Powering a 1HP BLDC Lathe in a Van

It was mentioned earlier that putting the first bit of charge goes quickly but to fully charge from an alternator takes hours. And a higher capacity alternator isn’t necessarily the answer because the batteries have a limit on how much current they can accept.

When I had my sailboat I had two 200Ah deep cycles and one 120 Ah starting battery.

I was running a 50 A alternator with a smart charge controller that topped off the starting battery first so I could always start the Diesel engine. Once that was topped up it switched to charging the deep cycle batteries.

If I had been at anchor for a few days, it would take hours of motoring to bring the deep cycle batteries up to full charge.

I also had a 15A Xantrax 120v shorepower charger that I used when docked. Even that would take several hours to recover the deep cycle batteries. I was very conservative with my power use, mainly lights and portable electronics off a 1000w inverter.

All this to say that the design of a DC power system is a bit involved if it’s going to work properly and not roast your expensive batteries.
 
I think they designed the size of a car battery to have about as much weight as you want to carry very far.

I am going to look at a power bank of two Optima batteries in parallel connected to an inverter. I would just carry the batteries into the motel room at night.

Eliminating a generator would allow me to reconsider a van.
 
If my quick googling is correct, Sherlines these days use a 90v DC motor. In that case, I would NOT use an inverter, and just use a DC transformer and speed controller. You might find that Sherline might already have this as an option.
 
ErichKeane said:
If my quick googling is correct, Sherlines these days use a 90v DC motor. In that case, I would NOT use an inverter, and just use a DC transformer and speed controller. You might find that Sherline might already have this as an option.
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I am sure that Sherline would know how to power their motor off of some 12V batteries in parallel. I will shoot an email off to them.

It seems like there would be plenty of room to work on a Sherline in a standard length, tall roof fullsize van. And plenty of window because it’s not a Creeper Van!
 
Creeper Van, that's what my kid called them....

When I was younger my housemate had an old friend from upstate New York move near us and his flat black rusted Chevy van sat in our backyard for a while, it always gave me the willies like something really bad had happened inside it. Fortunately that guy was eventually convicted for attempted kidnapping while borrowing my housemates camper, I hate to think what would have happened to his victim if the people in the Safeway parking lot hadn't gotten involved. :mad:

In addition to having windows you might invest in some magnetic signs to put on the door while you are working. Something like "Erik's Mobile Machine Shop" so people walking by won't have to guess at what you're doing. Magnetic of course so you can take them down when it's parked, Depending on where you are it might make sense to actually build some little trinkets to sell assuming there isn't some bigger project you're working on.

If you order the van new you can have it equipped with commercial security features and cabinets to hold stock and tooling, even used you could possibly get something a plumber had outfitted with a security cage and cabinets.

I'm liking the idea a lot better with the Sherline tools, you can have a complete shop with a lathe, mill, little belt grinder, saw, etc with those sizes of machines. Build your battery bank with solar on the roof and an exterior plug so you can hook up to charge without removing the batteries (that will get old pretty quick). Run the machines off DC if you can and use efficient LED lighting and you'll probably be okay on capacity assuming you can charge overnight at the motel. A small generator will also work and as noted the Honda's are really quiet.

I hold an ABYC Marine Electrical certification if you want to take this discussion to the next level. It's starting to sound like a really neat project with all the different input here:cool:

Cheers,

John
 
matthewsx said:
Creeper Van, that's what my kid called them....

When I was younger my housemate had an old friend from upstate New York move near us and his flat black rusted Chevy van sat in our backyard for a while, it always gave me the willies like something really bad had happened inside it. Fortunately that guy was eventually convicted for attempted kidnapping while borrowing my housemates camper, I hate to think what would have happened to his victim if the people in the Safeway parking lot hadn't gotten involved. :mad:

In addition to having windows you might invest in some magnetic signs to put on the door while you are working. Something like "Erik's Mobile Machine Shop" so people walking by won't have to guess at what you're doing. Magnetic of course so you can take them down when it's parked, Depending on where you are it might make sense to actually build some little trinkets to sell assuming there isn't some bigger project you're working on.

If you order the van new you can have it equipped with commercial security features and cabinets to hold stock and tooling, even used you could possibly get something a plumber had outfitted with a security cage and cabinets.

I'm liking the idea a lot better with the Sherline tools, you can have a complete shop with a lathe, mill, little belt grinder, saw, etc with those sizes of machines. Build your battery bank with solar on the roof and an exterior plug so you can hook up to charge without removing the batteries (that will get old pretty quick). Run the machines off DC if you can and use efficient LED lighting and you'll probably be okay on capacity assuming you can charge overnight at the motel. A small generator will also work and as noted the Honda's are really quiet.

I hold an ABYC Marine Electrical certification if you want to take this discussion to the next level. It's starting to sound like a really neat project with all the different input here:cool:

Cheers,

John
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John is the go-to guy for 12v DC stuff. I'm a total 12v hack that managed to get lucky and had a lot of help from folks like John.
 
I would upgrade the battery, upgrade the alternator and buy a large quasi-sine wave inverter (more efficient than pure sine and less costly per watt)
That should do it. If you can get by with a smaller lathe motor like 1/2 HP that would help reduce the power requirements
-Mark
 
I would like to call it Little Machine Shop, but we all know that name is already taken.

Looking at the Sherline products, I see that these machines are small enough to where I can add a milling machine.

So I will delay my plan to get a 16X60 lathe for awhile because my PM-1030V does everything I want it to do. This will provide funding.

I still want to get a handle on how this will all be powered. Adding a Sherline mill does not increase the power capacity needed because I can only use one machine at a time.

I can also use this at work because I have to take breaks there, too.
 
I will open my mind to solar panels because they are quiet and the space on top of the vehicle is not being used.

If the vehicle is clean & innovative, any police officer who might want to make an issue might conclude that I know what I am doing & that I won’t cause an environmental hazard or other annoyance.
 
erikmannie said:
I will open my mind to solar panels because they are quiet and the space on top of the vehicle is not being used.

If the vehicle is clean & innovative, any police officer who might want to make an issue might conclude that I know what I am doing & that I won’t cause an environmental hazard or other annoyance.
Click to expand...
The sun is free power :)
 
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