Any older machinists here? Or persons with knowledge of vintage machines

[1911ly]

So i brought the two machines home this past weekend. The mill is a 1954 round ram with j head. And complete. The guy threw in a home built rotery phase converter that i also have questions about but ill get back to that later. I told the guy i didnt want to buy the lathe because it was missing too much so he gave it to me. Lol. Im definatly going to part it out or sale it, but i dont know exactly what it is to advertise. I believe it is an old south bend but not sure.


the serial number is stamped in the way which is weird, and is only 4 digits which is also weird. Any help would be appreciated. I also posted help thread on practical machinest.

Back to the rotery phase converter, to me i kind of looks like someone built it. I am looking for someone who is familiar with controlls and motors to go threw it before i run power to it. Really dont want to burn down the barn. It was definatly hooked up and used at some point, as you can see that it was just cut loose and not dissconecred.

That lathe looks like a late teens lathe

Join practicalmachinist.com. The guys over there will ID it. South Bed Lathe is still around. If I remember right they are in Washington State. You could call them too.

 

[IndyDave1776]

That lathe looks like a late teens lathe

Join practicalmachinist.com. The guys over there will ID it. South Bed Lathe is still around. If I remember right they are in Washington State. You could call them too.

South Bend still nominally exists, but is a subsidiary of Grizzly. They can get you build cards and interpret numbers for you, but don't expect any real information and definitely don't expect them to have any ideas on acquiring parts. In fact, they told me to check Ebay when I inquired!

 

[1911ly]

I was looking at a 1918 Lathe about 2 years ago. It looked a lot like that one. I was able to get the year and rough date of manufacture when I called them at that time.

For XX amount of dollars thet can tell you who bought it new and any factory service info.

 

[billyboyr6]

Ive got the pahse converter on the bench now to go through it. Here is a couple pics.






i understand the concept of how it works, and i just want to re wire due to old wire and mouse damage. My questions are what are the pieces in there other the the caps. I think one is a contactor, and maybe a couple relays but im no controlls guy. And i assume the past owner remote controlled start and stop function since i dont see start stop buttons. Where would i tie in to do the same?

 

[1911ly]

There is more to that converter then just that box. Did you get the motor with it?

 

[1911ly]

There are 2 sets of caps and a contactor relay to switch between them. One set is the start caps, the other is the run set. You need a 3 phase motor to go with it to make it work.

 

[billyboyr6]

Yes i have the motor. I just took the box off of it so i could get the box up on the bench. The motor weighs 250-300 lbs. so your saying that the box look legit then for the most part?

 

[1911ly]

It looks like it's been worked on a lot(not to unsual). Not very neat (not cool but not unusual). I do not like scotch lock/wire nuts in a situation like that. I'd have screw terminal (barrier) type strips for connections going on and out. Replace all the spliced wires. The cap on the lower right is a replacement. You can see where the bracket held a larger cap. I'd draw it all out on paper and make sure it all makes sense. if you have the wiring diagram life would be easier but that is not that hard to figure out.

The caps are a the weak link/dangous thing. Check the date codes. The metal can ones are oil filled and if they haven't leaked they are probably ok But no doubt they have PCB in them. But they last a long time (if they don't leak)But the black one is newer style. Should not be PCB filled. It's not as durable as the others but if it is ok, it's ok.

PCB"s are cancer causing. I handle with gloves if they are leaky. I can't really tell you a ethical way of getting rid of them that isn't expensive. I have gallons of it around in various older electronics. I handle it with care.

If it were me I would go with a solid state converter. They are cheap now. Less then a hundred bucks on Ebay for a cheap one that would probably do what you want.