Hello all,
I became the proud owner of one of Matt's lathes about a year ago. Have used the machine very little since then but began having problems with the motor starting about 2 months ago. It had the original 220 volt single phase Chinese motor on it from the factory. It was having intermittent problems with start up and getting up to speed like a centrifigal switch not working or windings fighting each other. I got in touch with Matt and he was quick to suggest replacing the motor after a few trouble shooting tests were done. I opted to upgrade to the Baldor American made motor when I was offered the chance to do so. Matt thinks these problems are mostly due to the original being Chinese built. Now to the dilemma. After hooking up the new motor as per Matts instructions it is running the wrong way depending on the selection of the control lever. In other words when you push the lever down the spindle runs backwards or clockwise looking at the spindle. When the lever is pushed up the spindle runs the other way. Just wondering if any one has had any of the same problems when converting to the American made motor from the Chinese one. There is only a couple of ways the machine should be doing what it is doing. One is that the original wiring on the control switches, magnetic starters, or internal motor wiring was backward in some way or the new motor possibly has the external connector wires mislabeled which would not seem likely to me. I have contacted Matt but being on the weekend am not looking to hear from him until next week. I was just wondering if any one else had had any of the same problems as I have described. I am not an electrical person but do understand the basics. Being a new machine under warranty, I am going to wait for Matt's direction before swapping wires on the motor leads or changing starters to the other rotation to fix the problem. If anyone has had any similar experiences I would appreciate your input.
I became the proud owner of one of Matt's lathes about a year ago. Have used the machine very little since then but began having problems with the motor starting about 2 months ago. It had the original 220 volt single phase Chinese motor on it from the factory. It was having intermittent problems with start up and getting up to speed like a centrifigal switch not working or windings fighting each other. I got in touch with Matt and he was quick to suggest replacing the motor after a few trouble shooting tests were done. I opted to upgrade to the Baldor American made motor when I was offered the chance to do so. Matt thinks these problems are mostly due to the original being Chinese built. Now to the dilemma. After hooking up the new motor as per Matts instructions it is running the wrong way depending on the selection of the control lever. In other words when you push the lever down the spindle runs backwards or clockwise looking at the spindle. When the lever is pushed up the spindle runs the other way. Just wondering if any one has had any of the same problems when converting to the American made motor from the Chinese one. There is only a couple of ways the machine should be doing what it is doing. One is that the original wiring on the control switches, magnetic starters, or internal motor wiring was backward in some way or the new motor possibly has the external connector wires mislabeled which would not seem likely to me. I have contacted Matt but being on the weekend am not looking to hear from him until next week. I was just wondering if any one else had had any of the same problems as I have described. I am not an electrical person but do understand the basics. Being a new machine under warranty, I am going to wait for Matt's direction before swapping wires on the motor leads or changing starters to the other rotation to fix the problem. If anyone has had any similar experiences I would appreciate your input.