn't be bad if I had intentions of using it to earn a few bucks, but ...... Guess I'll have to see how it goes. Just getting the motor out and back in will be a major operation in itself. To be continued.
LaVern
 
Well I said "to be continued", here it is. Had two of my cousins and another friend over today, two cousins were in electrical maintenance before retiring and the third guy is still in the field. One of the cousins was the one whose flywheel I faced off. I may have some of the terms incorrect but this is what they came up with. All three felt that there was one leg of the three phase "missing ?" They checked the lines into the main disconnect and all was well. They checked the lines at the bottom of the three fuses in the main disconnect and all was right. They then checked the lines after they went into the machines control panel and found one line dead. Upon further tracing the lines further into the panel they found one line coming out of the drum switch on the panel to be dead. Thinking the switch was bad they tore into that and upon closer inspection they found that one wire coming out of that switch to be corroded at the terminal. Thus the dead phase to the motor. Unfortunately by this time the drum switch was tore completely apart and they were unable to get it back together. After by passing the drum switch we fired it up and it lives again. There is a main disconnect on the lathe too so to turn it on now I'll have to flip the rotary converter on and then the main switch, and at that point it will be ready to run. Everything works as it should there is just one shut off and that is at the main disconnect on the side of the machine. The emergency stop switch still works, the emergency pedal stop still works. All is good again. Later.
LaVern
 
Hi All, I know it's been a while but browsing through here I realized I never posted any pictures of my DoAll after getting it "cleaned up" a bit and hooked up. I must say it has been a great investment. I don't use it all that much but when I need it it is a life saver. I did have a rotary switch go bad after a couple months but I have a main shut-off box right on the machine so it's no big deal. The four jaw chuck has one jaw with a tight spot in it and I haven't been able to get that resolved yet. Italso has one bad gear in the gear box so I am not able to use all the speeds, but that hasn't been oo much of a problem. One thing that is wrong is the manual oiler on the saddle and cross=slide. When I fill the reservoir it leaks out of the bottom so I've been oiling it by hand. I think that will be a good winter project this year. Hopefully nothing too major, maybe a broken oil line. Any way I'll post a picture of what it looks like now, well not really now, but what it looked like after I got it in place and wired up.IMG_0005 (640x427).jpg
Thanks for looking.
LaVern
 
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