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618 Motor replacement..

S

Spin Master

New Member
Well, the motor on my Atlas 618 gave up the Ghost...(I know it 'cause I saw the wisps of the Spirit leave the motor)....lol....So, I haven't removed the motor yet, (still mourning)...so I'm not certain of the specifications of the unit. Could someone recommend a replacement? How much HP do I need?..How much should I spend?....I would like a used motor, rather than new.... I'll obviously want single phase and probably 15amps, other than that, I don't know much about it. Any help is much appreciated, Thank You..
 
There should be a specification tag on the motor, that will tell you frame size, hp and amps. Work from there to find a replacement that still has the magic smoke inside.
 
Anything over 1/2 horsepower is excessive. The 618 is a small, light-duty machine and is never going to be peeling off big heavy steel curls.

As much as anything, you want a motor with the same size shaft as your now dearly-departed motor so you don't have to sleeve or bore out the motor pulley. Because it is hard to use the lathe to modify the pulley when you need the pulley to run the lathe!

Craig
 
What Craig says. 15 amps would be close to 2.5 hp, over kill for that lathe. Start by getting the old motor off and look at the name plate, get something that will match the shaft size.

An alternative is a consew motor. They are (optimistically) rated at 3/4hp so are close ot the right size, are variable speed and come with a pulley. Being a servo, you actually get lots of power at lower rpms. They are 120V.

The do require a small hack to go from a lever operated speed control (as with a foot pedal) to a potentiometer (knob) control. Basically replace the existing hall sensor/magnet arrangement with a pot.

Its a marketing missed opportunity that the manufacturer hasn't noticed many (most?) buy these things for use other than on a sewing machine....the inclusion of a pot speed control would be a great improvement.
 
Spin Master said:
the motor on my Atlas 618 gave up the Ghost...(I know it 'cause I saw the wisps of the Spirit leave the motor
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I should have mentioned...unless a big cloud of foul smoke poured out of the motor and filled your shop, it was likely just a capacitor that failed. If you can read the numbers on the old one, they are CHEAP and EASY to replace. Literally $20 and 10 minutes.

OTOH, if you can't read the numbers, it seems to be nigh on impossible to determine an appropriate replacement. (Having written that, I'm sure someone will now provide a simple rule of thumb that works in 99.99% of cases! ;)

Craig
 
I was reading about a work incident where some electricians were doing a PM on a big motor. Part of the work was to check the motor windings with a “Megger” meter for deterioration of the winding insulation. They had the power locked out but turns out an error was made and they blew up their megger meter with 13kv of motor power instead of checking the windings. The megger meter works by applying a high voltage say 500v or 1000v to the motor windings and checking for current leakage to the frame. If you get leakage then you can schedule a motor swap without an unexpected equipment shutdown. So does anybody have a megger meter and have they checked the kind of motors we use in the 1/2 to 5hp range? Could @spinmaster test his motor this way? I have only read about these megger meters never seen one used.
 
Janger said:
I was reading about a work incident where some electricians were doing a PM on a big motor. Part of the work was to check the motor windings with a “Megger” meter for deterioration of the winding insulation. They had the power locked out but turns out an error was made and they blew up their megger meter with 13kv of motor power instead of checking the windings. The megger meter works by applying a high voltage say 500v or 1000v to the motor windings and checking for current leakage to the frame. If you get leakage then you can schedule a motor swap without an unexpected equipment shutdown. So does anybody have a megger meter and have they checked the kind of motors we use in the 1/2 to 5hp range? Could @spinmaster test his motor this way? I have only read about these megger meters never seen one used.
Click to expand...

I have such device in my shop but never have used it.
 
If @Janger asks you to "hold these wires" while he's trying out the meggar,,,, "DON'T DO IT" LOL.

Funny story - a guy I worked with was verifying phone connections in the coms closet, his "buddy" came in and punched two wires onto a bix block and left. A bit later "buddy" came back into the closet and asked the first guy to hang onto the two wires,,,,, then "buddy" went out and dialed the phone number the two wires were connected to. 90volts went across the two wires and there were a bunch shop words said and "buddy" was ROTFL.
 
Thanks guys for all the ideas and information....but as an update, I was about to remove the motor yesterday and got as far as removing the drive belt when I thought.."Why not plug it in and try it out while it is not under load?".....well, good thing I did, it spun freely!!.....so, why was it straining so?...Upon further investigation, I found the belt from the back gears to the lathe, was rubbing on the frame of the back gear assembly...this puzzles me....I'm using an adjustable segmented belt, that appears to be too long, as it doesn't get really tight when I engage the back gears, but other than that, it appears to be assembled properly..what gives?
 
Spin Master said:
Upon further investigation, I found the belt from the back gears to the lathe, was rubbing on the frame of the back gear assembly...this puzzles me....I'm using an adjustable segmented belt, that appears to be too long, as it doesn't get really tight when I engage the back gears, but other than that, it appears to be assembled properly..what gives?
Click to expand...

No idea. Not having that particular lathe/belt/motor configuration, I can only stab in the dark.

My guess is that you can figure it out yourself - especially after you so nicely figured out the belt interference. (congrats on that btw! And darn good idea to check without load before removing).

But feel free to post pictures. Some of us (maybe even the one-eyed old guy - aka Susquatch) might spot something amiss!
 
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