Old Westinghouse Motor Turns The Wrong Way!

Glenn Brooks

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IMG_1206.JPG IMG_1205.JPG IMG_1204.JPG hello all,

Well, finally got finished restoring my old 1919 Dalton 7 x36 lathe tonight. Threw the switch to take a test cut and low and behold noticed the chuck was turning the wrong way! The antique Westinghouse 1/4 hp motor I sourced some time ago, and recently installed, apparently is wired to turn CLOCKWISE -which spins the lathe in reverse!

Anyway to rewire this thing to turn counterclockwise. I only see two terminals for the (110v) load. Here are some pics of the business end of the motor.

Thanks much,
Glenn
 
Two choices, run the belt with a figrue 8 in it or physically 180 the motor and remount in the housing if there is room ... Not changing the direction moving the wiring..
 
Label does not state rotation and second photo looks like starter.

Look close for a third wire that is connected to one of the line wires.

You also can try contacting manufacturer or visit an old school motor shop and ask.

It is likely a 5 minute task.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk
 
It's hard to tell from the pictures but I suspect you can change the direction. I don't see any capacitor but I do see a starting switch so I believe it is a split phase motor. You may need to un-solder and re-solder some wires. (Edit: no it looks like just some screws!) You need to swap the electrical relationship between the run and start windings. Attached is a diagram. The start winding is the one that has the starting switch attached.

split_phase.png
 
If you can get to the starter winding you can reverse it. How many leads coming out of the motor?
 
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Glenn I marked up one of your pix- the red arrow is one end of the start winding, the other end is among the ones above (yellow arrow).
Isolate the start winding and swap the ends, should reverse it.
PS you know it's an old motor when it says 110 rather than 115 or 120!
Mark S.glennmot2.JPG
 
Thanks, Mark. The arrows in the photo are very, very helpful. The top three wires, one of which is adjacent to your yellow tick mark are buried inside the motor. I'll try to open it up a bit more tomorrow. I reckon the motor might be an early 1920's model, judging from the wiring harness and architecture of the case.

Glenn
 
Put some little masking tape labels on the wires when you start undoing them Glenn, it really helps I've found.
Mark S.
Oh BTW I don't think you need to go deeper into the winding side of the motor; the wires you need are right there in the photo of the end-bell wiring. A closer-up view of how those three upper (yellow arrow) wires connect to the outside world would be helpful. The other end of the start winding is one of those 3, I'm pretty sure.
 
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