What an awesome build. I love building “one off” stuff like this. Honestly. You could produce these for anyone that wanted one and get a substantial amount of money for it. It will give any old belt drive lathe a new life with all the gear changing that can be done. Also. A lot of the older lathes don’t spin fast enough to leave a great finish on aluminum so this will help with that as well!!! Nice job man!! Nice job!
I am to say the least, highly impressed with your abilities to dream, design, source components, machine and modify all the things needed to achieve your impossible dream. Fine work! In fifty years of designing, building, and repairing all sorts of gizmos for people, I had never seen the flange block bearings with the curved slots.
Given all this complexity, the cost and time involved.. isn't better to just use an direct drive electric motor instead? Is there any advantage in using such gear box over electric? It looks cool though :)
That is one great construction! But, did you explain why you replaced the existing one? Am I missing something here? I the original one so broken that it is beyond repair?
There was no gearbox. This was belt driven lathe and in order to change speeds I have to mess with belts, pulleys and belt tensioner. Original design was disaster.
Dude, what ever inspired you to build it ,!! Excellent job , thanks for taking the time to video it , one of the best for inspiration ,my hat is off to you
Bad ass man. Like others have said, I think I would have gone with a vfd. I've been dreaming of something similar for to switch between metric and un thread on mine, changing gears and setting lash sucks!
Why didn't you go with a direct drive approach? A two horse power dc motor with a penta drive or an ac motor with a variable frequency drive. Don't get me wrong the work you put into this is outstanding. I was just wondering. Less maintenance and easier to fix when you have a break down.
You wouldn't have nearly as much power at low speed with direct drive, unless you had a 3-phase motor of significantly higher power than is typical for a lathe, and a good VFD. Also it is a LOT of fun to design and build new things, even if they aren't necessary.
On a mill sure, on a lathe, you really need at least 2-3 gears to get a usable torque speed range if you want to cut metals with sub 3hp motors. I have both industrial lathe's and mill ran of good vector controlled VFD's and VFD rated motors on them. Gearing still has its place, you can get a similar result over this range though with a lot less combinations of gears to this video though with a VFD. Having the torque that will give you though is kinda pointless with such a flimsy main spindle, Dia is everything on a lathe spindle, that's the videos biggest down fall.
Checked WM250V lathe. It will be more complicated to do than on my lathe. I have 9 different combinations with each pair of change gears on my lathe. Additional gearbox will have 18 different combinations. Will post this project in 'tools in progress' section at www.homemadetools.net soon. Once completed will have full range of metric threads from 0.2 to 4.0 mm and 6 - 120 TPI without changing gears. Except change of gear position at additional banjo in order to be at 127 teeth gear for inferial threads.
No. It's made for the belt system lathe with 6 speeds and original choice of speeds; 125, 250, 460, 600, 1000 and 2000 RPM was unsatisfactory, at least for me. And speed changing was very slow process.
I always thought speed control on a diy lathe would be best accomplished with a precision servo.. super easy set up and precise control. Sweet build nonetheless!
hey why dont you make one of these F1 gearboxes with a gear selector shaft. then you dont have to manually place the gears in various configurations to get the desired speed. Well the gear selector has to be cnc machined. well it seems the name they use is sequential barrel. basically as you turn it, it moves all the gears simultanously according to the machined tracks on the shaft.
Hey is that the HF CENTRAL MACHINERY 9 Speed Vertical Milling Machine I been wanting to buy one of those for years but would have to figure a way to fun it on a 110,either way great video!
Yes. It is HF Central Machinery 9 speed mill drill. The worst case scenario is to install 110 V motor. I installed new 220 V 50 Hz 2 HP motor, when original one 220 V 60 Hz died due to overheating.
That is a truly exceptional piece of design and engineering. Taking a belt drive lathe to a very practical and useable place. Very nice work. I'm particularly impressed that you've designed it to give you a really good range of useable speeds, immediately at hand. 12 speeds without having to mess about with pulleys is a big advantage. Well done project.
Yes. That's correct. No more messing around with pulleys and belts (2 different sizes). Already bought 2 gears; 33 and 55 teeth. Will install them and will get 6 additional speeds; 125, 250, 375, 500, 750 and 1500 rpm.
Excellent.... It just proves to people that it can be done, and that it's possible to hugely improve Chinese tools with a bit of hard work. Thanks for showing this. That headstock brake is a damned fine idea as well.
Gostei da Brincadeira.... Parabéns pelo trabalho... Adorei a ideia do disco de freio atrás da placa.... Vou copiar a ideia, usarei freio de Bike (www.praquempedala.com.br/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Disco.jpg), dará para esconder a pinça atrás do torno. Parabéns.....
I love it! A mechanical reduction lets you have full motor power at the lowest speeds, and the motor is also running at its rated speed, staying cool. I want to build, or adapt, an external gearbox for my future lathe.
Brilliant video. Technical drawings caused a wave of caveman fear in me. I found this vid because my South Bend 9C didn't come with change gears, so I printed my own. I wanted to see if I could make a quick change gearbox too.
